Attitude and organizational success - Part 2

3.6 How to Measure, Influence and mould employee Attitudes
Dealing with people is digging gold. To get an ounce of gold, one may have to move tons of dirt. At the time of digging the dirt is not looked into, the aim is only gold. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. The HR people need to become “good finders”. That is finders of good things. Looking for positive things need not mean overlooking faults. Negative people always criticize. To build a positive attitude, learn and practice the following phrase “DO IT NOW". A completed work is fulfilling and energizing whereas the incomplete work drains energy like a leak from a tank. An organization should make the best of now and utilize the present to the fullest. Never leave till tomorrow which one can do today.
Education doesn't mean what one get from colleges like information and statistics. Education that builds fundamental traits of character such as honesty, compassion, courage, persistence and responsibility is absolutely essential. A morally educated person will be lot better equipped to move up in life or succeed than a morally bankrupt person with excellent academic qualifications. True education is training of both the head and the heart. Knowledge is piling up facts and wisdom is simplifying it. Education doesn't mean good judgment. A person can and will be successful with or without formal education if he has character, commitment, conviction, courtesy & courage. Ability without the right attitude is a waste. Continuance of the positive education leads to positive thinking. Positive thinkers are the winners who recognize their limitations but focus on their strengths. The management should make each and every employee a winner for organizational success. The winners will :Always have a program, Communicate " let me do it for you", sees an answer for every problem, tell " it may be difficult but it is possible", admit mistakes, make commitments, use " I must do something", always part of the team, see the gain where as the loser sees the pain, see the possibilities and the potential, use hard arguments but uses soft words, stand firm on values but compromise with petty things, make it happen, plan and prepare to win.
Attitude starts at the top and spreads throughout the organization, good or bad. Bosses coming early and leave late set an example that is productive and respected, and also fosters better work ethics and commitments. Bosses who bend over backwards to honor their customers, who will do anything to please them, demonstrate by living their ethics demonstrating it to his employees. Thus, employees will act similarly towards the customers, doing the same things, bending over backwards to satisfy the customers’ needs and desires, going the extra mile, doing the unexpected. Bosses that treat the employees with respect and consideration, getting to know their personal lives and families and demonstrating care and concern, will not only get the same in return but their actions will promote the same good behavior among employees and with customers. Employees will enjoy their work experience more, performing more effectively, and the customers will be happy.
There is a knowledge gap is in the area of how to measure and influence employee attitudes. There are a number of possible methods for measuring employee attitudes, such as conducting focus groups, interviewing employees, or carrying out employee surveys. Of these methods, the most accurate measure is a well-constructed employee attitude survey. To positively influence employee attitudes, understanding of some of the points already discussed is important. In addition, knowledge of important considerations for analyzing employee survey results is essential for taking appropriate steps to improve attitudes. Survey feedback discussion meetings can be used as a means for acting on employee attitude surveys. It is an important way to support action.

3.7. Support actions.
3.7.1 Develop quality people
Personal transformation programs help in the development of highly effective, quality people. Reiki, yoga, sudarshan kriya and hypnotherapy are some of the systems gaining popularity in corporate circles. Interpersonal communication skills are the backbone of success for any organization. Employees should develop listening skills, understand the basics of body language and learn memory-enhancing techniques. Now many corporate, especially high HR oriented sectors like IT is now follow this type of practices to develop their employees. Infosys is a fine example for it.
3.7.2 Grow motivation muscle
For employees to display loyalty, organizations must show a similar concern for them. Most organizations grossly underestimate the human need for appreciation. This erodes employee motivation and creativity. The organizations should not wait for others to change first. Be an active participant in this inevitable change.
3.7.3. Develop quality mindset in people
Everybody understand that customer always comes first and not our internal bottlenecks and constraints. As we struggle to overcome external market forces, our internal forces need to be our strength. All processes should be such that they emerge from the concept of handling internal constraints with the same sensitivity and responsiveness similar to the way we deal with external customers.


3.8. Attitude and Organizational Culture

Employees spend major part of their life in the organizations within which they works. When people join an organization, they bring with them the unique values and behaviours that they have been taught. Any organization with firmly established organizational culture would be taught the values, beliefs and expected behaviours of that organization. Just as society moulds human behaviours, an organization also moulds human behaviors that are in tune with the prevalent set of norms and behaviors. In this process, certain basic attitudes and beliefs about the people and their work situations are slowly but firmly accepted in the organization, which becomes its 'Organizational Culture.' Behaviour towards work-efficiency is largely controlled by internal ability and willingness to work hard. It is based on sincerity of participation, involvement, devotion to duty, earnest desire to work, and discharge of responsibilities with confidence and competence. Human behaviour is the outcome of frequent interaction between several value system and pattern of the interrelation of cultural traits. It is not a self-induced phenomenon. Employee's attitudes are reasonably, good predictors of human behaviour and the organizational culture. It provides clues to an employee's behavioural intentions and inclinations to act in a way. The culture of an organization is the sum total of negative and positive attitudes of organizational members. A strong culture, which is widely held by the organizational members, indicates a favourable attitude and a weak culture indicates unfavourable attitude of members towards the beliefs and norms of the organization. Employee's attitudes are the beliefs and feelings that largely determine how employee will perceive their work environment, commit them to intended actions and ultimately behave. Strong indicator of cultural variations in work environment then can be observed through human behaviour, which is the precipitation of dominant attitude. Attitudes comprise three elements: affect (feelings, emotions); cognitions (knowledge, beliefs, values); and behaviour. An integral and important component of an attitude concerns the values attributed to its contents. Values reflect how positively or negatively a person feels towards a specific object, event or relationship and, consequently, provides valuable insights into the nature of the employee-work relationship. Human attitude against prevailing value system is then a factor detrimental to organizational growth, organizational development and success.

Attitude and organizational success

Attitude and human resource management
HRM is a management function that helps organization to recruit, select, train, develop and manage its members. HRM refers to a set of programs, functions, and activities designed and carried out in order to optimize both employee as well as organizational effectiveness. Attitude is one among the above areas which contributes to the organizational success. All attitudes are not discussed here. Only work related attitudes and its contribution to the success of the organization are considered. Attitude and organizational success are highly related. The ingredients of work related attitude and organizational success, the relation between them and other relevant details are discussed in this chapter.

3.2. Definition of attitude
The definition of attitude is “Attitudes are learned predispositions towards aspects of our environment. They may be positively or negatively directed towards certain people, service or institutions.”

3.3. Types of work related attitudes
Individual possess hundreds of attitude. But there are mainly three work related attitudes. They are Job satisfaction, Job involvement, and organizational commitment.
3.3.1. Job satisfaction
It refers to one’s feeling towards ones job. Individual having satisfaction will possess positive attitude towards the job. Dissatisfied people will have negative attitude.
3.3.2. Job involvement
It refers to the degree with which an individual identifies psychologically with his or her job and perceives his or her perceived performance level important to self worth. It refers one’s attachment with the job. High degree of job involvement results in fewer absences and lower resignation rates.
3.3.3. Organizational commitment
It is understood as one’s identification with his organization, its goals and feels proud of being its employee. Absenteeism and turnover are low when employees have organizational commitment.
3.4. Meaning of organizational success.
It means attainment of ultimate objectives and winning the war not every battle. Organizations fail because of lack of desire, dedication, direction and discipline. All balloons do not go up in the air. Some go up as they are filled with special gas. Others do not, because it is filled with ordinary air or has nothing inside. The same principle applies organizations. It is what is inside the organization that counts. That is attitude. People can be the biggest asset or the biggest liability. The success of an individual, organization or country depends on the quality of their people. If people had their better attitudes, they would be better team players and it would cut down waste, improve loyalty and in general make their company a great place to work. Human beings can change their attitudes of mind. Changing the attitudes of people is not a magic.
Just like a great building stands on a strong foundation, so does success. That is attitude. A study reveals that for a man's success, for example getting a job, the contribution goes to attitude which accounts for 85% whereas facts & figures accounts for the balance 15%. Three factors namely environment, experience & education determine an employees attitude. In a positive environment, a marginal performer's output goes up. In a negative environment a good performer's output goes down. In a corrupt environment, an honest person has a tough time whereas in an honest environment, the corrupt one has a tough time. The person with a positive personality is caring, confident, patient and humble. He is a fruit of all seasons.
3.5. Effect of positive attitude in an Organization.
The following are the benefits of the positive attitude of the employees which contributes to the success of the organization. These can be treated as attributes of success of an organization
Increases productivity
Solves problems
Fosters teamwork
Improves quality
Makes congenial atmosphere
Breeds loyalty
Increases profits
Fosters better relationships with employer, employee & customers
Helps a person to become a contributing member
Makes for a pleasing personality

Cooperative organizations in Kerala

2.1 A brief history of cooperatives.
The cooperative movement began in Europe in the 19th century, primarily in England and France. The industrial revolution and the increasing mechanization of the economy transformed society and threatened the livelihoods of many workers. Robert Owen (1771–1858) is considered the father of the cooperative movement. Owen believed in putting his workers in a good environment with access to education for themselves and their children. These ideas were put into effect successfully in the cotton mills of New Lanark, Scotland. It was here that the first co-operative store was opened. Spurred on by the success of this, he had the idea of forming "villages of co-operation" where workers would drag themselves out of poverty by growing their own food, making their own clothes and ultimately becoming self-governing

2.2 Cooperative societies in Kerala
The people of Kerala have continued to confirm their faith in the cooperative movement bringing it to the forefront of Indian States in terms of the average membership in primary cooperatives; average deposits and average credit availed from these societies. Data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for 2005 showed that Kerala had a total of 1.11 crore members in its 1,628 primary cooperative agriculture credit societies. There are a total of 1, 08,603 primary cooperative societies in the country. In Kerala, the number of people employed in primary cooperative societies is 18,968. The total volume of deposits in the primary cooperative agriculture credit societies in the country is a little over Rs. 20000 crore and Kerala, accounting for an average deposit of Rs. 5 crore per society, is on top of the Indian states. The national average for deposits in the primary cooperative societies is Rs.20 lakh.
Co-operative institutions provide a self-reliant and self-regulated institutional framework for the social and economic development of the society. The strong finances of the primary co-operative banks, adherence to democratic principles, and uniqueness of co-operative ventures initiated and the success of co-operative enterprises such as the Kerala Dinesh Beedi, Indian coffee house and Rubco led to entry of cooperative movement into each and every sector of life in Kerala. Now cooperatives have presence in the field of education, hospitals, medical colleges, water theme parks etc. Attempts at revitalizing and strengthening of the co-operatives have seen the State Government pump in substantial funds in ventures such as agro-processing, upliftment of women and the weaker sections of the community, promotion of self-help groups and establishment of fair price networks such as the Neethi Stores.
The State Government passed the Kerala Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Act, 1999, which came into force from January 1, 2000. The Act has provided for a number of schemes such as providing membership to local body institutions, deposit guarantee to primary agricultural credit societies, consortium lending, a co-operative development and welfare fund, an independent election commission, an independent audit wing, a vigilance wing and a co-operative examination board. Institute of cooperative management, Poojappura, Thiruvanandapuram, is giving in-service training to employees in the latest developments. There is one district cooperative bank each in every revenue districts of Kerala.

2.3 The Thrissur District Cooperative Bank Ltd

The Thrissur District Co-operative bank ltd. No.60 was registered as the Cochin Central Cooperative Bank Ltd, on 29/06/1918. It started functioning on 19/11/1918 as the apex bank of the erstwhile Cochin state with 39 affiliated societies and a paid up capital of Rs.2,795/-.The first board of directors of the bank was constituted on 15/07/1918 under the leadership of Manakkulam kunjunni raja. Shri. Kunjunni raja was the first president and sri. V.K.Varkey was the first secretary. In 1954, when cochin and Travancore States were amalgamated, the then Travancore Central Co-operative Bank was granted the status of Apex Bank and the Cochin Central Co-operative Bank was affiliated as District Co-operative Bank. Subsequently a branch was opened at Ernakulam on 1st December 1954.Later, in 1961 the area of operation of the Bank was restricted to Thrissur Revenue District and the Bank was renamed as Thrissur District CO-operative Bank. This was done after the re-organisation of Co-operative Banks on the basis of Revenue District. Till 1978, the bank extended finance only through Primary Co-operatives and in 1978, and then it started direct finance to individuals. Now the bank functions with its registered office at Thrissur and extends its operation to the whole Revenue District through 48 branches. Their head quarter is situated in the newly constructed “Sahakarana Sathabdhi Mandiram”, at Kovilakathumpadam, near North bus stand of Thrissur town. It is governed by an elected director board. The general manager of the bank is a professionally qualified person. The present President is Sri.T.U.Udayan and Sri. M. Ramanunny is the Chief Executive (General manager).There are three deputy general managers under the GM. The employees of the bank are recruited by a recruitment board constituted by state government for this purpose.

Human Resources Development

1.6 Methodology of the study
There are a number of possible methods for measuring employees’ work related attitudes, such as conducting focus groups, interviewing employees, or carrying out employee surveys. Of these methods, the most accurate measure is a well-constructed employee attitude survey. A cooperative organization is selected for the purpose of the study. Sample of fifty employees is selected from the head office, an urban branch and a rural branch of ‘The Thrissur district cooperative bank Ltd, Thrissur’ on random basis from among the Branch managers, accountants and the clerks. A questionnaire is distributed to the sample population. The results are analyzed using MS Excel. The findings, conclusions and suggestions are included in a separate chapter.
1.7 Limitations of the study
This study is conducted in an apex district level financial Institution of Kerala. The study is in cooperative sector. The Sample contains managers, accountants and clerks (middle level staff) only. The sample size is fifty only. As the size of the sample is small and it is conducted in a limited span of time the generalization is difficult. As the HR conditions of Kerala cooperative sector is unique the generalizations of the findings to other areas is also difficult.
1.8 Summary
The employees’ attitude is studied to find its relation with the success of the organization. The study is conducted in ‘The Thrissur district cooperative bank Ltd, Thrissur’. A sample survey is conducted for the study. Fifty samples are selected at random from two branches and the head office of the organization. The questionnaire is prepared in such a way that the analysis of the questions from areas of different attitudes can measure the attributes of success belongs to the following list. The list of benefits which contributes to success are: Increases productivity, solves problems, fosters teamwork, improves quality, makes congenial atmosphere, breeds loyalty, increases profits, fosters better relationships with employer, employee & customers, helps a person to become a contributing member and makes for a pleasing personality. From different questions of the questionnaire, scores are generated to quantify these attributes. The Microsoft excel software is used to analyze the results. The attributes of success measured in the study shows that ‘the attitude which helps to become employees contributing members is the attribute which has the highest percentage score in the organization and ‘Breeds loyalty’ is the lowest percentage score .All the success attributes are scored above 76% and the average of all the scores is 81%. This is a very high level of success rating. Here the work related attitude of the employees is on a highly positive level and it has contributed to the success of the organization.The details of findings of the study are included in the fifth chapter.

A case study on human resource management

1.2 The Title of the study
The title of the study is “Employees’ attitudes and its effect on the organizational success, a case study with respect to The Thrissur District Cooperative Bank Ltd”.


1.3 The statement of the problem
The employees’ attitude and behavior will highly influence the success of the organization. This study tries to find out the bottle necks in the employees’ attitude which may influence the achievement of the goals of the organization. The study is conducted in The Thrissur District Cooperative Bank Ltd. Some suggestions to remove barriers related to employees’ attitude are also included.

1.4 Objectives of the study
The following are the objectives of the study
To find the level of attitudes of the employees in a cooperative organization
To find the bottle necks in the employees attitude in achieving the organizational success
To find the effect of the attitudes on the organizational success
To create awareness among employees about the areas of work related attitude where they are generally weak.
To give suitable suggestions and recommendations to the management based on the findings of the study

1.5 Scope and significance of the study.
This study is conducted in cooperative banking sector. Very few studies are conducted in human resource management of cooperative sector. The findings of this study can be utilized to create positive attitude among the employees of The Thrissur district cooperative bank Ltd and similar institutions. The attitudinal training based on the findings of this study will contribute to the organizational success. The nature of cooperatives in Kerala is unique. The employees can work for political parties and many of them are district level leaders also. These leaders can indirectly control the managing committee as the committee members come below their rank in the respective party setup. Hence the human resource management is unique in such type of institutions and so the results of this attitude related study is helpful to this type of organization for the organizational success.