We are independent & ad-supported. We may earn a commission for purchases made through our links.
Advertiser Disclosure
Our website is an independent, advertising-supported platform. We provide our content free of charge to our readers, and to keep it that way, we rely on revenue generated through advertisements and affiliate partnerships. This means that when you click on certain links on our site and make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn more.
How We Make Money
We sustain our operations through affiliate commissions and advertising. If you click on an affiliate link and make a purchase, we may receive a commission from the merchant at no additional cost to you. We also display advertisements on our website, which help generate revenue to support our work and keep our content free for readers. Our editorial team operates independently of our advertising and affiliate partnerships to ensure that our content remains unbiased and focused on providing you with the best information and recommendations based on thorough research and honest evaluations. To remain transparent, we’ve provided a list of our current affiliate partners here.
Culture

Our Promise to you

Founded in 2002, our company has been a trusted resource for readers seeking informative and engaging content. Our dedication to quality remains unwavering—and will never change. We follow a strict editorial policy, ensuring that our content is authored by highly qualified professionals and edited by subject matter experts. This guarantees that everything we publish is objective, accurate, and trustworthy.

Over the years, we've refined our approach to cover a wide range of topics, providing readers with reliable and practical advice to enhance their knowledge and skills. That's why millions of readers turn to us each year. Join us in celebrating the joy of learning, guided by standards you can trust.

How can I Determine the Attitude in the Workplace?

Mary Elizabeth
By
Updated: May 17, 2024
Views: 9,859
Share

A person’s attitude is his or her ways of thinking and underlying assumptions. Attitude in the workplace is a factor in productivity, just as skills are. In fact, at least one survey has shown that a majority of organizations rank attitude in the workplace as being of greater concern than skills and competencies. For an employer, keeping an eye on attitudes in the workplace — both before and after hiring — can assist in decisions on choices to make in terms of benefits, compensation, and other workplace features to help a company be more productive, and not having this information makes it difficult to align decisions with employee preferences. There are several methods available to assess attitude in the workplace.

The standard way to assess attitude in the workplace is to use a survey instrument, and it’s important to know that while some surveys are concerned with attitude in the workplace in general, a survey can be specially conceived to address a particular question that relates to employee attitudes. Tracking employee attitudes over time is the best way to have a sense of the interaction between the circumstances of employment and attitude. It’s also important for surveys to evolve as the organization evolves. Another approach is to use existing data on file in the company’s human resources files, including performance reviews, perhaps along with a survey. Informal assessment of attitudes also contributes to obtaining a full picture of employee attitudes.

To determine the attitude in your workplace, you might follow these steps. First, determine what aspect of employee attitude you want to know about, for example, the response to a change in the telephone system, whether it would be significantly beneficial to add another personal day, or the general, overall attitude towards management. Second, look at information about existing attitude instruments, and ask your human resources team for recommendations. Third, search for an existing instrument, hire a consultant to construct one, or speak to your human resources department about developing an in-house tool.

Finally, prepare your employees prior to administering a survey for the first time. Let employees know what benefits or positive outcomes you hope to derive from this added task. Make arrangements so that the information gathering doesn’t interfere with their work or unnecessarily burden them with its length.

Share
WiseGeek is dedicated to providing accurate and trustworthy information. We carefully select reputable sources and employ a rigorous fact-checking process to maintain the highest standards. To learn more about our commitment to accuracy, read our editorial process.
Mary Elizabeth
By Mary Elizabeth
Passionate about reading, writing, and research, Mary Elizabeth is dedicated to correcting misinformation on the Internet. In addition to writing articles on art, literature, and music for WiseGeek, Mary works as a teacher, composer, and author who has written books, study guides, and teaching materials. Mary has also created music composition content for Sibelius Software. She earned her B.A. from University of Chicago's writing program and an M.A. from the University of Vermont.

Editors' Picks

Discussion Comments
By Mor — On Feb 14, 2015

@Iluviaporos - Sometimes you are coming into a new workplace and you need to test the waters though. I find that having outsiders come in can be a good move, but maybe not just to talk to the people at work. Employee attitude is easy to see if you spend some time with them. If there is a lot of passive aggressive sniping, or people are silent and tense you can tell something needs to change.

Figuring out what needs to change is another matter, but I don't think that surveys will necessarily reveal that anyway.

By lluviaporos — On Feb 14, 2015

@umbra21 - One of the places i used to work would actually get managers to swap around when doing this kind of evaluation, so that employees wouldn't feel intimidated. Honestly, I liked my boss anyway, and felt like I was happy to go to him with problems, so it actually made it more difficult to talk about workplace conflicts and stress when they made us do it with a manager from another department.

Personally, I think that it's best if a manager is just really good at keeping tabs on the attitudes of his or her employees and has their trust rather than making it a formal inquiry. I mean, if someone has a negative attitude it generally becomes fairly obvious fairly quickly to everyone.

By umbra21 — On Feb 13, 2015

I would say, above all, don't make them feel like they are having a performance exam. If you put that kind of pressure on them, it's just going to make them feel like they have to lie or exaggerate in order to give you the answers you're hoping for.

If you aren't sure that you can make them feel like they can truly speak their minds, then maybe try allowing them to respond to an anonymous survey. Don't just put numbers or check-boxes on the survey either, give them areas they can fill out with their own words.

If this isn't done right, it might as well not be done at all. Negative attitudes in the workplace are not something that people are going to want to admit to their boss, especially if their boss is one source of the problem.

Mary Elizabeth
Mary Elizabeth
Passionate about reading, writing, and research, Mary Elizabeth is dedicated to correcting misinformation on the...
Learn more
Share
https://www.wisegeek.net/how-can-i-determine-the-attitude-in-the-workplace.htm
Copy this link
WiseGeek, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.

WiseGeek, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.