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Unit 9: Learning, Attitudes and Values

2. Are fewer in number than attitudes. Notes
3. Transcend specific objects, situations or persons.
4. Are relatively permanent and resistant to change, and
5. Are more central to the core of a person.

Individuals learn values as they grow and mature. They may change over the life span of an
individual develops a sense of self. Cultures, societies, and organisations shape values.

9.7.1 Importance of Values

Values are important because they lay the foundation for the understanding of attitudes and
motivation and because they influence our perceptions. Individuals enter an organisation with
preconceived notions of what "ought" and what "ought not' to be. For example, if Jeevan enters
IG Ferns and Curtains with a view that salary on piece-rate system is right and on time-rate basis
is wrong, he is likely to be disappointed if the company allocates salary on time-rate basis. His
disappointment is likely to breed job dissatisfaction. This will, in turn, adversely affect his
performance, his attitude and in turn, his behaviour towards the work environment, which
would have been different had his values turned out to be aligned with the company's reward/
pay policy.

9.7.2 Types of Values

Values are learned and acquired primarily through experiences with people and institutions.
Parents, for example, will have substantial influence on their children's values. A parent's reaction
to everyday events demonstrates what is good and bad, acceptable and unacceptable and
important and unimportant. Values are also taught and reinforced in schools, religious
organisations, and social groups. As we grow and develop, each source of influence contributes
to our definition of what is important in life. Cultural mores have influence on the formation of
values. Basic convictions of what is good or bad are derived from one's own culture.
Allport and his associates categorized values into six types.
1. Theoretical: Interested in the discovery of truth through reasoning and systematic thinking.
2. Economic: Interest in usefulness and practicality, including the accumulation of wealth.
3. Aesthetic: Interest in beauty, form and artistic harmony.

4. Social: Interest in people and love as a human relationship.
5. Political: Interest in graining power and influencing people.
6. Religious: Interest in unity and understanding the cosmos as a whole.

Task Discuss an incident when you had a clash of choice between an action
against your values and gaining, and action in consonance with your values
and loosing. What did you choose and why?

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