The field of social psychology lays significant emphasis on the behaviors that persons portray when in social situations, while its concepts and theories are of major importance in fields beyond psychology. For instance, in the business environment, organizational behaviors depict the manner in which persons, whether when working in groups or individually, behave within an organizational context. Meanwhile, social psychology theories focus on illustrating the reasons as to why persons behave in based on the manner in which they do. The connection between social psychology theory and organizational behavior offers insights on why individuals portray certain behaviors while in the workplace. These kinds of insights can provide the leaders with the opportunity for establishing environments that foster better performance (Suttle, 2019) . The paper discusses how social psychology applies in the workplace, while emphasizing on the relationship of work attitudes to job performance.
When workers report to work, the attitudes they portray influence their work performance, which then affect the morale that surrounds them. Generally, employees having good attitudes portray great performance and vice versa. The attitudes by employees revolve around a myriad of forces, which the workforces bring to their organization. The primary forces attributed to employees’ attitudes pose challenges on matters related to changing them. Their attitudes result from their upbringing, such as thought patterns and ways in which they perceive the world based on the influence of their parents, peers, coaches, teachers, and other concerned parties (Gils, 2017) . In this perspective, the managers should ensure to monitor the attitudes that their workforces portray while laying emphasis on addressing the attitude issues, including laziness and negativity among others.
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The attitudes by employees influence how they relate with other people in the workplace and their individual performance as well. Attitudes influence how employees react to others, such as their supervisors, colleagues, and consumers. These influence how they perceive their jobs together with their value for their companies. In the event that the work that employees pursue requires them to collaborate with others, their attitudes can influence the failure or success of a group. In this case, it becomes increasingly essential to look for signs of poor attitude with the goal of ensuring that they do not influence performance. Some of the signs to look out for in this case should comprise of blame, personalization, labeling, overgeneralization, emphasizing on negatives, and jumping into conclusions among other areas (Eby & Allen, 2012) . These thinking patterns influence how the work s perceive their jobs in line with the social relationships they establish with their colleagues within an organization.
Certain social psychology theories would play a critical role in explaining the relationships that prevail between work attitudes and job performance. For instance, the level of motivation among employees determines the efforts they portray within a company. Naturally, organizational management prefers motivated employees, although challenges prevail when it comes to identifying the things that motivate them. Social psychology theory tries to explain motivation by assessing the different needs of individuals. According to Maslow’s theory, for example, the needs of persons are ordered ranging from the ones that facilitate basic survival to ones leading to metaphysical fulfilment. The theory reveals that the lowest unaddressed needs serves as the ones that drive the behaviors that persons portray. Linking the employees’ motivations with needs of the company would lead to realization of the set goals (Gawronski & Bodenhausen, 2015) . In this sense, ensuring that the employees have their diverse needs met would boost their motivation for working with an organization. Here, their attitude toward the company would improve hence leading their productivity to increase, which would benefit organizational performance.
The social exchange theory would also apply when it comes to fostering understanding of the relationship of work attitudes to job performance. The social psychology theory relates to a cooperative as well as reciprocal behavior, which prevails when individuals serve as recipients of certain benefits. A relationship commences once the benefactor confers something to a different person, while the recipient follows a similar trend by serving as the benefactor. With the continuance of benefits’ exchange, the relationship continues growing while establishing a sense of shared obligation (Ferris, Johnson, & Sedikides, 2018) . Within an organizational setting, the social exchange theory forecasts that the persons in positions of leadership can receive the support of their workforces for company goals by treating the employees in a favorable manner. With the breaking of a contract by an organization by refraining from ensuring that the employees keep receiving the benefits, the workers feel unappreciated for their efforts while their productivity drops at the expense of organizational performance (Gawronski & Bodenhausen, 2015) . Their attitude toward the organization would deteriorate, which would lower their motivation to work in the organization
The issue of group belonging also influences the relationship of work attitudes to job performance. For instance, the social identity theory focuses on identifying the feelings of an individual when serving as a group member. A sense of belonging to a group serves as a powerful force within an organization since individuals usually favor the persons in their groups as extensions of themselves. This might damage the relationship in the event that social identity revolves around gender or race. By contrast, social identity would lead to the establishment of a sense of camaraderie among the group members (Ferris, Johnson, & Sedikides, 2018) . The group members would develop positive attitudes toward their work environment thereby leading the team to work in a competitive manner while contributing to improved organizational performance.
To address the issue of the influence that attitudes have to job performance, managers should focus on potential interventions or solutions. The organizational manager should assess whether the poor performance of the employees depicts attitude challenges or forces, including job satisfaction, incapacity to handle certain tasks. Work environment problems, training requirements, or personal issues. After undertaking a close assessment, the managers might realize that the workforce struggles with performance due to a mixture of these factors or others. Thus, it is crucial to approach the performance problems that employee portray with care. The reason for this is that they might or might not relate to their attitudes. This way, it would be possible to identify the reasons as to why the employee struggle with performance. Upon doing so, they should ensure to focus on inspiring and recognizing the workers showing positive attitudes as well as satisfactory performance (Suttle, 2019) . These kinds of employees would lead to a positive workplace that influences the morale of the organization effectively.
Concerning the topic of relationship of work attitudes to job performance, the ethical consideration relevant to the issue is one of respect for people. The organization needs to make sure that individuals are treated with dignity and respect while observing their rights to autonomy, confidentiality, self-expression, and freedom. These rights apply to all persons hence do not need expending to an extent that they infringe other persons’ rights. The organization should also focus on promoting the welfare of its employees on reasonable grounds. Furthermore, the organization should feature fairness and justice while all of these endeavors would boost the attitude of the employees (Eby & Allen, 2012) . As such, the ethical considerations would ensure that organizations realize improved performance on the side of the employees.
References
Eby, L. T., & Allen, T. D. (2012). Personal relationships: the effect on employee attitudes, behavior, and well-being. Abingdon: Routledge.
Ferris, D. L., Johnson, R. E., & Sedikides, C. (2018). The self at work: fundamental theory and research. Abingdon: Routledge.
Gawronski, B., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (2015). Theory and explanation in social psychology. New York: Guilford Publications.
Gils, G. V. (2017). Happier at work: the power of love to transform the workplace. Phoenix: She Writes Press.
Suttle, R. (2019). Example of organizational ethics. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/example-organizational-ethics-36755.html
