Plan for Positive Influence

Plan for Positive Influence

University of Phoenix

LDR 531

February 1, 2010

Plan for Positive Influence

The complexity of organizational behaviors is a challenge for today’s leaders. Attitudes, personalities, values, and emotions influence behavior daily. Effective leaders understand how each individualdiffers in these areas and are still able to obtain satisfaction, motivation, and performance. Large projects require a plan to direct various behaviors in a way that positively influence the team. This plan includes several theories that assist leaders in using each individual’s behavior to reach project goals.

“Attitudes are evaluative statements, either favorable or unfavorable, concerning objects, people, or events” (University of Phoenix, 2007, p. 74). The three components of attitudes are cognitive, affective, and behavioral (University of Phoenix, 2007). Although there are three separate components each relates to the other. Thoughts bring about a feeling, which in turn causes a behavior. Individualsstrive to keep a consistency between their attitudes and behaviors. Leo Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance supports this consistency. “Cognitive dissonance refers to any incompatibility that an individual may perceive between two or more attitudes or between behavior and attitudes” (University of Phoenix, 2007, p. 76). This concept is important for leaders to understand when assigning jobs. If a job requires individuals to perform in a manner that opposes their attitude, they will be likely to alter their attitude to be compatible (University of Phoenix, 2007). Job satisfaction is a type of attitude. This term represents an optimistic feeling about one’s job resulting from an assessment of its uniqueness (University of Phoenix, 2007). The first aspect of this plan is to engage individualsby involvement. Leaders should ask team members about resource allocations, desired learning opportunities, and the importance of their work. According...