On attitudes and communication

What we describe as an attitude problem with an employee is more often an indicator of poor two-way communication between the employee and his or her immediate supervisor or reporting officer.

Attempts to correct the attitude through training and counselling usually do not have the desired impact. Many a times these efforts backfire, resulting in a more demotivated, despirited employee. This is often taken as proof that the employee really has an attitude problem, which needs serious correction.

When we look at it from a different angle, and treat it as a problem in communication, our interventions become different. We do not look at the individual employee with a desire to change him, but we look at the processes, especially the communication processes. We see the behaviour (which is labelled as attitude problem) as natural responses in a complex system of inter-relationships. The focus shifts from labelling and blaming to a joint investigation of the system, with the shared objective of improving its functioning.