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Organizational Behavior 17e Robbins and Judge ...

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Chapter 3 Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

Chapter 3 Attitudes and Job Satisfaction Chapter Overview This chapter examines attitudes, their link to behavior, and how employees’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their jobs affects the workplace. I. ATTITUDES A. Attitudes: evaluative statements—either favorable or unfavorable—concerning objects, people, or events. They reflect how one feels about something.

1. Attitudes are complex and the rationale behind them may not be obvious. To fully understand attitudes, we must explore their fundamental properties or components.

B. What Are the Main Components of Attitudes? 1. There are three main components of attitudes (Exhibit 3-1, illustrates how the three components of an attitude are related):

a. Cognitive. The statement “My pay is low” is the cognitive component of an attitude—a description of or belief in the way things are.

b. Affective. The emotional or feeling segment of an attitude. Affect is the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude and is reflected in the statement “I am angry over how little I’m paid.” Finally, affect can lead to behavioral outcomes. Copyright ©2016 Pearson Education, Inc.

Chapter 3 Attitudes and Job Satisfaction c. Behavior. This describes an intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something—to continue the example, “I’m going to look for another job that pays better.” Viewing attitudes as having three components—cognition, affect, and behavior—is helpful in understanding their complexity. Keep in mind that these components are closely related, and cognition and affect in particular are inseparable in many ways.

2. In organizations, attitudes are important for their behavioral component. If workers believe, for example, that supervisors, auditors, bosses, and time-and motion engineers are all in conspiracy to make employees work harder for the same or less money, it makes sense to try to understand how these attitudes formed, their relationship to actual job behavior, and how they might be changed.

II.

Compare the Major of the Job Attitudes *** 1. There are three important attitudes toward work that OB has traditionally studied: job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment. There are two other work-related attitudes that are attracting attention: perceived organizational support and employee engagement.

a. Job Satisfaction. A positive feeling about one’s job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics.

i A collection of feelings that an individual hold toward his or her job. ii A high level of job satisfaction equals positive attitudes toward the job and vice versa.

iii Employee attitudes and job satisfaction are frequently used interchangeably. iv Often when people speak of “employee attitudes” they mean “employee job satisfaction.”

b. Job Involvement. The degree to which people identify psychologically with their jobs and consider their perceived performance level important to selfworth. i Psychological Empowerment. Employees’ beliefs in the degree to which they influence their work environment, their competence, the meaningfulness of their job, and the perceived autonomy in their work.

ii High levels of job involvement are thought to result in fewer absences and lower resignation rates.

iii Job involvement more consistently predicts turnover than absenteeism. c. Organizational Commitment. A state in which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organization.

1) A positive relationship appears to exist between organizational commitment and job productivity, but it is a modest one.

2) Emotional attachment to an organization and belief in its values is the “gold standard” for employee commitment.

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Chapter 3 Attitudes and Job Satisfaction 3) Employees who are committed are less likely to engage in work withdrawal even if they are dissatisfied because they feel a sense of loyalty or attachment to the organization.

d. Perceived Organizational Support (POS). The degree to which employees believe the organization values their contribution and cares about their wellbeing.

1) Organizations are considered supportive when they: a) Fairly provide rewards, b) Give employees a voice in decision making, c) Provide supervisors who are seen as being supportive. 2) The perception of fairness is a key factor in determining the willingness of employees to work hard for the organization. In addition, employees have a higher POS when they perceive that they have some input in decisionmaking processes.

a) Though little cross-cultural research has been done, one study found POS predicted only the job performance and citizenship behaviors of untraditional or low power-distance Chinese employees—in short, those more likely to think of work as an exchange rather than a moral obligation.

b) Power distance the degree to which people in a country accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally.

e. Employee Engagement. An individual’s involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for, the work he or she does.

1) To evaluate engagement, we might ask employees whether: a) They have access to resources and opportunities to learn new skills. b) They feel their work is important and meaningful. c) Interactions with coworkers and supervisors are rewarding. 2) Highly engaged employees have a passion for their work and feel a deep connection to their company; disengaged employees have essentially checked out—putting time but not energy or attention into their work.

3) The two top reasons for job engagement that participants in one study gave recently were a) Having a good manager, they enjoy working for

b) Feeling appreciated by their supervisor 4) The concept is relatively new and still generates active debate about its usefulness. a) One review of the literature concluded, “The meaning of employee engagement is ambiguous among both academic researchers and among practitioners who use it in conversations with clients.”

b) Another reviewer called engagement “an umbrella term for whatever one wants it to be.”

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Chapter 3 Attitudes and Job Satisfaction 5) Recent research has demonstrated that engagement is distinct from job satisfaction and job involvement, and that it incrementally predicts job behaviors after we take these traditional job attitudes into account.

f. Are These Job Attitudes Really All That Distinct? No, these attitudes are highly related; and while there is some distinction, there is also a lot of overlap that may cause confusion. 1) If people feel deeply engaged by their job (high job involvement), isn’t it probable they like it (high job satisfaction)? Won’t people who think their organization is supportive (high perceived organizational support) also feel committed to it (strong organizational commitment)?

a) Evidence suggests these attitudes are highly related, perhaps to a troubling degree that makes one wonder whether there are useful distinctions to be made among them.

b) There is some distinctiveness among attitudes, but they overlap greatly for various reasons, including the employee’s personality. (1) If you as a manager know someone’s level of job satisfaction, you know most of what you need to know about how that person sees the organization. III.

Define Job Satisfaction Job satisfaction is “a positive feeling about a job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics.”

A. Measuring Job Satisfaction. Jobs require  Interacting with co-workers and bosses.  Following organizational rules and policies.  Determining the power structure.  Meeting performance standards.  Living with less than ideal working conditions, and the like.  Adapting to new technology. An employee’s assessment of his satisfaction with the job is thus a complex summation of many discrete elements.

1. There are two widely used approaches to measuring this attitude: a. Single Global Rating Method. This method uses responses to a single question about the job to determine job satisfaction.

b. Summation Score Method. This method identifies key elements in the job and asks for the employee’s feelings about each element in a job, such as the nature of the work, supervision, present pay, promotion opportunities, and relations with coworkers. Respondents’ answer on a standardized scale and their responses are tallied to create an overall job satisfaction score.

2. Is one of these approaches superior?

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Chapter 3 Attitudes and Job Satisfaction Intuitively, summing up responses to a number of job factors seems likely to achieve a more accurate evaluation of job satisfaction. a. This is one of those rare instances in which simplicity seems to work as well as complexity, making one method essentially as valid as the other.

b. The best explanation is that the concept of job satisfaction is so broad, a single question captures its essence.

c. The single global rating method isn’t very time consuming, thus freeing time for other tasks, and the summation of job facets helps managers zero in on problems and deal with them faster and more accurately.

d. The summation of job facets may also leave out some important data. Both methods are helpful.

B. How Satisfied Are People in Their Jobs? Research shows satisfaction levels vary a lot, depending on which facet of job satisfaction you’re talking about.

1. People are, on average, satisfied with their jobs overall, with the work itself, and with their supervisors and co-workers.

2. However, they tend to be less satisfied with their pay and with promotion IV.

opportunities. Summarize the Main Causes of Job Satisfaction *** What Causes Job Satisfaction? i. Job Conditions The intrinsic nature of the work itself, social interactions, and supervision are important predictors of job satisfaction. Interesting jobs that provide training, variety, independence, and control satisfy most employees. A strong relation exists between how well people enjoy the social context of their workplace and how satisfied they are overall. Interdependence, feedback, social support, and interaction with co-workers outside the workplace are strongly related to job satisfaction even after accounting for characteristics of the work itself. ii. Personality People who have positive core self-evaluations, who believe in their inner worth and basic competence, are more satisfied with their jobs than those with negative core self-evaluations. iii. Pay Pay, once above a given level, does not increase satisfaction. While money may be a motivator, it does not necessarily make people happy—at least once they have enough to live comfortably. iv. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Self-regulated actions to benefit society or the environment beyond what is required by law.  

Includes environmental sustainability initiatives, nonprofit work, and charitable giving. Increasingly affects employee job satisfaction.

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Chapter 3 Attitudes and Job Satisfaction  V.

CSR is particularly important for Millennials. But not everyone finds value in CSR.

Identify three outcomes of job satisfaction Outcomes Job Performance  Happy workers are not necessarily productive workers, the evidence suggests that productivity is likely to lead to satisfaction. OCB (Organizational Citizenship Behavior) • People who are more satisfied with their jobs are more likely to engage in citizenship behavior. • There is a modest overall relationship between job satisfaction and OCB. • Why does job satisfaction lead to OCB? One reason is trust. • Finally, individuals who receive positive feedback on their OCB from their peers are more likely to continue their citizenship activities. Customer Satisfaction  Evidence indicates that satisfied employees increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.  Customer retention and defection are highly dependent on how front-line employees deal with customers. Satisfied employees are more likely to be friendly, upbeat, and responsive. Customers appreciate that.  Companies hire upbeat, friendly employees, train them in the importance of customer service, provide positive employee work climates, and regularly track employee satisfaction through attitude surveys. Life Satisfaction  Job satisfaction is positively correlated with life satisfaction, and your attitudes and experiences in life spill over in to your job approaches and experiences.  Life satisfaction decreases when people become unemployed.

VI.

Identify four employee responses to dissatisfaction. The Impact of Dissatisfied and Satisfied Employees on the Workplace There are consequences both when employees like their jobs and when they dislike them. There are four ways employees can express dissatisfaction i. Exit. This response involves directing behavior toward leaving the organization. It includes both looking for a new job, as well as resigning. ii. Voice. This response involves actively and constructively attempting to improve conditions. Includes making suggestions and union activities. iii. Loyalty. This response involves passively, but optimistically, waiting for conditions to improve. It involves trusting the organization and its management to “do the right thing.”

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Chapter 3 Attitudes and Job Satisfaction iv. Neglect. This response involves passively allowing conditions to worsen. Includes chronic absenteeism, reduced effort, and increased error rate.

Exit and Neglect behaviors are linked to performance variables such as productivity, absenteeism, and turnover. Voice and Loyalty—constructive behaviors that allow individuals to tolerate unpleasant situations or improve working conditions. This model includes both typical performance variables and constructive behaviors that allow individuals to tolerate unpleasant situations. Counterproductive Work Behavior (CWB): Actions that actively damage the organization, including stealing, behaving aggressively toward coworkers, or being late or absent. • Absenteeism: negative relationship between satisfaction and absenteeism. o It makes sense that dissatisfied employees are more likely to miss work, but other factors have an impact on the relationship and reduce the correlation coefficient. • Turnover: Satisfaction is also negatively related to turnover, but the correlation is stronger than what we found for absenteeism. • Workplace Deviance: Job dissatisfaction predicts unionization, stealing, undue socializing, and tardiness. If employees don’t like their work environment, they will respond somehow. • Other factors such as labor market conditions, expectations about alternative job opportunities, and length of tenure with the organization are important constraints on the actual decision to leave one’s current job. • Evidence indicates that an important moderator of the satisfaction-turnover relationship is the employee’s level of performance.

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