Transcript Attitudes, Values & Job Satisfaction

"People travel to wonder at the height
of the mountains, at the huge waves of
the seas, at the long course of the
rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean,
at the circular motion of the stars, and
yet they pass by themselves without
wondering”.
-- St. Augustine
The
Nature of Values
 One’s
personal convictions about what one
should strive for in life and how one should
behave
 “A
specific mode of conduct or end-state of
existence is personally or socially preferable
to an opposite or converse mode of conduct
or end-state of existence” (Rokeach, 1973)

All of us have a hierarchy of values that forms our value
system. This system is identified by the relative
importance we assign to such values as freedom,
pleasure, self-respect, honesty, obedience and
equality.

Values tend to be relatively stable and enduring.

A significant portion of our values is established in our
early years

The process of questioning our values may result in a
change. Values are important in OB because they lay
the foundation for the understanding of attitudes and
motivation and because they influence our perceptions

Values can cloud objectivity and rationality.

Desirable end-states
of existence

Goals a person would
like to achieve during
lifetime

Success
Terminal

Preferable modes of
behavior

Means of achieving
terminal values

Ambitious,
Hardworking
Instrumental
Levels of Values
Personal
Values
Past
experience &
interactions
with others
Organisational
Cultural
Values
Values
Heart of
Dominant
beliefs held by Organisational
Culture
collective
society
Types of Values
Work Values
Intrinsic
Work
Values
Extrinsic
Work
Values
Ethical Values
Justice
Values
Utilitarian
Values
Moral
Rights
Values
Intrinsic Values
Extrinsic Values











Interesting work
Challenging work
Learning new things
Making important
contributions
 Responsibility and
autonomy
 Being creative
High pay
Job security
Job benefits
Status in wider community
Social contacts
Time with family
Time for hobbies
 One’s
personal convictions about what is
right and wrong
Utilitarian
Moral Rights
Distributive Justice
•
Managers must become capable of working with people
across different cultures.
•
Because values differ across cultures, an understanding
of these differences should be helpful in explaining and
predicting behaviour of employees from different
countries.
•
Geert Hofstede surveyed 1,16,000 IBM employees in 40
countries in their work related values – found managers
and employees vary on 5 value dimensions of national
culture.
1.
Power Distance: The degree to which people in a country
accept that power in institutions and organizations is
distributed unequally/ relatively equal (low power
distance) to extremely unequal (high power distance)
2.
3.
4.
5.
Individualism vs Collectivism: Degree to which
people in a country prefer to act as individuals rather
than as members of a group.
Quantity of life vs Quality of life:
Quantity: degree to which values such as
assertiveness, the acquisition of money and material
goods and competition prevails.
Quality: The degree with which we value
relationships, show sensitivity and concern for the
welfare of others.
Uncertainty avoidance: Degree to which people in a
country,
prefer
structured
or
unstructured
situations.; Risk taking.
Long term and short term orientation:
Long: look to future and value thrift and persistence
Short: Values past and present; emphasis respect for
traditions and fulfilling social obligations.
Individualism
High Power
Distance
High Uncertainty Achievement
Avoidance
Orientation
Malaysia
USA
France
Germany
Japan
Germany
Japan
USA
India
USA
Japan
Hong Kong
China
Collectivism
Low power
Distance
Long-Term
Orientation
Japan
China
USA
Japan
Australia
South
Korea
Netherlands
Germany
USA
Singapore
Sweden
Low Uncertainty Nurturing
Avoidance
Orientation
Russia
Short-Term
Orientation
 Assertiveness
 Future
Orientation
 Gender Differentiation
 Uncertainty Avoidance
 Power Distance
 Individualism / Collectivism
 In-Group Collectivism
 Performance Orientation
 Humane Orientation
 Set
of formal rules and standards, based on
ethical values and beliefs about what is right
and wrong, that employees can use to make
appropriate decisions when the interests of
other individuals or groups are at stake

Whistleblowers
A
motivational state arising from holding
logically inconsistent cognitions
 Incompatibility between two or more
attitudes, or between attitudes and behavior
 Ways



to eliminate dissonance:
Add consonant cognitions
Reduce importance of dissonant cognitions
Change one of the dissonant cognitions
 Engage
in boring pegturning task
 Paid $1 or $20 to lie
to next participant
about the
experiment, or no lie
control group
 Afterwards asked
whether they liked
the task
“Attitude is more important than the
past, than education, than money,
than circumstances, than what other
people think or say or do. It is more
important
than
appearances,
giftedness or skill. It will make or
break a company, a church or a
home.”
-Charles Swindoll
 There
are so many things in life you have
little control over, such as the political
environment, the weather, the job
market, the economy. But there is one
aspect of your life that you do have the
power to control, and that’s your
attitude.
 Each
and every moment of every day you
decide what your attitude will be --about yourself, your job, your family and
friends, change, responsibilities, etc.

“An organized predisposition to respond in a
favorable or unfavorable manner toward a
specified class of objects” (Shaver, 1977)
 Position
on a bipolar affective or evaluative
dimension (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975)
 Networks
of interrelated beliefs that reside in
long-term memory and are activated when the
attitude object or issue is encountered (Tourangeau &
Rasinksi, 1988)
 “Evaluative
statements or judgments
concerning objects, people or events (Robbins, 2007)
 “A
general and enduring positive or negative
feeling toward some person, object, or
issue”
 “An
association between an object and an
evaluation in memory”
“
Attitude is a learned internal response to a
given stimulus, resulting in observable
behavior ”
An attitude is defined as a learned predisposition to
respond in a consistently favourable or unfavourable
manner with respect to a given object.
 While Values represent global beliefs that influence
behaviour, across all situations, attitudes relate only to
behaviour directed towards specific objects, persons or
situations.
 Values and attitudes generally, but not always, are in
harmony.
 Study: Job attitudes of middle aged male employees
stable over a time frame of 5 years – even those who
changed jobs / occupation.
 Attitudes are translated into behaviour through
behavioural intentions.
 An individual’s intentions to engage in a given
behaviour is the best predictor of that behaviour.

Experience
with Object
Mass
Communication
Attitudes
Economic
Status
Classical
Conditioning
Operant
Conditioning
Vicarious
Learning
Neighbourhood
Family &
Peer Groups
Formation of Attitudes
Attitudes vary in a
number of important
ways





Valence (positive or
negative)
Intensity
Strength
Accessibility
Basis
Affective Component
Emotional or feeling
Cognitive Component
Opinion or belief
Behavioral Component
Intention to behave
in a certain way
towards someone or something
Work Attitudes
Negative / Positive
Attitudes and Behavior
Attitude:
Act
Behavior
Intent
Subjective
Norm
Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen)
Behavior
Attitudes and Behavior
Behavior
beliefs
Evaluation
Attitude:
Act
Behavior
Intent
Normative
beliefs
Motivation
to Comply
Subjective
Norm
Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen)
Behavior
Attitudes and Behavior
Behavior
beliefs
Evaluation
Attitude:
Act
Behavior
Intent
Normative
beliefs
Motivation
to Comply
Subjective
Norm
Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen)
Behavior
Constraints
 Collections
of feelings, beliefs, and thoughts
about how to behave that people currently
hold about their jobs and organizations
Comfortable
existence
Family security
Sense of accomplishment
Self-respect
Social recognition
Exciting Life
 How
people feel at the time they actually
perform their jobs.
 More
transitory than values and attitudes.
 Determining



factors:
Personality
Work situation
Circumstances outside of work
Positive
 Excited
 Enthusiastic
 Active
 Strong
 Peppy
 Elated
Negative
 Distressed
 Fearful
 Scornful
 Hostile
 Jittery
 Nervous
 Intense,
short-lived feelings that are linked to
specific cause or antecedent
 Emotions
can feed into moods
 Emotional
labor
Display Rules
Feeling Rules
Expression Rules
Perceptions
Beliefs
Attitude
Feelings
Behavioral
Intentions
Behavior
Emotional
Episodes
Values
Attitudes
(most stable)
(moderately stable)
Moods
and Emotions
(most changing)
Job related attitudes tap +ve or –ve evaluations that employees hold
about aspects of their work environments. 3 major attitudes:
1.
Job Satisfaction: an individual’s general attitude towards
his/her job. A person with a high level of job satisfaction holds
+ve attitudes toward the job.
2.
Job Involvement: measures degree to which a person
identifies psychologically with his/her job & considers his/her
perceived performance level important to self worth. People
with high job involvement strongly identifies with and really
care about the kind of work they do.
3.
Organization commitment: A state in which an employee
identifies with a particular orgn and its goals and wishes to
maintain membership in the orgn.
 Spector:


“the degree to which people like
their jobs”
“How people feel about their
jobs and different aspects of
their jobs”
Locke:
“ A pleasurable or positive
emotional state resulting from
the appraisal of one’s job or job
experiences”
Work
characteristics
Job
Satisfaction(s)
 Porter

(1961): Need Satisfaction
Desired-Actual
 Minnesota

20 “reinforcers” (based on Murray’s 12 needs)
 Locke


Work Adjustment Model
(1976): Values
“Job satisfaction results from appraisal of one’s
job as attaining…one’s important job values”
Provided these values are congruent with basic
needs
Objective
characteristics
Perceived
characteristics
Needs/
Values
Job
Satisfaction(s)
Objective
characteristics
Perceived
characteristics
Frame of
Reference
Needs/
Values
Job
Satisfaction(s)
A
chink in the armor: are perceptions veridical
with objective reality?
 Social
Information Processing model
 Dispositional
View


Social construction of attitudes vs objective characteristics)
 Salancik & Pfeffer (1978)
 Roots in Schachter & Singer (1962)
Attitude statements based on:
 Perception of affective components
 Social context cues
 Self-attributions about behavior
Event
Generalized
Arousal
JS
Cues
 Staw

& Ross (1985)
Surprising stability over time/situations
 Staw,

Childhood temperament predicts adult JS
 Arvey

Bell & Clausen (1986)
et al. (1989)
JS has hereditary component (30%)

General questions about behavioral genetics

Gerhart (1987): Situation AND Disposition


Compared effects on current satisfaction of prior
satisfaction, pay, job complexity
Job complexity had strongest effect

Why isn’t extrinsic satisfaction heritable?

Why is JS heritable? A JS gene?
 Trait

NA/PA may be key factor
Some reason to believe that it may have biological
basis, and thus inheritable
 Those




high in NA are more likely to:
Notice negative stimuli
Evaluate stimuli in negative terms
Recall negative stimuli
Create interpersonal conflict  dissatisfaction
Weiss & Cropanzano (1996)
Events
Affect
JS
Mood at work
JS
Interpretations
JS
Weiss et al. (1999)
Disposition
Brief (1998)
Disposition
Brief & Weiss (2002)
Interpretations
JS
Disposition
Mood
Fuller et al. (2003)
Strain
JS
Stress events
Mood
Low
Turnover
Organisational
Factors
Job
Satisfaction
Low
Absenteeism
Outcomes
Expected
/ Valued
Group
Factors
High
Turnover
Outcomes
Received
Individual
Factors
Job
Dissatisfaction
High
Absenteeism





A person’s job is more than the obvious activities of shuffling
papers, waiting on customers, or driving a truck. Jobs require
interaction with co-workers & bosses, following orgn rules and
policies, meeting performance standards, living with working
conditions which often are less than ideal, etc.
Happy workers are not necessarily productive workers.
However, productive workers are normally happy workers.
Orgns with more satisfied workers tend to be more effective
than with less satisfied workers.
Generally dissatisfied workers absent themselves more. Liberal
sick benefits also contribute. Also if you have interesting side
activities.
Satisfaction is negatively related to turnover. Other factors
include the labour market, expectations about other job
opportunities, etc.
 Personality

Extroverts tend to have higher levels of job
satisfaction than introverts
 Values

Those with strong intrinsic work values is more
likely than one with weak intrinsic work values to
be satisfied with a job that is meaningful but
requires long hours and offer poor pay
 Work




Situation
tasks a person performs
people a jobholder interacts with
surroundings in which a person works
the way the organization treats the jobholder
 Social
Influence: influence that individuals or
groups have on a person’s attitudes and
behavior




Coworkers
Family
Other reference groups (unions, religious groups,
friends)
Culture
 Work
Itself
 Pay
 Promotion
 Supervision
 Co-Workers
 Working
Conditions
Job Involvement
Organizational
Citizenship
Behavior (OCB)
Organisational
Commitment
Employee
Well-Being
 Feelings
and beliefs about the employing
organization as a whole


Affective commitment
Continuance commitment
 Affective
commitment is more positive for
organizations than continuance commitment
Performance
Absenteeism
OCB
Turnover
Customer Satisfaction
Workplace Deviance

Motivation to attend
work is affected by
 Job satisfaction
 Organization’s
absence policy
 Other factors

Ability to attend
work is affected by
 Illness and
accidents
 Transportation
problems
 Family
responsibilities
Fairness
Job
Satisfaction
OCB
Trust
Employee dissatisfaction can be expressed in a number of ways.
Rather than quit, employees can complain, insubordinate, steal
orgn property, etc.
Active
VOICE
EXIT
Constructive
Destructive
LOYALTY
NEGLECT
Passive