Organizational Behavior Lecturer: Sharon Porter Class 3

Learning Objectives Contrast the three components of an attitude. Summarize the relationship between attitudes and behavior. Compare and contrast the major job attitudes. Define job satisfaction and show how it can be measured. Summarize the main causes of job satisfaction. Identify four employee responses to dissatisfaction. Show whether job satisfaction is a relevant concept in other countries.

The opinion or belief segment of an attitude Attitudes An evaluation or judgments concerning objects, people, or events Three components of an attitude: Attitude Behavioral Cognitive Affective The emotional or feeling segment of an attitude The opinion or belief segment of an attitude Attitudes are evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people, or events. Attitudes are made up of three components. The cognitive component is made up of the belief in the way things are. The affective component is the more critical part of the attitude as it is calls upon the emotions or feelings. The behavioral component describes the intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something. These three components work together to aid in our understanding of the complexity of an attitude. An intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, All rights reserved.

Does Behavior = Attitudes? No, the reverse is sometimes true! Cognitive Dissonance: Any incompatibility between two or more attitudes or between behavior and attitudes We try to reduce this gap, or dissonance, to reach stability and consistency Consistency is achieved by changing the attitudes, changing the behaviors, or through rationalization Sometimes we observe people who will change what they say so it doesn’t contradict their behavior. When attitudes and behaviors don’t line up, individuals will experience cognitive dissonance. This incongruity is uncomfortable and individuals will seek to reduce the dissonance to find consistency. People are willing to live with some discomfort but the degree to which this is true depends upon the importance of the elements, how much influences the individual has in the situation, and the rewards available. (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, All rights reserved.

Influencing Variables The main influences on the attitude-behavior relationship are: Importance of the attitude Resulting effect on behavior Accessibility Existence of social pressures Personal and direct experience of the attitude Some variables do moderate the relationship between attitude and behavior. These factors include the importance of the attitude, the correspondence of the attitude to the behavior, the accessibility of the attitude, the existence of social pressures on behavior, and the personal and direct experience of the attitude. These variables will impact the ability to predict how a certain attitude will predict behavior. Behavior Predict Attitudes Moderating Variables (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, All rights reserved.

Predicting Behavior from Attitudes ? Important attitudes have a strong relationship to behavior. The closer the match between attitude and behavior, the stronger the relationship: Specific attitudes predict specific behavior General attitudes predict general behavior The more frequently expressed an attitude, the better predictor it is. High social pressures reduce the relationship and may cause dissonance. Attitudes based on personal experience are stronger predictors. Predicting behavior from attitudes is more of an art than a science. There are many relationship factors that influence the ability to predict behavior. Some factors include the importance of the attitudes. The more tightly related the attitude is to values we hold dear, the stronger the relationship will be to the behavior. Also, the stronger the match between attitude and behavior, the stronger the relationship. Attitudes that are frequently expressed, based on experience or where there is high social pressure, will also have a stronger relationship to the resulting behaviors. (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, All rights reserved.

What are the Major Job Attitudes? Job Satisfaction A positive feeling about the job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics Job Involvement How much does someone identify with the job & it’s impact on self-worth Psychological Empowerment How much influence do you have regarding the job, level of competence, job meaningfulness, and autonomy (power) The field of Organizational Behavior focuses on how attitudes will influence the workplace. There are several major job attitudes we will look at throughout the book. The first is job satisfaction, which is the positive feeling about the job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics. The second is job involvement. Job involvement looks at the degree of psychological identification with the job. An additional job attitude is psychological empowerment, the belief in the degree of influence over the job, competence in the job, and job meaningfulness. (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, All rights reserved.

Major Job Attitudes Organizational Commitment Identifying with a particular organization and its goals, while wishing to maintain membership in the organization. Three dimensions: Affective – emotional attachment to the organization Continuance Commitment – the economic value of staying there Normative – moral or ethical obligations Has some relation to performance, especially for new employees. Less important now than in the past – now there may be more of an occupational commitment, loyalty to profession rather than an employer. A very important job attitude is organizational commitment or identifying with a particular organization and its goals. There are three dimensions to this job attitude – affective, continuance commitment, and normative. Organizational commitment has been found to have some relationship to performance and in particular for new employees. Over the years, this may be losing importance as people are tending to be more loyal to their profession than to a given employer. (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, All rights reserved.

More Major Job Attitudes… Perceived Organizational Support (POS) Do employees believe the organization values & that their contribution is important & that management care about their well-being. Higher when rewards are fair, employees are involved in decision making, and supervisors are seen as supportive. Employee Involvement Engaged employees are passionate about their work and company. The level of involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the job is important. Perceived Organizational Support is the degree to which employees believe the organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being. Perception of fairness is a key factor in determining employees’ willingness to work hard for the organization. Employee Engagement goes beyond just job satisfaction and includes involvement and enthusiasm for the job. The more engaged the worker is, the more passionate they will be about their work. (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, All rights reserved.

Job Satisfaction Is one of the primary job attitudes measured. Broad term involving a number of job elements. How to measure? Single global rating (one question/one answer) - Best Summation score (many questions/one average) - OK Are people satisfied in their jobs? In the U. S., yes, but the level appears to be dropping. What about in China? Results vary by employee related elements of the job. Pay and promotion are the most problem elements. Job satisfaction is defined as a positive feeling about a job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics. This is an important job attitude because it incorporates so many of the other measures. There are multiple ways to measure job satisfaction, but the most accurate way is to ask the question if people are satisfied in their jobs and provide them with a scale to report their degree of satisfaction. People are generally satisfied in their jobs in the United States, but over the last several years, job satisfaction has been decreasing. When work is divided up into facets, results vary. Typically, workers are more satisfied with the work itself and coworkers, while remaining less satisfied with promotion and pay. (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, All rights reserved.

Causes of Job Satisfaction Pay influences job satisfaction only to a point. After a level of pay has been achieved there is no relationship between the amount of pay and job satisfaction. Money may bring happiness, but not necessarily job satisfaction. Personality can influence job satisfaction. Negative people are usually not satisfied with their jobs. Those with a more positive attitude are more satisfied with their jobs. Pay has an influence on job satisfaction but not as much as one might think. Typically, once a worker exceeds $40,000 per year, pay has limited impact on the level of satisfied workers. Personality tends to be a bigger influence in job satisfaction levels. People who have a negative outlook on life tend to be less satisfied with their jobs. In addition, workers who have a strong sense of self-evaluation are more satisfied. (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, All rights reserved.

How do Employees Respond to Dissatisfaction Active Exit Behavior directed toward leaving the organization Voice Active and constructive attempts to improve conditions Neglect Allowing conditions to worsen Loyalty Passively waiting for conditions to improve Destructive Constructive When employees are dissatisfied with their jobs, they have four basic responses they can utilize. These options are divided into active and passive choices. The active options are exit and voice. If employees select to exit, they choose to leave or move in a direction of leaving the organization. In voice, the employees will work toward active and constructive attempts to improve conditions. The passive options are neglect and loyalty. Employees may choose to neglect their work and just allow conditions to worsen or they may choose to remain loyal to the organization and just wait for change. Passive See E X H I B I T 3–4 (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, All rights reserved.

Outcomes of Job Satisfaction Job Performance Satisfied workers are more productive AND more productive workers are more satisfied! The causality may run both ways. Organizational Citizenship Behaviors Satisfaction influences OCB through perceptions of fairness. Customer Satisfaction Satisfied (frontline) employees increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Absenteeism Satisfied employees are less likely to miss work. When employees are satisfied with their work, there are many positive outcomes in the workplace. However, the inverse is true as well, if employees are dissatisfied in their work, these same job outcomes will be negatively impacted. (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, All rights reserved.

More Outcomes of Job Satisfaction Turnover Satisfied employees are less likely to quit. Influensing factors include: Economic environment and job security Organizational actions taken to retain high performers and to reduce bad performing employees Workplace Deviance Dissatisfied workers are more likely to join a union, abuse substances, steal, be late, and withdraw. Despite the evidence of the impact of job satisfaction on profit levels, most managers don’t care about or overestimate worker satisfaction. ! If a worker is satisfied in their job, they will remain in the job for a longer period of time than dissatisfied workers. However, as we have seen recently, workers are willing to stay in jobs where they are not satisfied because the job market is tight due to tough economic conditions. Dissatisfied workers are more likely to cause problems in the workplace by stealing, absenteeism, limiting productivity, and other negative work outcomes. (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, All rights reserved.

Global Implications Is Job Satisfaction a Western Concept? No, but most of the research so far has been in the U.S. Are Employees in Western Cultures More Satisfied With Their Jobs? Western workers appear to be more satisfied than those in Eastern cultures. Perhaps because Westerners emphasize positive emotions and personal happiness more than do those in Eastern cultures. Job satisfaction is not solely a U.S. concept, but much of the research has been done in the U.S. so more research is needed to effectively expand these theories to other cultures. Workers in Western cultures do tend to be more satisfied in their jobs, but this could be due to the fact that Western cultures put greater emphasis on emotions and individual happiness than other cultures do. (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, All rights reserved.

Summary and Managerial Implications Managers should watch employee attitudes: They give warnings of potential problems They influence behavior Managers should try to increase job satisfaction and generate positive job attitudes Reduces costs by lowering turnover, absenteeism, lateness, theft, and increase OCB Focus on the basic parts of the job: make work challenging and interesting Pay is not enough Attitudes are important components of the workplace and definitely influence behaviors. Managers should be aware of job attitudes and their influence on job satisfaction. The most effective way to do this is to focus on making work challenging and interesting, especially at higher-level jobs where pay is not enough to satisfy workers. (c) 2008 Prentice-Hall, All rights reserved.

Any questions or comments? Thank you!