Introduction to Organisational Behaviour and Application to Management The Individual –Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

What are “attitudes”? Attitudes are how we feel about something. These can be positive or negative. Consider these issues and what your attitudes towards them are: Football Same-sex marriage Having more than one child Alcohol being banned

Exploring attitudes Attitudes can be described as being made up of 3 components: Components Description Example Cognitive Description/evaluation My boss made me work late. Affective Emotion/feeling I dislike my boss. Behavioural Action I will not work hard.

Examples Split these examples into the 3 components: Suzy is unhappy that she cannot fit into her trousers and stops eating. Barry does not understand Economics and does not attend class. Jamie is worried about his mother and visits her.

Do attitudes make a difference? Your teacher has told you that you need to do an extra 30 minutes tutorial session before the exam. Using the table, show what a positive attitude would be and what a negative attitude would be.

Attitudes and behaviours If you behave in a certain way will your attitude change? Behaviour  Attitude = Yes or no? Q. If you have to clean the campus toilets every day for a year, would you start to enjoy cleaning toilets? Q. If everyone in your group went to a KTV bar every Saturday, would you start to enjoy the KTV bar?

Attitudes and behaviours Leon Festiger, 1960s argues that if people behave in a certain way, their attitude will change. For example, you might think Gucci is overpriced but if someone gave you a Gucci watch, would you start to be more positive about Gucci?

Cognitive Dissonance Is also know as “self-justification”. It is what happens when there is conflict within a person because they have two strong values or beliefs. People do not like internal conflict

Example Brian does not think nuclear energy is good for the environment. The only job Brian can get is in a nuclear factory. This will create a conflict between his attitude to nuclear energy and his practical circumstances.

The Fox and the Grapes Aesop’s Fables are tales with moral or social messages. One hot summer's day a Fox was strolling through an orchard till he came to a bunch of Grapes just ripening on a vine which had been trained over a lofty branch. "Just the thing to quench my thirst," quoth he. Drawing back a few paces, he took a run and a jump, and just missed the bunch. Turning round again with a One, Two, Three, he jumped up, but with no greater success. Again and again he tried after the tempting morsel, but at last had to give it up, and walked away with his nose in the air, saying: "I am sure they are sour." Moral of Aesops Fable: It is easy to despise what you cannot get

Cognitive dissonance behaviour What changes someone’s behaviours when they experience cognitive dissonance? Importance of the conflicting elements Influence/control you feel you have over the elements Rewards associated with the conflict Social pressure These are called moderating variables.

Example Brian does not think nuclear energy is good for the environment. The only job Brian can get is in a nuclear factory. This will create a conflict. How might Brian react if asked why he is working for a nuclear company when he thinks nuclear energy is bad for the environment?

Reflection When have you experienced or seen cognitive dissonance? What happened? What did you do? Why did you do it? What would you do if it happened again?

How is this relevant to work? If Attitude and Behaviour are closely matched, then it is more likely that you can predict how someone will behave. If you know someone complains a lot about having to clean the toilets, you know that they may try to avoid doing their job of cleaning the toilet. (Unless there is the right motivational variable!)

Job Attitudes Job Satisfaction A positive feeling about the job Job Involvement Performance at work is linked to personal self-worth Psychological Empowerment Feeling of control over the job

Job satisfaction When you have a positive attitude about a job For example, you may really enjoy feeding birds.

Job Involvement When the job is important to your confidence and self-worth, you may experience job involvement. For example, you may not like exams, but really enjoy the good marks when you do them.

Psychological empowerment When you feel in control and involved in your job For example, if you and your friends all have to cook for a banquet and you are able to choose what you can cook, you might feel happier about cooking.

Commitment to the organisation If you want your employees to be happy and stay with your company, then there are 3 other dimensions to be considered. Affective – emotional attachment to organisation Continuance Commitment – economic value of staying Normative – moral or ethical obligations These are dimensions that can be affected by the organisational systems, the group and the individual.

Does culture make a difference? Read the section “International OB: Chinese employees and Organizational Commitment”. Does this sound familiar to you? Can you give examples of when you have experienced this?

Measuring job satisfaction How would you measure how happy your fellow students were with life? Do you ask one question? or Do you ask questions about different aspects of their lives? Which is better to use?

Satisfaction External factors such as: Pay Co-workers The work undertaken Internal factors such as: Confidence Self-worth Self-belief

Job satisfaction and performance If someone is happy at work are they more likely to be productive? Read the section “Myth or Science: Happy Workers are Productive Workers” What do you think?

Job dissatisfaction If someone is unhappy in their job, there are different ways they might react. 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

Job satisfaction outcomes Performance (eg, achieving targets) Organisational citizenship behaviour (eg, talking positively about company to others, helping others because they were helped) Customer satisfaction (eg, happy customers) Absenteeism (eg, how many days off work) Turnover Workplace Deviance (eg, being late, stealing)

Balance As an individual, as a manager, as a designer of organisation systems….

Introduction to Organisational Behaviour and Application to Management The Individual – Emotions and moods

Affects, emotions, moods There is no way to avoid people’s emotions and moods! People are not machines! What do we mean by affects, emotions, moods? Look at diagram 4.1

Affect = range of feelings Mood (longer and general) Emotion (short and specific)

Six basic emotions While not universally accepted, there appear to be six basic emotions: Anger Fear Sadness Happiness Disgust Surprise All other emotions are subsumed under these six

Moods The mood you are in, affects how you perceive actions

Examples The same action can be experienced differently depending on mood. If Tim asked for your help but you were in one of these moods, how might you feel and what might you say? Stressed Calm Bored

Changing moods What makes you feel in a particular mood? What makes you feel in a better mood? What makes you feel better when you angry?

Factors that affect mood Personality Day of the week Time of the day Weather Stress Social activities Sleep Exercise Age Gender???

Controlling emotions and moods Can you control emotions and moods? Can you predict emotions and moods? As a manager, you need to consider not only your employees’ emotions but also your own. Surface acting (eg, sales and smiling) Deep acting (eg, nurse and sympathy)

Affective Events Theory We can use Affective Events Theory to show the link between moods/emotions and job satisfaction and performance. The same model can be applied to studying!

Affective Events Theory

Ignoring emotions and moods What might happen if you try to ignore your own emotions and moods? What might happen if you manage people and ignore their emotions and moods?

What is Emotional Intelligence Emotional Intelligence (EI) is recent area of research. EI is a person’s ability to: Be self-aware Detect emotions in others Manage emotional cues and information There are many quizzes on the internet which try to measure your EI. Such as this one: http://www.queendom.com/queendom_tests/transfer

Application of EI Selection (eg, recruitment criteria) Decision making (eg, emotion v rationality) Creativity (eg, mood v creative thinking) Motivation (eg, positive = better motivation) Leadership (eg, communication) Negotiation (eg, positive = better negotiator) Customer service (eg, positive = better service)

Different cultures and countries Do people from different countries have different emotions? Do people from different countries put more importance on some emotions? How does expression of emotion change across the globe?

China and the UK Do we express any of these emotions differently? Happy Angry Sad Irritated Impatient What about other countries?

Lying or truth game! Can you tell if someone is lying? Each person will get a slip of paper with T or L on it. L = Lie, T = tell the truth You must then think of something to say to the group. They must try and guess if you are lying or telling the truth. If you are lying, pick something believable!

OB Emotions are important to OB – why? How do they affect the three aspects of our OB model? Individual Group Organisational systems