1. EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES & THEIR EFFECTS
CHAPTER 9
EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES
&
THEIR EFFECTS

2. CHAPTER OBJECTIVES The Nature of Attitudes and Job Satisfaction
The Relationship between Performance and Satisfaction
Job Involvement and Organizational Commitment
Some Positive and Negative Effects of Employee Attitudes
Organizational Citizenship Behaviors
Benefits of Studying Employee Attitudes
Design and Use of Job Satisfaction Surveys

3. THE NATURE OF EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES
Attitudes are the feelings and benefits that largely determine how employees will perceive their environment.
People differ in their personal dispositions as they enter organizations.
Some people have positive affectivity ;
optimistic, upbeat, cheerful and courteous.
Some have negative affectivity ;
pessimistic, downbeat, irritable, abrasive.
Key employee attitudes are job satisfaction, job involvement, organizational commitment and positive work mood.

4. Job Satisfaction
Elements Job Satisfaction is a set of favorable or unfavorable feelings and emotions with which employees view their work. It is an affective attitude.
Attitudes consist of feelings, thoughts and intensions to act.
An employee may say ;
“I enjoy having a variety of tasks to do” feelings
“My work is quite complex” thoughts
“I plan to quit this job in three months” intensions

5. Job Satisfaction
Individual Focus
Job Satisfaction typically refers to the attitudes of a single employee.
When assessments of individual satisfaction are averaged across all members of a work unit, the general term used to describe overall group satisfaction is morale.
Group morale is especially important to monitor since individuals often take their social cues from their work associates and adapt their own attitudes to conform to those of the group.

6. Job Satisfaction Overall or Multidimensional?
If job satisfaction is viewed only as an overall attitude, managers may miss seeing some key hidden exceptions as they assess an employee’s overall satisfaction.
Although an employee’s general job satisfaction may be high, he may be dissatisfied with his vacation schedule.
Job satisfaction studies focus on various parts that are believed to be important. Including ;
Pay
One’s supervisor
The nature of tasks performed
An employee’s coworkers or team
Immediate working conditions
Therefore job satisfaction is best viewed as being multidimensional.

7. Job Satisfaction
Stability of Job Satisfaction
Attitudes are acquired over a long period of time.
Job satisfaction or dissatisfaction emerges as an employee gains more and more information about the workplace.
Job satisfaction is dynamic, it can decline more quickly than it develops.
Employee needs may fluctuate suddenly.
Therefore managers need to pay attention to employee attitudes at all times.

8. Job Satisfaction Environmental Impact
Job satisfaction is part of life satisfaction. The nature of a worker’s environment off the job indirectly influences his or her feelings on the job. Since a job is an important part of life for many workers, job satisfaction influences general life satisfaction. The result is that there is a spillover effect that occurs in both directions between job and life satisfaction.
Consequently, managers need to monitor employee’s attitudes toward other parts of life.

9. Job Satisfaction Job Family Some related elements of life satisfaction
Politics
Leisure
Religion

10. Job Satisfaction Level of Job Satisfaction
Level of job satisfaction across groups is not constant, but it is related to a number of variables. The key variables revolve around age, occupational level and organizational size.
As workers grow older, they initially tend to be slightly more satisfied with their jobs. They lower their expectations to more realistic levels and adjust themselves better to their work situations. Later, their satisfaction may suffer as promotions are less frequently and they face the realities of retirement.
People with higher-level occupations tend to be more satisfied with their jobs since they are usually better paid, have better working conditions and hold jobs that make fuller use of their abilities.
Levels of job satisfaction are higher in smaller organizational units. Personal closeness, friendship, small-group teamwork are important aspects.

11. Job Involvement
Job Involvement is the degree to which employees immerse themselves in their jobs, invest time and energy in them, and view work as a central part of their overall lives.
Job-involved employees are likely to believe in the work ethic, enjoy participating in decision making and work long hours. They also will attempt to be high performers.

12. Organizational Commitment
Organizational commitment or employee loyalty, is the degree to which an employee identifies with the organization and wants to continue actively participating in it.
It is a measure of the employee’s willingness to remain with a firm in the future. It often reflects the employee’s belief in the mission and goals of the firm, willingness to expend effort in their accomplishment.
Commitment is usually stronger among long term employees.
Committed employees have good attendance records, demonstrate a willing adherence to company policies and have lower turnover rates.

13. Work Moods
Employees have feelings about their jobs that are highly dynamic ; they can change within a day, hour or minute. These variable attitudes toward their jobs are called work moods.
Ranging from negative to positive and from weak to strong and intense.
“I hate this task” “I’m excited by this new challenge”
When workers experience strongly positive work moods, it is often visible in terms of their energy, activity and enthusiasm.
Result in closer attention to customer service, lower absenteeism, greater creativity and interpersonal cooperation.
Directly affected by managerial actions such as sharing praise, creating an atmosphere filled with occasional fun, humor and levity, providing a workspace filled with pleasant surroundings and reasonable amount of social interactions.

14. EFFECTS OF EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES
Dissatisfied employees may engage in psychological withdrawal, physical withdrawal or even overt acts of aggression and retaliation for presumed wrongs.
Psychological withdrawal Daydreaming during the job
Physical withdrawal Unauthorized absences, early departures...
Satisfied employees may provide acts of customer service beyond the call of duty, have sparkling work records and actively pursue excellence in all areas of their jobs.
Satisfaction and dissatisfaction is related to the areas of performance, turnover, absences and tardiness, theft, violence and other behaviors which organizations are vitally concerned about controlling.

15. Employee Performance
High performance contributes to high job satisfaction. Level of satisfaction leads to either greater or lesser commitment which then affects effort and eventually affects performance again. The result is a continuously operating performance-satisfaction-effort loop.
PERFORMANCE REWARDS Perception of Satisfaction or
Economic equity in rewards Dissatisfaction
Sociological FAIR
Psychological UNFAIR
Greater or Lesser Effort Greater or Lesser Commitment
TURNOVER (Absenteeism, Tardiness, Theft, Violence, Poor organizational citizenship)

16. Turnover
Higher job satisfaction is associated with lower employee turnover. The more-satisfied employees are less likely to go through a progressive process in which they think about quitting or announce their intention to quit.
Negative consequences of employee turnover (especially if the turnover rate is high).
It is hard to replace departed employee.
Direct and indirect replacement costs are expensive.
Employees may be demoralized from the loss of valued coworkers.
Both work and social patterns may be disrupted until replacements are found.

17. Turnover

18. Absences and Tardiness
Some absences are caused by legitimate medical reasons, therefore a satisfied employee may have a valid absence. Dissatisfied employees do not necessarily plan to be absent, but they seem to find it easier to respond to the opportunities to do so, these voluntary absences often occur on Mondays and Fridays.
Another way in which employees may exhibit their dissatisfaction with job conditions is through tardiness. A tardy employee is one who comes to work but arrives beyond the designated starting time. It is short-period absenteeism ranging from a few minutes to several hours.
It is another way in which employees physically withdraw from active involvement in the organization.
Disadvantages
Impede the timely completion of work.
Disrupt productive relationships with coworkers.

19. Theft Unauthorized removal of company resources.
Stealing products.
Using company services without authorization.
Forging checks.
Causes of employee theft
They feel exploited.
Overworked
Frustrated by the impersonal treatment.
Tighter organizational controls or incentive systems do not solve theft problems, since they are directed at the symptoms and not at the underlying causes such as severe dissatisfaction.

20. Violence
One of the most extreme consequences of employee dissatisfaction is exhibited through violence, or various forms of verbal or physical aggression at work.
Including customers and strangers millions of people are victims of workplace violence.
Managers must increasingly be on the lookout for signs that employee dissatisfaction might turn into verbal or physical harm at work and they must make the appropriate preventive actions.

21. STUDYING JOB SATOSFACTION
Management needs information on employee job satisfaction in order to make sound decisions, both in preventing and solving employee problems.
A typical method used is a job satisfaction survey. It is a procedure by which employees report their feelings toward their jobs and work environment. Individual responses are then combined and analyzed.
Benefits of Job Satisfaction Studies
Monitoring Attitudes
A survey tells how employees feel about their jobs, what part of their jobs these feelings are focused on, which departments are particularly affected, and whose feelings are involved.
Additional Benefits
Safety valve, emotional release, training needs can be identified, help managers plan and monitor new programs.

22. Ideal Survey Conditions
Top managment actively supports the survey.
Employees are fully involved in planning the survey.
A clear objective exists for conducting the survey.
The study is designed and administered in a manner consistent with standards for sound research.
Managment is capable of taking, and willing to take, follow-up action.
Both the results and action plans are communicated to employees.

23. Use of Existing Satisfaction Information
Managers might examine existing data for learning about current employee feelings.
Behavioral indicators of job satisfaction.

24. SURVEY DESIGN AND FOLLOW-UP
Types of Survey Questions
Closed-end questions
Present a choice of answers in such a way that employees simply select and mark the answers that best represent their own feelings.
Open-end questions
Present a variety of topics but let employees answer in their own words.
directed, focus on specific parts of job.
undirected, general comments about the job.
The typical survey form uses both approaches, but open-end questions may be more impressing for managers.
Critical Issues
Reliability, the capacity of a survey instrument to produce consistent results.
Validity, collected data must be measured.

25. SURVEY DESIGN AND FOLLOW-UP
Using Survey Information
Analysis and use of the resulting data require skilled management judgment. It is the final important step in a job satisfaction survey. When the appropriate action is taken, results can be excellent.
Communicating the Result, is to communicate job satisfaction survey to managers so that they can understand it and prepare to use it. This document is known as a survey report.
Comparative Data, all the questions and job satisfaction categories can be compared with one another in a search for meaningful relationships.
Employee Comments, because they are more personal they often make greater impression on management than scores, statistics and charts do. It is a mistake to correct only the big problems shown in a survey while ignoring many minor conditions that will add up to big problems.

26. SURVEY DESIGN AND FOLLOW-UP
Feedback to Employee, when corrective action is taken as the result of a survey, details of what was learned and what was done should be shared with employees as soon as possible.
By this way, people who participated will feel that management listened to them and took action on the basis of their ideas. Also feel like their ideas are really wanted.
If a job satisfaction survey is made, management should be prepared to take action on the result. Since management asked employees for their ideas, employees are justified in believing that action will be taken on at least some of them.

27. CHANGING EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES
If management desires to change employee attitudes in a more favorable direction, there are many routes to pursue and the potential gains can make it worthwhile to try.
Guidelines for changing employee attitudes:
Make the reward system closely tied to individual or team performance.
Set challenging goals with employees so that those with achievement drives can experience the opportunity for satisfaction through their accomplishment.
Define clear role expectations so that employees struggling with ambiguity can overcome that concern.
Refrain from attacking the employee’s attitude. Use active listening skills instead, because an undefended attitude is more receptive to change.
Provide frequent feedback to satisfy the need for information about performance levels.
Exhibit a caring, considerate orientation by showing concern for employee feelings.
Provide opportunities for employees to participate in decision making.
Show appreciation for appropriate effort and citizenship behaviors.