139. Organizational Psychology: A Scientist-Practitioner Approach Jex, S. M
Organizational Psychology: A Scientist-Practitioner Approach Jex, S. M., & Britt, T. W. (2014)
Prepared by:
Christopher J. L. Cunningham, PhD
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Kelsey-Jo Ritter
Bowling Green State University
Kristen S. Jennings
Clemson University

140. Chapter 8: Beliefs and Attitudes About Work and the Organization
Establishes a link between personal evaluation of their work organization and their feelings of satisfaction and commitment toward that organization. Also discusses additional work beliefs of perceived organizational support, organizational identification, and job embeddedness

141. Job Satisfaction
An overall evaluation of a job, including components that are:
Affective
Behavioral
Cognitive

142. Measurement of Job Satisfaction
Critical issue given the widespread interest in this topic
As with all measures, validity is important
With job satisfaction measures, construct validity is especially important
Convergent versus discriminant forms
Nomological networks

143. Common Measures Faces Scale (Figure 8.2)
Job Descriptive Index (Table 8.1 and Comment 8.2)
Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (Table 8.2)
Michigan Organizational Assessment Questionnaire
Job Satisfaction Survey (Table 8.3)

144. Predictors of Job Satisfaction
Three main approaches:
Job characteristics
Social information processing
Personal dispositions
Some combination of these factors is likely the root cause

145. Job Satisfaction Across Cultures
New area of investigation, influenced by differences in cultural values (Hofstede)
Individualism/collectivism
Masculinity
Power distance
Uncertainty avoidance
Across cultures there may be differences in employee wants, but also social information processing and actual job conditions

146. Outcomes of Job Satisfaction
Attitudinal variables (commitment, job involvement, positive mood, frustration)
Strongest correlation with satisfaction when measured as an attitude
Unclear why and how these variables are associated
Absenteeism
Indicator of employee withdrawal
Theory of Planned Behavior may explain the typically weak relationship with satisfaction
Low base rate information limits this research
More recent longitudinal research is more supportive

147. Outcomes of Job Satisfaction (Cont.)
Employee turnover (see Mobley’s process model, Figure 8.3)
Important issue for organizations (cost and image)
Importance of job and organizational conditions
Job performance
Happy worker effect and its moderators (rewards, affective-cognitive consistency of job satisfaction, job complexity)
Unclear causal relationship
Relationship with contextual performance

148. Organizational Commitment
Represents feelings and behavioral tendencies of employees toward their organization
Meyer and Allen’s (1991) three-component model presented (Figure 8.4):
Affective
Continuance (sacrifices involved in leaving the job or lack of perceived alternatives)
Normative

149. Measurement of Organizational Commitment
Prominence of self-report scales
Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ)
Allen and Meyer, 1990; Becker, 1992
Recent trend in commitment profiles
Need to consider multiple dimensions and foci (targets) of commitment

150. Development and Predictors of Organizational Commitment
Challenging area for research given the complexity of the commitment construct
Tendency is to address Meyer and Allen’s three dimensions separately
Relationships with rewards, work culture, work characteristics, employee needs, and psychological contracts
Recent attention is on commitment across different cultures

151. Consequences of Organizational Commitment
Attitudinal
Affective commitment is most strongly associated with other attitudes
Less research on continuance and normative
Absenteeism
Little consistent evidence for a strong relationship between any dimension of organizational commitment and absenteeism (perhaps affective commitment plays a role)

152. Consequences of Organizational Commitment (Cont.)
Turnover
All forms of commitment are negatively associated with turnover
Different components of commitment may predict turnover at different time points
Is this always good for the organization?

153. Consequences of Organizational Commitment (Cont.)
Job performance
Affective commitment linked to performance, perhaps in terms of improved employee effort
Stronger relationships with OCB instead of task performance are common
Influence of unit-level commitment as a predictor of job performance

154. Predicting Performance With Commitment and Satisfaction
May be value in considering satisfaction and commitment together as a sort of “overall job attitude” variable
Initial research shows a strong relationship between this general attitude and general indicators of performance

155. Practical Applications
To improve employee commitment:
Realistic information to applicants
Proper socialization (i.e., investiture)
Internal promotion
Compensation and benefits

156. Perceived Organizational Support
Employees’ beliefs concerning the extent to which the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being
Influenced by stress, justice perceptions, autonomy, rewards, and personality
Relationships with outcomes such as health, well-being, and performance

157. Organizational Identification
The degree of oneness an employee feels toward an organization
Distinguished from commitment
Primary motives for identification
To reduce social uncertainty
To boost self-esteem
Related to increased commitment, job satisfaction, job involvement, and OCB

158. Job Embeddedness
Factors that link employees to their current job as well as to the community in which they live
Developed to predict why employees stay in current job
Overall embeddedness and specific organization (on-the-job) and community (off-the-job) measures
Predictive of turnover

159. Organizational Justice
People’s perceptions of fairness in organizations
Three primary forms
Distributive
Procedural
Interactional
Related to job attitudes, task performance, contextual performance, and CWB