ATTITUDES AND JOB SATISFACTION

ATTITUDES

Attitudes are evaluative statements- eitherfavourable or unfavourable- about objects,people or

events.Jungs definition of attitude is a "readiness ofthe psyche to act or react in a certain
way"(Jung, [1921]Most attitudes are the result of either direct experience or observational
learning from the environment. A related job attitude is perceived organizational support, the
degree to which employees believe that the organization values their contribution and cares
about their well-being. Research show that people perceive their organization as supportive
when rewards are deemed fair, when employees have a voice in decisions, and when their
supervisors are seen as supportive.

Mainly there are 3 components of Attitudes-

The emotional or feeling Cognitive segment of an Affective attitude The opinion or belief
segment Behavioral of an attitude An intention to behave in a certain way toward someone
Attitude or something

Moderating Variables—
The most powerful moderators of the attitude-behavior relationship are: — Importance of the
attitude-reflects fundamental values, self interest or identification with groups or individuals
have strong relation with behaviour —

Correspondence to behavior- closer the attitude and behaviour, stronger the relationship

Accessibility —- the more we talk, the more we remember and more its effect on behaviour

Existence of social pressures—- in accord with the attitude facilitates expression and vice versa

Personal and direct experience of the attitude.

DOES BEHAVIOUR ALWAYS FOLLOW FROM ATTITUDE

Leon Festinger (1957) – No, the reverse is sometimes true!

Cognitive Dissonance:

The Theory of Cognitive DissonanceDesire to reduce dissonance

• Importance of elements creating dissonance

• Degree of individual influence over elements

• Rewards involved in dissonanceDesire to reduce dissonance

Any incompatibility between two or more attitudesor between behavior and attitudes.

Individuals seek to reduce this uncomfortable gap, or dissonance, to reach stability and
consistency.

The stronger the dissonance, the greater the urge to reduce it or actively avoid situations and
information that create awareness of dissonance existing.

WAYS TO REDUCE DISSONNANCE

Consistency is achieved:

— by changing the attitude causing dissonance

— modifying or changing the behaviors,

— or through rationalization

7. Desire to reduce dissonance depends on:

— Importance of elements creating dissonance

— Degree of individual influence over elements

— Rewards involved in dissonance

Predicting Behavior from Attitudes:

— Closer the match between attitude & behavior, stronger the relationship:

— Specific attitudes predict specific behavior

— General attitudes predict general behavior

— More frequently expressed an attitude, better predictor it is.

— High social pressures reduce the relationship and may cause dissonance.

— Attitudes based on personal experience are stronger predictors.

THE A-B RELATIONSHIP

Ø Recent research indicates that attitudes (A)significantly predict behaviors (B) whenmoderating
variables are taken into account.Moderating Variables• Importance of the attitude• Specificity of
the attitude• Accessibility of the attitude• Social pressures on the individual• Direct experience
with the attitudeModerating Variables• Importance of the attitude• Specificity of the attitude•
Accessibility of the attitude• Social pressures on the individual• Direct experience with the
attitude

ATTITUDES AND WORKPLACE DIVERSITY

Ø Training activities that can reshape employeeattitudes concerning diversity:– Participating in

diversity training that provides for self-evaluation and group discussions.– Volunteer work in
community and social serve centerswith individuals of diverse backgrounds.– Exploring print and
visual media that recount andportray diversity issues.

WHAT ARE THE MAJOR JOB ATTITUDES?

— Job Satisfaction

— A positive feeling about the job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics

— Job Involvement

— Degree of psychological identification with the job where perceived performance is

important to self-worth Psychological Empowerment

— Belief in the degree of influence over the job, competence, job meaningfulness, and
autonomy.

ANOTHER MAJOR JOB ATTITUDE

— Organizational Commitment

— Identifying with a particular organization and its goals, while wishing to maintain membership
in the organization.

— Three dimensions:

— Affective – emotional attachment to organization and belief in its values

— Continuance Commitment – economic value of staying

— Normative - moral or ethical obligations

— Has some relation to performance, especially for new employees.

MAJOR JOB ATTITUDES

— Perceived Organizational Support (POS)

— Degree to which employees believe the organization values their contribution and cares
about their well-being.

— Higher when rewards are fair, employees are involved in decision-making, and supervisors are
seen as supportive.

— High POS is related to higher OCBs and performance.

— Employee Engagement — The degree of involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm
for the job. — Engaged employees are passionate about their work and company.

JOB SATISFACTION

The term JOB SATISFACTION is a positive feeling about ones job resulting from an evaliation of its
characteristics."

It means a person with a high level of job satisfaction holds means a person with a high level of
job satisfaction holds positive feelings about the job while other person have dissatisfaction
holds negative feelings about his job.

A pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job; an affective reaction to
one’s job; and an attitude towards one’s job.

— involves a complex individual summation of a number of discrete job elements.

THE IMPORTANCE OF JOB SATISFACTION

Job satisfaction is significant because a person's attitude and beliefs may affect his or her
behavior. Attitudes and beliefs may cause a person to work harder or work less. Job satisfaction
also impacts a person's general well being for the simple reason that people spend a good part
of the day at work. Consequently, a person's dissatisfaction with work could lead to
dissatisfaction in other areas of life.

ØEmployee performance:

A link does exist between job satisfaction and job performance; however, it is not as strong as
one would like to believe. The weak link may be attributed to factors such as job structure or
economic conditions. For example, some jobs are designed so that a minimum level of
performance is required providing no scope for greater satisfaction. moreover, in times of high
unemployment, dissatisfied employees will perform well, choosing unsatisfying work over
unemployment.

ØEmployee absenteeism:

It is likely that a satisfied worker may miss work due to illness or personal matters, while an
unsatisfied worker may not miss work because he or she does not have any sick time and cannot
afford the loss of income. When people are satisfied with their job they are more likely to attend
work even if they have a cold; however, if they are not satisfied with their job, they would be
more likely to call in sick even when they are well enough to work.

HOW TO MEASURE JOB SATISFACTION?

— Single global rating (one question/one answer) - Best

— Summation of job facets score (many questions/one average) – standardized scale

MODELS OF JOB SATISFACTION

— Affect Theory- Edwin A. Locke’s (1976)- satisfaction is determined by a discrepancy between

what one wants in a job and what one has in a job.

- how much one values a given facet of work (e.g. the degree of autonomy in a position)
moderates how satisfied/dissatisfied one becomes when expectations are/aren’t met

— Dispositional Model- Job Satisfaction is a relatively stable disposition of an individual -some

individuals are likely to be consistently either dissatisfied or satisfied with their jobs

CAUSES OF JOB SATISFACTION

— Pay influences job satisfaction only to a point:

— After about $40,000 a year (in the U. S.), there is no relationship between 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 positive core self-evaluation are more satisfied with their jobs.

Employee Responses to Dissatisfaction Active Exit Voice

• Behavior

• Active and directed toward constructive leaving the attempts to organization improve
conditions Destructive Constructive Neglect Loyalty

• Allowing

• Passively conditions to waiting for worsen conditions to improve Passive

OUTCOMES OF JOB SATISFACTION

—Job Satisfaction and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors(OCB)

Ø Satisfaction and Organizational CitizenshipBehavior (OCB)– Satisfied employees who feel fairly
treated by and aretrusting of the organization are more willing to engagein behaviors that go
beyond the normal expectations oftheir job.

— Job Performance

— Satisfied workers are more productive AND more productive workers are more satisfied!

— Satisfaction influences OCB through perceptions of fairness.

—Job Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction:

Ø Satisfied employees increase customersatisfaction because:– They are more friendly, upbeat,
and responsive.– They are less likely to turnover which helps build long-term customer
relationships.– They are experienced.

Ø Dissatisfied customers increase employee jobdissatisfaction.

— Satisfied frontline employees increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

— Absenteeism

— Satisfied employees are moderately less likely to miss work.

MORE OUTCOMES OF JOB SATISFACTION

— Turnover

— Satisfied employees are less likely to quit.

— Many moderating variables in this relationship.

— Economic environment and tenure

— Workplace Deviance

— Dissatisfied workers are more likely to unionize, abuse substances, steal, and withdraw.

THE EFFECT OF JOB SATISFACTION ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE

Ø Satisfaction and Productivity– Satisfied workers aren’t necessarily more productive.

– Worker productivity is higher in organizations withmore satisfied workers

.Ø Satisfaction and Absenteeism

– Satisfied employees have fewer avoidable absences.

Ø Satisfaction and Turnover

– Satisfied employees are less likely to quit

 .– Organizations take actions to retain high performersand to weed out lower
performers.

VARIABLES OF JOB SATISFACTION /DISSATISFACTION

People tend to evaluate their work experiences based on feelings of satisfaction or

dissatisfaction regarding their job, as well as the organization in which they work . There are
many probable influences that affect how favorably an individual appraises his or her job.
Through years of extensive research, have identified numerous variables that seem to contribute
to either job satisfaction or organizational commitment. To explain the development of job
satisfaction, researchers have taken three common approaches:

Øjob characteristics:

Job characteristics approach research has revealed that the nature of an individual’s job or the
characteristics of the organization predominantly determines job satisfaction . A job
characteristic is an aspect of a job that generates ideal conditions for high levels of motivation,
satisfaction, and performance. Furthermore, five core job characteristics that all jobs should
contain: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. They also defined
four personal and work outcomes: internal work motivation, growth satisfaction, general
satisfaction, and work effectiveness which have been added to the more popular dimensions of
job satisfaction assessment: the work itself, pay, promotional opportunities, supervision, and co-
worker relations.

A common premise in research of the effects of job circumstances on job satisfaction is that
individuals assess job satisfaction by comparing the current receivables from the job with what
they believe they should receive (Jex, 2002). For example, if an employee receiving an annual
salary of $45,000 believes that he or she should be receiving a salary of $43,000, then he or she
will experience satisfaction; however, if the employee believes that he or she should be receiving
$53,000, then he or she will feel dissatisfied. This comparison would apply to each job facet
including: skill level, seniority, promotional opportunities, supervision, etc.

Consequently, this leads to an individual measure of satisfaction or dissatisfaction when

expectations are met or not. For example, the job satisfaction of an employee who places
extreme importance on pay would be positively impacted if he or she receives a salary within
expectation. Conversely, his or her level of pay would minimally impact the job satisfaction of an
employee who places little importance on pay.

Øsocial information processing (organizational characteristics)

Based mainly on Social Comparison Theory, explains that during social information processing,
employees look to co-workers to make sense of and develop attitudes about their work
environment. In other words, if employees find their co-workers positive and satisfied then they
will most likely be satisfied; however, if their co-workers are negative and dissatisfied then the
employee will most likely become dissatisfied. New hires may become “tainted” during the
socialization process if placed around employees who are dissatisfied . Although laboratory
studies have found that social information has a prevailing impact on job satisfaction and
characteristic perceptions, organizational tests have been less supportive.

Ødispositional (worker characteristics)

Internal disposition is the crux of the latest method of explaining job satisfaction which hints
some people being inclined to be satisfied or dissatisfied with their work irrespective of the
nature of the job or the organizational environment . More simply put, some people are
genetically positive in disposition (the glass half full), whereas others are innately negative in
disposition (the glass half empty). For instance, a study of twins who were reared apart (same
genetic characteristics but different experiences) found that 30 percent of inconsistency in
satisfaction was accredited to genetic factors . Although individuals change jobs and employers,
individual disposition has been shown to be consistent by the use of survey results on job
satisfaction . Additionally, adolescent evaluations of affective disposition were correlated with
adult job satisfaction as many as forty years later.

Several years of research have been conducted on the dispositional source of job satisfaction,
and have presented strong evidence that job satisfaction, to some extent, is based on disposition
. Dispositional affect is the predisposition to experience related emotional moods over time .
Accordingly, this approach assumes that an employee’s attitude about his or her job originates
from an internal (mental) state. Positive affect is a predisposition favorable to positive emotional
experience, whereas negative affect is a predisposition to experience a wide array of negative
emotions . Positive affective people feel enthusiastic, active, alert and optimistic while negative
affective people feel anger, contempt, disgust, guilt, fear and nervousness .

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, tardiness, theft, and increasing OCB

— Focus on the intrinsic parts of the job:

—make work challenging and interesting

— Pay is not enough

REFERANCES:

Jurgensen, C. E. (1978). Job preferences (What makes a job good or bad?). Journal of Applied

Psychology, 63, 267–276.

Kohler, S. S., & Mathieu, J. E. (1993). An examination of the relationship between affective
reactions,

work perceptions, individual resource characteristics, and multiple absence criteria.

Journal of Organizational Behavior, 14,