Chapter#3

Attitudes & Job Satisfaction

 Attitudes

Attitudes Cognitive component

The opinion or belief segment
Evaluative of an attitude.
statements or
judgments Affective Component
concerning The emotional or feeling segment
objects, people, of an attitude.
or events.
Behavioral Component
An intention to behave in a certain
way toward someone or something.

© 2007 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights

reserved.
 Attitudes

Evaluative statements – either favorable or

unfavorable – concerning objects, people or
events

Attitudes reflect how one feels

about something
 Consistency of Attitudes

People seek consistency among their attitudes

and between their attitudes and their behavior

• When there is an inconsistency, the individual may alter

either the attitudes or behavior, or develop a
rationalization for the discrepancy.
 Self-Perception Theory

The view that behavior influences attitudes

• Argues that attitudes are used after the fact, to make

sense out of an action that has already occurred rather
than as devices that precede and guide action.

• Tend to infer attitude from behavior when you have had

few experiences regarding an issue.
 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.
 Attitudes

• A person’s general positive or negative feelings towards a person, place, thing,

event, or idea
• Tend to be VERY stable and hard to change
• Attitudes are important in training – e.g., does the trainee intend to use the
training or ignore it?
• Attitudes determine by behavior, but not directly.
• Attitudes combine with perecieved social pressure ( norms) to form intentions
• Intentions directly predict behavior
• Reactions to feedback or other employee attitudes can have implications for
HRD interventions such as training and career porograms.
 Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs)

• Abilities – general capacities related to the performance

of specific tasks

• Skills – combines abilities and capabilities (developed

through training programs etc)

• Knowledge – understanding of the factors or principles

related to a specific subject

• HRD programs mostly focus on changing skills and

knowledge
© 2007 Prentice Hall Inc. All 8rights
reserved.
 Types of Attitudes
Job Satisfaction
A collection of positive and/or negative feelings that
an individual holds toward his or her job.

Job Involvement
Identifying with the job, actively participating in it,
and considering performance important to self-worth.

Organizational Commitment
Identifying with a particular organization and its
goals, and wishing to maintain membership in the
organization (Affective, Normative, and Continuance
Commitment)
© 2007 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights
reserved.
Perceived Organizational Support (POS)
Degree to which employees feel the organization cares
about their well-being.

Employee Engagement
An individual’s involvement with, satisfaction with, and
enthusiasm for the organization.

© 2007 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights

reserved.
 An Application: Attitude Surveys

Attitude Surveys

Eliciting responses from employees through

questionnaires about how they feel about
their jobs, work groups, supervisors, and the
organization.

© 2007 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights

reserved.
 Job Satisfaction
• Measuring Job Satisfaction
1.Single global rating
2.Summation score

• How Satisfied Are People in Their Jobs?

• In general, people are satisfied with their jobs.
• Depends on facets of satisfaction—tend to be less
satisfied with pay and promotion opportunities.
© 2007 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights
reserved.
 Cause of Job Satisfaction

• Pay only influences Job Satisfaction to a point

• After about $40,000 a year, there is no relationship
between amount of pay and job satisfaction.

• Personality can influence job satisfaction

• Negative people are usually not satisfied with their
jobs

© 2007 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights

reserved.
 How Employees Can Express Dissatisfaction

Exit Voice
Behavior directed toward Active and constructive
leaving the organization. attempts to improve
conditions.

Loyalty Neglect
Passively waiting for Allowing conditions to
conditions to improve. worsen.

© 2007 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights

reserved.
The Effect of Job Satisfaction on Employee
Performance
• Satisfaction and Productivity
• Satisfied workers are more productive AND more
productive workers are more satisfied!
• Worker productivity is higher in organizations with
more satisfied workers.

• Satisfaction and Absenteeism

• Satisfied employees have fewer avoidable absences.

• Satisfaction and Turnover

• Satisfied employees are less likely to quit.
• Organizations take actions to retain high performers
and to weed out lower performers.
© 2007 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights
reserved.
 Job Satisfaction and OCB

• Satisfaction and OCBs

• Satisfied employees who feel fairly treated by and

are trusting of the organization are more willing to
engage in behaviors that go beyond the normal
expectations of their job.

© 2007 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights

reserved.
Job Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction

• Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction

• Satisfied workers provide better customer service

• Satisfied employees increase customer satisfaction

because:
• They are more friendly, upbeat, and responsive.
• They are less likely to turnover, which helps build long-term
customer relationships.
• They are experienced.

• Dissatisfied customers increase employee job

dissatisfaction.
© 2007 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights
reserved.
 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
• Continuance Commitment – economic value of staying
• Normative – moral or ethical obligations

• Has some relation to performance, especially for new

employees.

• Less important now than in past – now perhaps more of

occupational commitment, loyalty to profession rather than to a
given employer.
 Job Satisfaction

• One of the primary job attitudes measured.

• Broad term involving a complex individual summation of a
number of discrete 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?

• Results depend on how job satisfaction is measured.
• Pay and promotion are the most problematic elements.
 Cause of Job Satisfaction

• Pay influences job satisfaction only to a

point.
• 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.
 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 moderately less likely to miss work.
 More Outcomes of Job Satisfaciton

• Turnover
• Satisfied employees are less likely to quit.
• Many moderating variables in this relationship.
• Economic environment and tenure.
• Organizational actions taken to retain high performers
and to weed out lower performers.

• Workplace Deviance
• Dissatisfied workers are more likely to unionize, abuse
substances, steal, be delayed, and withdraw.

Despite the overwhelming evidence of the impact of job satisfaction

on the bottom line, most managers are either unconcerned about or
overestimate worker satisfaction.
Does Behavior Always Follow from Attitudes

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

• Cognitive Dissonance:
• Any incompatibility between two or more attitudes or between
behavior and attitudes
Individuals seek to reduce this uncomfortable gap,
or dissonance, to reach stability and consistency
Consistency is achieved by changing the attitudes,
modifying the behaviors, or through rationalization
Desire to reduce dissonance depends on:
• Importance of elements
• Degree of individual influence
• Rewards involved in dissonance
 Moderating Variable

• The most powerful moderators of the attitude-behavior

relationship are:
• Importance of the attitude
• Correspondence to behavior
• Accessibility
• Existence of social pressures
• Personal and direct experience of the attitude

Attitudes predict behavior, as influenced by moderating

variables.
 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.
 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,
and theft, and increasing OCB

• Focus on the intrinsic parts of the job: make work

challenging and interesting
• Pay is not enough