Attitude and Job Satisfaction

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It is not the colour of the balloon, it is what is inside that makes it go up

The same thing applies to our lives. It is what is inside that counts.

The things that go up is our attitude

Attitude and Job Satisfaction

• We have to answer six questions about attitude to understand them

1. What are the main components of attitudes?2. How consistent are attitudes?3. Does behaviour always follow from attitudes?4. What are the major job attitudes?5. How are employee attitudes measured?6. What is the importance of attitudes to workplace diversity?7. Job satisfaction –Measuring job satisfaction8. How satisfied are people in their jobs9. What causes job satisfaction10. The impact of Dissatisfied and satisfied employee on the

workplace

Attitude and Job SatisfactionWhat is Attitude ?Attitudes represent beliefs feelings and action tendencies towards objects –ideas or peopleThis simple meaning has important implication for managers•Attitudes are learned

•Attitudes refer to feelings and beliefs of an individual or groups of people

•The term attitude is in general terms the positive or negative orientation of a person

Attitude and Job Satisfaction

•The term attitude is being used quite frequently nowadays in describing people’s behaviour

•There are two main senses in which it is used

•One in general terms meaning the positive or negative orientation of a person

Attitude and Job Satisfaction

For example when it is said that Mala has a positive attitude or that Geeta has a negative attitude

- What is probably meant is that Mala’s general attitude orientation towards most things is positive

-Whereas Geeta’s general orientation is negative-However this is not a correct usage of the term attitude

• Attitude always has a referent –an object towards which positive or negative orientation is implied

Attitude and Job Satisfaction

• The term attitude is frequently used in describing people and explaining their behaviour. More precisely, an attitude can be defined as a persistent tendency to feel and behave in a particular way towards some object. For example, George does not like working in the night shift. He has negative attitude towards his work assignment.

Attitude and Job SatisfactionSources of Attitudes• Attitudes are basically learned • People are not born with specific attitudes rather they acquire

them through a process of learning –especially from the following:

1.Experience:Previous work experience can account for the individual differences in attitudes such as loyalty/commitment and performance

2. Association: People are highly influenced by the major groups or associations to which they belong

- Our geographic region, religion, educational background, race ,age and income /class –all strongly influence our attitudes

Attitude and Job Satisfaction3. Family : Family exerts influence on the initial core of attitudes

held by an individual-individuals develop certain attitudes from their family members-

parents,brothers,sisters etc-The family characteristics influence the individual’s attitude

patterns to which he is initially exposed-Family is primary to the group which an individual belongs to

4.Peer group:As people approach their adulthood they increasingly rely on their peer groups for approval/attitude

-How others judge an individual largely determines his self image and approval-seeking behaviour

-We often seek out others who share attitudes similar to our own,or else we change our attitudes to conform to the attitudes of those in the group whose approval is important

Attitude and Job Satisfaction5.Society;Social class and religious affiliation also play a vital role in

forming attitudes of an individual -The culture,language,and structure of society all provide an

individual with the boundaries of his initial attitudes

6.Personality factors: Personality differences between individuals play a major role in the formation of attitudes.

-This particular area has been the subject matter of great interest and it carries a great deal of weight in organisational behaviour

Attitude and Job Satisfaction• To understand attitudes we need to consider their fundamental

properties• We will answer six question about attitudes that will help us

understand them better• 1.What are the main components of attitudes?• 2.How consistent are attitudes?• 3.Does behavior always follow from attitudes?• 4.What are the major job attitudes?• 5.How are employee attitudes measured?• 6.What is the importance of attitudes to workplace diversity?

Attitudes

AttitudesEvaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people, or events.

Affective Component-FeelingThe emotional or feeling segment of an attitude.(I dislike my supervisor)

Cognitive component-evaluationThe opinion or belief segment of an attitude.(My supervisor gave promotion to a co worker who deserves it less than me)My supervisor is unfair

Behavioral Component-actionAn intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something.(I am looking for other job)

Work Related Components of Attitude(ABC Model)

Managerial styleTechnology

NoisePeers

Reward systemCareer opportunity

Beliefs and values

Feelings and emotions

Intended behaviour

STIMULIWork related factors

Cognition

Affect

Behaviour

My supervisor is unfair

Having a fair supervisor is important to me

I don’t like my supervisor

I am going to request a transfer

Attitude and Job Satisfaction• In organizations attitudes are important because of their

behavioral component

• If workers believe for example-that supervisors –auditors-bosses are all in conspiracy to make employees work harder for same or less money

• We have to understand how these attitudes were formed-their relationship to actual job behavior-and how they might be changed

Attitude and Job SatisfactionHow consistent are attitudes?• Did you ever notice how people change what they say so it

doesn’t contradict what they do ?-Indian cars isn’t up to that of the import brands –but changes when dad buys Scorpio Mahindra

• Research has generally concluded that people seek consistency among their attitudes and between their attitudes and their behavior

• This means that individuals seek to reconcile divergent attitudes and align their attitudes and behavior so they appear rational and consistent

• Alter either attitude and behavior or develop rationalization for the discrepancy

Attitude and Job SatisfactionHow consistent are attitudes?Cognitive Dissonance Theory• Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance is one of the best

known and most researched frameworks pertaining to attitude change

• According to this theory attitude change is caused by conflict among beliefs

The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

Desire to reduce dissonance would be determined

by the

• Importance of the elements creating dissonance(Mira)

• Degree of influence the individual believes he has over

the elements

• Rewards influence the degree to which individuals are motivated

To reduce dissonance

Cognitive Dissonance

Any incompatibility between two or more attitudes or between behavior and attitudes. Festinger proposed

Contd• Dissonance normally occurs when a person perceives a logical

inconsistency among his or her cognitions. This happens when one idea implies the opposite of another.

- For example, a belief in animal rights could be interpreted as inconsistent with eating meat or wearing fur. Noticing the contradiction would lead to dissonance, which could be experienced as anxiety, guilt, shame, anger, embarrassment, stress, and other negative emotional states. When people's ideas are consistent with each other, they are in a state of harmony, or consonance.

- If cognitions are unrelated, they are categorized as irrelevant to each other and do not lead to dissonance.

Contd• Examples• The classical version of this idea is expressed in the Aesop fable,

The Fox and the Grapes, in which a fox sees some high-hanging grapes and wishes to eat them.

• However, unable to think of a way to reach them, he surmises that the grapes are probably not worth eating anyway (that they are not yet ripe or that they are too sour). In the story, the dissonance of the desire for something unattainable (the desire versus the un fulfillment) is reduced by irrationally deciding that which is desired must be flawed (Sour Grapes).

Contd• Smoking is often postulated as an example of cognitive

dissonance because it is widely accepted that cigarettes cause lung cancer, yet virtually everyone wants to live a long and healthy life.

- In terms of the theory, the desire to live a long life is dissonant with the activity of doing something that will most likely shorten one's life. The tension produced by these contradictory ideas can be reduced by quitting smoking, denying the evidence of lung cancer, or justifying one's smoking.

Contd

• For example, smokers could rationalize their behavior by concluding that only a few smokers become ill, that it only happens to very heavy smokers, or that if smoking does not kill them, something else will.

Attitudes and job satisfactionDoes Behavior always follow attitudes?• Early research on attitudes assumed that attitudes were related

to behavior-attitudes that people hold determine what they do

• Common sense too suggests a relationship - Logical that people watch television programs that thy say they

like- employees try to avoid assignments they find distasteful

Measuring the A-B Relationship• Recent research indicates that attitudes (A)

significantly predict behaviors (B) when moderating 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 attitude

A B

Self-Perception Theory

3–23

Attitudes are used after the fact to make sense out of an action that has already occurred.

Whether behavior influences attitudes

Self-Perception TheorySelf-perception theory is an account of attitude change developed

by psychologist, Daryl Bem. It asserts that we develop our attitudes by observing our own behavior and concluding what attitudes must have caused them

• Self-Perception Theory provides an alternative explanation for cognitive dissonance effects. For example Festinger and Carlsmith's experiment where people were paid $1 or $20 to lie. Cognitive dissonance says that people felt bad about lying for $1 because they could not justify the act.

• Self-perception takes an 'observer's view, concluding that those who were paid $1 must have really enjoyed it (because $1 does not justify the act) whilst those who were paid $20 were just doing it for the money.

Contd-Self perception

• When your attitudes have been established for a while and are well defined those attitudes are likely to guide behavior

Attitude and Job Satisfaction

Work Attitudes

• In relation to organisations the general meaning of attitude is applied to work

• Work attitudes are reflected in job satisfaction and in organisational commitment

Job satisfaction• Job satisfaction includes various aspects- the nature of the job

itself ,the compensation a person gets by working on the ,growth opportunities,opportunities for career advancement,the organisational climate,the behaviour of the superior and co-workers and so on

Attitude and Job Satisfaction

• Job satisfaction leads to improved performance and retention of personnel in the organisation

• Recruitment policies,placement practices ,development schemes etc contribute to job satisfaction

Job Attitudes• A person can have thousands of attitudes but OB focuses on a

very limited number of work related attitudes• These work related attitudes tap positive or negative evaluation

that employees hold about aspects of their work environment• Most of the research in OB has been concerned with three

attitudes• Job Satisfaction• Job involvement• Organizational commitment

Types of Attitudes

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

Organizational CommitmentIdentifying with a particular organization and its goals, and wishing to maintain membership in the organization.

Job SatisfactionA collection of positive and/or negative feelings that an individual holds toward his or her job.

Other Job Attitudes

Employee Engagement

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

Perceived Organizational Support (POS)

Degree to which employees feel the organization cares about their well-being.

An Application: Attitude SurveysAttitude Surveys

Eliciting responses from employees through questionnaires about how they feel about their jobs, work groups, supervisors, and the organization.

Sample Attitude Survey

Attitudes and Workforce Diversity

• Training activities that can reshape employee attitudes concerning diversity:

– Participating in diversity training that provides for self-evaluation and group discussions.

– Volunteer work in community and social serve centers with individuals of diverse backgrounds.

– Exploring print and visual media that recount and portray diversity issues.

Job Satisfaction

• Measuring Job Satisfaction– Single global rating-1-5 scale– Summation score-key elements in job/pay

promotion, opportunities, relations with co worker

• How Satisfied Are People in Their Jobs?– Job satisfaction declined to 50.4% in 2002– Decline attributed to:

• Pressures to increase productivity and meet tighter deadlines

• Less control over work

How Employees Can Express Dissatisfaction

ExitBehavior directed toward leaving the organization.

VoiceActive and constructive attempts to improve conditions.

NeglectAllowing conditions to worsen.

LoyaltyPassively waiting for conditions to improve.

Responses to Job Dissatisfaction

3–36E X H I B I T 3–5Source: C. Rusbult and D. Lowery,

“When Bureaucrats Get the Blues,” Journal of Applied Social Psychology

The Effect of Job Satisfaction on Employee Performance

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

3–37

Job Satisfaction and OCB

• Satisfaction and Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)– 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.

Job Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction

• 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.

• Dissatisfied customers increase employee job dissatisfaction.

• Leads to unionization ,stealing - Undue socializing