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Chapter 3

Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

MRS. Shefa EL Sagga.

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Learning Objectives

Contrast the three components of an attitude.

•Summarize the relationship between attitudes and behavior.

•Compare and contrast the major job attitudes.

•Define job satisfaction and show how it can be measured.

•Summarize the main causes of job satisfaction.

•Identify four employee responses to dissatisfaction.

•Show whether job satisfaction is a relevant concept in countries other than the United States.

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Attitudes

Attitudes

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

The Components of Attitudes

Cognitive Component

The opinion or belief segment of an attitude.

Affective Component

The emotional or feeling segment of an attitude.

Behavioral Component

An intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something.

Evaluation

Feeling

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Does Behavior Always Follow From Attitudes?

Cognitive Dissonance

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

It is inconsistent attitude behavior relationship.

Inconsistency creates uncomfortable situation.

To deal with uncomfortable situation people seek consistency to reduce cognitive dissonance.

They can do that by moderating variables.

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Does Behavior Always Follow From Attitudes?

Moderating Variables

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.

Attitude

Predict

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Major Job Attitudes

Job SatisfactionA positive feeling about the job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics

Job InvolvementDegree 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.

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Major Job Attitudes

Organizational Commitment

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

Perceived Organizational Support (POS)

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

Employee Engagement

The degree of involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the job.

1. Affective (emotional attachment to organization).2. Continuance Commitment (economic value of staying).3. 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 a given employer.

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Are Job Attitudes Distinct?

No: these attitudes are highly related.

Variables may be redundant(measuring the same thing under a different name)

While there is some distinction, there is also a lot of overlap.

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Job Satisfaction

How to Measure Job Satisfaction?

Single global rating (one question / one answer)

Summation score (many questions / one average)

Best

OK

Are People Satisfied in their Jobs?.

Results depend on how job satisfaction is measured.

Pay and promotion are the most problematic elements.

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Job Satisfaction

What Causes Job Satisfaction?.

Pay influences job satisfaction only to a point.

Personality can influence job satisfaction.

Negative people are usually not satisfied with their jobs.

People with positive core self evaluation (Bottom-line conclusions individuals have about their capabilities, competences, and worth as a person).

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Job Satisfaction

Employee Responses to Dissatisfaction

ExitExit• Behavior Behavior

directed toward directed toward leaving the leaving the organizationorganization

VoiceVoice• Active and Active and

constructive constructive attempts to attempts to improve improve conditionsconditions

NeglectNeglect• Allowing Allowing

conditions to conditions to worsenworsen

LoyaltyLoyalty• Passively Passively

waiting for waiting for conditions to conditions to improveimprove

Active

Passive

ConstructiveDestructive

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Job Satisfaction

Outcomes of Job Satisfaction

Job Performance

Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

Customer Satisfaction

Satisfied workers are more productive & more productive workers are more satisfied!. The causality may run both ways.

Satisfaction influences OCB through perceptions of fairness.

Satisfied frontline employees increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

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Job Satisfaction

Outcomes of Job Satisfaction

Absenteeism

Turnover

Workplace Deviance

Satisfied employees are moderately less likely to miss work.

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.

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

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Job Satisfaction

Managers Often “Don’t Get It”

Despite the overwhelming evidence of the impact of job satisfaction on the bottom line, most managers are either unconcerned about or

overestimate worker satisfaction.

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