Chapter 10:

Organizational Attitudes and

Behavior

History of Job Attitudes

• Based in history of Job Satisfaction• Formal research began in mid-1930’s

– 1932 I/O textbooks had no mention of job satisfaction or organizational commitment

– By 1972 over 3000 articles published specifically exploring worker attitudes

• Why interest developed– Methodological breakthroughs

• Survey methods– Statistical techniques

Attitudes Defined

• Briefly defined, an “attitude” represents a predisposition to respond in a favorable or unfavorable way to persons or objects in one’s environment.

• For instance, when we say we “like” something or “dislike” something, we are in effect expressing an attitude toward the person or object.

Attitudes: Three Important Assumptions

• Three important assumptions underlie the concept of attitudes:

1) An attitude is a hypothetical construct

2) An attitude is a unidimensional construct

3) Attitudes are believed to be somewhat related to subsequent behavior, although as we’ll see, this relationship can be unclear

Job Attitudes: Three Related Components

• The job attitude is the middle component in a belief-evaluation-behavior chain:

1) Beliefs about aspects of the job.

“My work has long stretches with nothing to do.”

2) The evaluative component, i.e., the attitude itself.

“I am dissatisfied with my job.”

3) Work-related behavioral intentions that follow

from the attitude.

“I’m intending to quit my job.”

Job Attitudes and Actual Behavior

• The belief, attitude, intention sequence is presumably followed by actual behavior.

• This traditional model suggests that behaviors (including job performance) are largely influenced by job attitudes.

• Recently, this traditional model has been questioned as being too simple and some more comprehensive alternatives have been developed.

Job Attitudes and Behavior Overview

• Job Satisfaction

• Job Involvement

• Organizational Commitment

• Organizational Justice

• Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

• Antisocial Behavior

What is Job Satisfaction?Job Satisfaction: The degree of pleasure an

employee derives from his or her job.

• 2 levels of Job Satisfaction:

– Global Job Satisfaction - Overall Good Feelings

– Job Facet Satisfaction - Selected Dimensions

• pay• promotions• work tasks• coworkers• supervisors

Antecedents to Job Satisfaction• What causes satisfaction

– Environment/Job Features• Skill variety Task identity• Task significance Autonomy• Feedback

– Role Variables• Ambiguity Conflict• Work-family conflict

– Person variables• Negative affectivity Locus of Control• Gender Age• Culture Genetics • Life satisfaction

How do Americans feel about going to work?

• Most Americans like their jobs overall• People are relatively satisfied with the nature

of the work itself:– How interesting it is– Having lots of contact with people

• People less happy with rewards– Pay– Benefits– Chances for promotion

Why all the fuss?

• Cultural interest– Something most of us believe we are entitled

to or at least desire from our work

• Functional (practical) reasons– Link to important organizational outcomes

• Performance

• Turnover

• Absenteeism

• Counterproductive behaviors

Job Satisfaction and Performance

• Is a happy worker a productive worker?• Correlations positive and low to

moderate– .16 with overall satisfaction in individual

studies – .30 with overall satisfaction in meta-

analytic studies– .10 with specific facets

• Why is the association not larger?

Some Possible Explanations:

1) Research and Measurement Issues:

– Is “job performance” defined correctly?

– Can you predict specific behaviors from a general attitude toward the job.

Some Possible Explanations:2) “Moderator” Effects:

– Sat-performance relationship is highly complex (Katzell, Thompson & Guzzo, 1992)

– For example, the relationship may be limited by constraints on performance (e.g., group norms for performance, environmental variables such as the speed of an assembly line)

3) Dispositional Effects:– Some research has found a substantial amount of the variability in job

satisfaction may relate to “trait affect”

Job Satisfaction and Turnover

• Negative relationship• Moderate level

= -.40• Unlike satisfaction, turnover is well thought

out• Why not higher

– People leave jobs for lots of reasons• Better opportunities• Health reasons• More interesting work

Job Satisfaction and Absenteeism

• Absenteeism costs organizations in lost time and productivity

• General satisfaction with absenteeism– Low negative correlation

• r = -.25• Facets of job satisfaction (e.g., Career future,

Supervision, Financial rewards) with absenteeism– Correlate better (moderate to high)

• range - .46 to -.60• Why so low?

– Not all absenteeism due to satisfaction• Company policies, Personal work habits, Ability to

attend (illness, transportation, etc)

Job Satisfaction

Positive Affectivity

Interpretation of job circumstances

Job Satisfaction

Objective job circumstance

Brief (1998)

Job Satisfaction: Is It Genetic?

• People have stable traits that predispose them to be satisfied or dissatisfied (positive vs negative affectivity)– Happy people are happy workers

• Emotions

• There is evidence that as much as 30% of the variability in job satisfaction is due to genetics

Specific Tools to Assess Satisfaction

• Job Descriptive Index (JDI)• Measure of 5 facets of job satisfaction

– Pay, promotions, coworkers, supervisors, work itself– 9 to 18 items on each facet

• Pros– Extremely easy to use with all types of respondents– Most commonly used measure of job satisfaction

• Normative data available from hundreds/thousands of studies

– No racial differences in assessment

• Cons– Shouldn’t sum across facets– Is there more to job satisfaction than just the 5 facets?

YOUR PAY AND PROMOTIONS

What are YOUR PAY AND PROMOTION OPPORTUNITIES like? Circle

YES if the item describes your PAY AND PROMOTIONS, NO if the item

does not describe your PAY AND PROMOTIONS, and ? if you cannot

decide. Choose a response for each item.

PayUNDERPAID......................................................... Yes ? NoINCOME ADEQUATE FOR NORMAL EXPENSES........ Yes ? NoBARELY LIVE ON INCOME.................................... Yes ? NoINCOME PROVIDES LUXURIES.............................. Yes ? NoBAD.................................................................... Yes ? NoHIGHLY PAID....................................................... Yes ? No

PromotionsGOOD OPPORTUNITY FOR ADVANCEMENT..............Yes ? NoPROMOTION ON ABILITY........................................ Yes ? NoDEAD-END JOB........................................................Yes ? NoGOOD CHANCE FOR PROMOTION............................Yes ? NoUNFAIR PROMOTION POLICY................................... Yes ? NoINFREQUENT PROMOTIONS......................................Yes ? No

Specific Tools to Assess Satisfaction

• Minnesota Satisfaction Survey– 2 forms (Long form (100 items) & Short form (20

items)– Assesses 20 facets – Uses a 5-point scale– Good measure of General satisfaction and Intrinsic

vs. extrinsic satisfaction• Pros

– Reliable, valid measure of job satisfaction• Cons

– Very long– Are there really 20 different facets and/or is it

meaningful to have info on each of them

Specific Tools to Assess Satisfaction

• Job In General Scale (JIG)• Developed as a global measure of job

satisfaction

• Similar to JDI

• Pros

– Quick and easy to use

• Cons

– Doesn’t give information regarding specific factors

YOUR JOB IN GENERAL

What is your JOB like MOST OF THE TIME? Choose YES if the item describes your JOB, NO if it does not describe your JOB, and ? if you cannot decide.

PLEASANT..............................………… Yes ? No

BAD…....................................………….. Yes ? No

IDEAL…..............................................… Yes ? No

WASTE OF TIME.................................. Yes ? No

GOOD...........................................…….. Yes ? No

UNDESIRABLE...................................... Yes ? No

WORTHWHILE………………............... Yes ? No

WORSE THAN MOST...............………. Yes ? No

ACCEPTABLE……………………….... Yes ? No

MAKES ME CONTENT……........……. Yes ? No

INADEQUATE………........................... Yes ? No

ROTTEN……..……………………….... Yes ? No

There’s More to it than just General Job Satisfaction

Other commonly measured job attitudes include:

• Attitudes toward specific job features

• Job Involvement

• Organizational Commitment

• Organizational Justice

• Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

Job Involvement

Job Involvement: The degree to which a person identifies psychologically with his or her work and the importance of work to one’s self-image

Job Involvement

Job satisfaction .45

Performance .09

Turnover -.13

Conscientiousness .53

Organizational Commitment

Organizational Commitment: The degree to which an employee feels a sense of allegiance to his or her employee

3 components (Allen and Meyer, 1990):

• Affective

• Continuance

• Normative

Commitment can be to different focal points (e.g., job, organization, occupation).

Organizational Commitment

Organizational Commitment

Overall job satisfaction

.53

Performance .11

Turnover -.28

Conscientiousness .67

Job involvement .50

Organizational Commitment has been related to many different job outcomes

Think of a time you’ve been unfairly treated at work

• Were you ever treated rudely or disrespectfully?

• Were you up for a promotion / raise / job, and didn’t get it when you thought you should have?

• Why was it unfair? How did you know?• How did you react? Did you take

action? Why or why not?

Organizational Justice

Organizational Justice: The overarching theoretical concept pertaining to the fair treatment of people in organizations.

Three types:

• Distributive (equity, equality, need)

• Procedural

• Interactional (interpersonal, informational)

Organizational Justice: Distributive Justice

Distributive Justice: The fairness with which the outcomes or results are distributed among members of an organization.

• Rules for allocating resources– Equity – resources are distributed to employees

with respect to their abilities or contributions

– Equality – resources are distributed so each person gets the same outcome, regardless of their contributions

– Need – resources are distributed to the person who needs them more

Organizational Justice: Procedural Justice

Procedural Justice: The fairness by which means are used to achieve results in an organization.

• What are some things that lead to a procedure being seen as fair?– ‘Voice’ – getting a say in things– Consistency– Bias Suppression– Accuracy– Correctability– Representativeness– Ethicality

Organizational Justice: Interactional Justice

Interactional Justice: The fairness with which people are treated within an organization and the timeliness, completeness, and accuracy of the information received in an organization.

• Interpersonal component – treating people with dignity and respect; refraining from improper remarks or comments

• Informational component – providing adequate explanations for decisions

Justice Perceptions in organizations have been found to be related to:

• Job Satisfaction• Organizational Commitment• Job Performance• Withdrawal Behaviors• Counterproductive behaviors• Self-perceptions

Organizational Justice: Relationships

Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: The contributions that employees make to overall welfare of the organization that go beyond required duties of their job.

Also referred to as “extra-role behavior,” “pro-social behavior,” and “contextual performance.”

5 Dimensions of Citizenship Behaviors:

1. Altruism2. Conscientiousness3. Courtesy4. Sportsmanship5. Civic virtue

Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

Why do people perform citizenship behaviors?Disposition:

AgreeablenessConscientiousness

Situations:Fairness

Research (Lam, Hui & Law, 1999) found that more employees in Hong Kong and Japan regarded some facets of OCBs as part of their job than employees from USA and Austria

Psychological Contract

Psychological Contract: The implied exchange relationship that exists between an employee and the organization.

Transactional Relational

Alienation Commitment

Antisocial behaviors

ViolenceThreats

NegligenceNegativism

Indifferent social behaviors

Compliance

Prosocial Behaviors

ConscientiousnessSportsmanship

CourtesyCivic virtue

Altruism

Psychological Contract: Violations of the Psychological

Contract

The psychological contract is violated when one party in a relationship perceives another as failing to fulfill promised obligations.

Pattern of responses to psychological contract:

Voice

Silence

Retreat

Destruction

Exit

Downsizing•Downsizing is a deliberate organizational decision to reduce the workforce that is intended to improve organizational performance.

• The individuals most affected by downsizing are those who lose their jobs.

• The “surviving” employees are also affected by downsizing.

• Teams and groups are impacted by downsizing.

Downsizing: Contingent workers

Many organizations are using temporary or contingent workers.

• Contingent workers perform tasks for a specific time period.

• Contingent workers usually are:

- staffed through an agency

- paid less

- receive few benefits

- younger, female and minorities

Mergers and Acquisitions

Merger: The joining or combining of two organizations of approximately equal status and power.

Acquisition: The process by which one organization acquires or subsumes the resources of a second organization.

•Usually organizations are more concerned about strategic fit (shared business strategies, financial goals) than organizational fit (culture and match between workforce).

Antisocial Behavior at Work

Antisocial Behavior: Any behavior that brings harm or is intended to bring harm to an organization or its members.

Examples: insults, threats, lying, theft, sabotage, physical violence, workplace homicide.

Antisocial Behavior at Work: Violence in the Workplace

Perceived Injustice

Physical Violence

• Perpetrators often see them selves as the victims of workplace injustice.

• Perpetrators usually want more from the organization in terms of personal identity and purpose than the organization can provide.