Chapter Learning Objectives

After studying this chapter, we should be able to:

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
Evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects,
people, or events
Three components of an attitude:

Attitude
Behavioral
Cognitive
Affective
The emotional or
feeling segment
of an attitude
The opinion or
belief segment of
an attitude
An intention to behave
in a certain way toward
someone or something
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Does Behavior Always Follow from Attitudes?
Leon Festinger No, the reverse is sometimes true!
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

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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

Behavior Predict Attitudes
Moderating Variables
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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.
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Copyright 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
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
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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 the past now perhaps more of
an occupational commitment, loyalty to profession rather
than a given employer.

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And Yet More 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.
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Are These Job Attitudes Really 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.
Be patient, OB researchers are working on it!

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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?
In the U. S., yes, but the level appears to be dropping.
Results vary by employee facets of the job.
Pay and promotion are the most problematic elements.

See E X H I B I T 32
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Pay influences job satisfaction only to a point.
After about $40,000 per 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.

Causes of Job Satisfaction
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Employee Responses to Dissatisfaction
Exit
Behavior
directed
toward leaving
the
organization
Voice
Active and
constructive
attempts to
improve
conditions
Neglect
Allowing
conditions to
worsen
Loyalty
Passively
waiting for
conditions to
improve
See E X H I B I T 34
Active
Passive
Constructive Destructive
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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.
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More Outcomes of Job Satisfaction
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 tardy, 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.
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Global Implications

Is Job Satisfaction a U.S. Concept?
No, but most of the research so far has been in the U.S.

Are Employees in Western Cultures More Satisfied With
Their Jobs?
Western workers appear to be more satisfied than those in
Eastern cultures.
Perhaps because Westerners emphasize positive emotions
and individual happiness more than do those in Eastern
cultures.

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Summary and 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

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Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
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