DR. MRS.

ABIGAIL OPOKU MENSAH

CHAPTER 4
VALUES, ATTITUDE AND JOB SATISFACTION
VALUES
VALUES

• A value is what an individual considers important, worthwhile, or meaningful.

Values are self-motivators that indicate what is important in life.

• They contain a judgmental element of what is right, good, or desirable.

• Values are deeply held beliefs that guide our behaviors and decisions. They reside
deeply within the subconscious and are tightly integrated into the fabric of everyday
living.
Importance of Values
• Values generally influence attitudes and behavior

• They help you to distinguish what is right from what is wrong

• Inform you on how you can conduct your life in a meaningful way. Globalization
raises awareness of and sensitivity to differences in values across cultures.

• Values represent a powerful potential way to keep employees’ decisions and actions
aligned with corporate goals. Organizations are under increasing pressure to engage
in ethical practices.
Value System
Value system – The set of standards by which an individual lives.(ranked in a
hierarchical order in terms of their intensity)

Value changes over the years are a major part of the generation gap.

Sources of Value System

People: the predominant view has been that they are transmitted from adults to
children.

Life Experiences : values are learnt directly from an individual’s life experiences
involving various influences.

Others: school, society, friends, TV, religion, music, books, culture, employers, national
culture, parental dictates, teachers, friends, and similar environmental influences. etc.
 Values
Values can be classified into Two main categories:

Terminal values : Goals that individuals would like to achieve during their lifetime

Instrumental values: Preferable ways of behaving.

These two main can be further broken down into;

Personal Values
Cultural Values
Social Values
Work Values
Terminal Values
They are desire states of existence that we think are worth striving for.

Examples?
• sense of accomplishment, happiness, pleasure, salvation, and wisdom Happiness
(contentedness)
• Inner harmony (freedom from inner conflict)
• Mature love (sexual and spiritual intimacy)
• Salvation (saved, eternal life)
• Self-respect (self-esteem)
• Social recognition (respect, admiration)
• True friendship
 Instrumental Values
They are the desirable modes of behavior that help people reach terminal values.

Some instrumental values include being polite, courageous, self controlled, helpful,
hardworking, responsible, polite etc.
Personal Values
Personal values are principles that define you as an individual.

Personal values, such as honesty, reliability, and trust, determine how you will face the
world and relate with people.
Social Values
Social values are principles that indicate how you relate meaningfully to others in
social situations, including those involving family, friends, and co-workers.
 Work Values
Work values are principles that guide your behaviour in professional contexts.
They define how you work and how you relate to your co-workers, bosses, and clients.
They also reveal your potential for advancement.
Cultural Differences in Values
Values differ across cultures . This is particularly important as companies develop global
operations and information technology increases the frequency of cross cultural
communication.

Five values account for a large portion of the differences in values across
cultures. They include
• Individualism versus collectivism – refers to the degree that people value their
personal versus group goals. In China it is Low but in USA it is very high.

• Power distance – extent to which people accept unequal distribution of power in a

society.
Those with high power distance accept and value unequal power, whereas those with
low power distance expect relatively equal power sharing.
Cultural Differences in Values

• Uncertainty avoidance – degree to which people tolerate ambiguity (low uncertainty

avoidance) or feel threatened by ambiguity and uncertainty (high uncertainty
avoidance).
The degree to which people in a country prefer structured over unstructured and vice
versa.

• Quantity of life vs. Quality of life

Quantity of life : is the degree to which values like assertiveness, the acquisition of
money and material goods and competition prevail.
Quality of life: emphasize relationships and the well-being of others. Focus on human
interaction and caring rather than competition and personal success.
Cultural Differences in Values

• Long versus short-term orientation

Long-term orientation : places more emphasis on the future than on the past and
present. Focuses on thrift, savings, and persistence.

Short-term orientation : places more emphasis on the past and present, such as
respect for tradition and fulfilling social obligations.
Loyalty and Ethical Behaviour
Loyalty:
It refers to a feeling or attitude of devoted attachment and affection. The more loyal
an employee is towards an organization, the higher the level of unethical behavior.
This is because a loyal employee will not like to embarrass his organization in public.
Ethical Behaviour
This refers to conduct that organizations expect their employees to hold while at work.

Most organizations have formulated documents referred to as “ code of conduct”,

that set out the accepted behaviour within the workplace

Ethical behavior is affected by:

• Personality traits and attitudes
• Moral development
• The situation
1.Personality Traits and Attitudes

Personality traits and attitudes that affect ethical behavior

• Conscientious
• Agreeableness
• Self-concept
• Emotionally unstable
• Open to new experiences
• Positive attitudes
2. Moral development

It refers to a person’s level of maturity regarding ethical decision making

Levels of moral development

• Preconvention
Self-interest motivates behavior to meet one’s own needs to gain rewards while
following rules and obedience to authority to avoid punishment.
Levels of moral development

• Conventional

Living up to expectations of acceptable behavior defined by others motivates

behavior to fulfill duties and obligations. Common for followers to copy the
behavior of the leaders and group.
• Post conventional

Behavior is motivated by universal principles of right and wrong, regardless of the

expectations of the leader or group. One seeks to balance the concerns for self with
those of others and the common good.
 3.The Situation

• Highly competitive and unsupervised situations increase the odds of

unethical behavior.

• Unethical behavior occurs more often when there is no formal ethics

policy and when unethical behavior is not punished.

• Unethical behavior is especially prevalent when it is rewarded.

Ethical Principles

These are general guidelines to ethical decision making. There are three
ethical principles;

1.Utilitarianism
principle that advises people to seek the greatest good for the greatest
number of people.
Also known as consequential principle – focuses on the consequences of
our actions, not on how people achieve those consequences.
Which option would you pick under utilitarianism?
Ethical Principles
2.Individual rights
Belief that everyone has entitlements that let them act in a certain way.
Widely cited rights are freedom of movement, physical security, freedom of speech,
fair trial, and freedom from torture.
Potential problem : individual rights may conflict with others

3.Distributive justice
This is based on the concept of inequality. It suggests that inequality is acceptable if:
Everyone has equal access to the more favoured positions in society, AND
The inequalities are ultimately in the best interest of the least well off in society.
Attitude
Evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people, or events.

Positive or negative feelings concerning objects, people, or events.

Attitude is also defined as a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently

favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object
Components of Attitude

Three components of an attitude

• Affective: feelings or emotions about an object

• Behavioral: how one intends to act toward someone or something

• Cognitive: beliefs or ideas one has about an object

Types of Attitudes in an Organisation

1.Job Involvement
It measures the degree to which a person identifies psychologically with his or her job
and considers his or her perceived performance level important to self-worth.

2.Organizational Commitment
a state in which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals, and
wishes to maintain membership in the organization.

(Meyer and Allen: We have three types of commitment- Normative, Continuance and
Affective)
Types of Commitment
3. Job Satisfaction

It refers to an individual’s general attitude toward his or her job. it describes how
content an individual is with his or her job

What Determines Job Satisfaction?

• Mentally Challenging Work

• Equitable Rewards
• Supportive Working Conditions
• Supportive Colleagues
• Personality - Job Fit
• Heredity/Genes
Job Satisfaction
Model of Job Satisfaction

• Discrepancy Theory

It states that the level of job satisfaction is determined by the gap between
what a person expects to receive and what is actually received.
Job dissatisfaction occurs when the received condition is less than the
expected condition.
Model of Job Satisfaction

• Equity Theory

This theory explains how people develop perception of fairness in the

distribution and exchange of resources.

Employees try to compare themselves to a reference point. The reference

point can be another person in the same or similar organization or
employees past situation.
Summary and Implications
• Values strongly influence a person’s attitudes.
• An employee’s performance and satisfaction are likely to be higher if
his or her values fit well with the organization.

• Managers should be interested in their employees’ attitudes because

attitudes give warning signs of potential problems and because they
influence behaviour.