CHAPTER 4

VALUES, ATTITUDES AND JOB SATISFACTION

Values
How People Learn Values
Types of Values
Individual versus Organizational Values

Instrumental and Terminal Values

Attitudes
The Main Components of Attitudes

Differences in Personal Disposition

How Attitudes Are Formed

Most Important Attitudes in the Workplace

Effects of Employee Attitudes

Making Positive Attitudes Work for the Organization

Job Satisfaction
Factors Associated with Job Satisfaction

Ways of Measuring Job Satisfaction

Job Involvement

Organizational Commitment

Job Satisfaction is an important concern for both employer and employee. This is so because of
the benefits it brings to you.

This chapter is an attempt to explain job satisfaction and the various concerns that make it
happen, such as values and attitudes.

Values generally influence attitudes and behaviour. In turn, attitudes from the basis for
determining how satisfied people are with their jobs.
 Job
Satisfaction

Attitudes

Values

VALUES

Values refer to the importance a person attaches to things and ideas that serves as guide to
action. Values are enduring beliefs that one’s mode of conduct is better than the opposite
mode of conduct. An example of a belief is a importance place by a person or academic titles or
degrees and the doubt casted on the ability of person without sufficient academic
qualifications.

The definition implies that values are made of a set of beliefs. Values may be attached to
things or ideas like loyalty (to the companions or friends), teamwork, honor, obedience,
honesty, and the like.

HOW PEOPLE LEARN VALUES

Values are not inborn, they are learned. As they grow, people learn values through any or all
of the following:

1. Modelling
2. Communication of attitudes
3. Unstated but implied attitudes
4. Religion
MODELING

Parents, teachers, friends, and other people oftentimes become models to person who would
later exhibit good behaviour in the workplace. For instance, a person who worked as a
mechanic for how many years in his own yard was a stickler for cleanliness and getting up early
to work. He saw to it that his customers were happy with the service he provided, and he never
change them with unreasonable service fees. His son saw him in action almost everyday. The
son did not notice that he was slowly imitating the good work of his father. It is no wonder that
he behaves much like his father when he’s doing his work as a mechanic in a large automotive
sales and service firm.

COMMUNICATION OF ATTITUDES

One of the ways in which values are learned is through of communication attitudes. When a
person often hears from acquaintances the risk of buying products imported from a certain
country, the person may develop negative values about that country.

UNSTATED BUT IMPLIED ATTITUDES

Values may also be affected by attitudes that are not stated but are implied by way of action.
For instance, if a person sees joy and happiness in every member of his family whenever
another member graduates from college, the person will develop the same values impliedly
exhibited.

RELIGION

Values are also learned through religion. For example, the just and fair treatment of people is
a value that is taught by priests and ministers of various religious sects. Persons who are
exposed to the teachings develop values that support such beliefs.

TYPES OF VALUES

1. Achievement – this is a value that pertains to getting things done and working hard to
accomplish goals;
2. Helping and concern for others – this value refers to the person’s concern with other
people and providing assistance to those who need help;
3. Honesty – this is a value that indicates the person’s concern for telling the truth and
doing what he thinks is right; and
4. Fairness – this is a value that indicates the person’s concern for impartiality and fairness
for all concerned.
INDIVIDUAL VERSUS ORGANIZATIONAL VALUES
Organizations have values that may or may not be compatible with the values of the
individual workers. There is value incongruence of the individual’s value is not in
agreement with the organization’s value. As a result of such incongruence, conflicts may
arise over such things as goals or the manner in which the goals will be achieved. For
instance, a person who values honesty will find it hard to work. In an organization where
graft and corruption is a common practice. The person stays in the environment, he will
be susceptible to experience the difficulty of “person-role conflict” which may be briefly
described as the condition that occurs when the demands made by the organization or a
manager clash with the basic values of the individual.

ORGANIZATIONAL ORGANIZATIONAL
VALUES VALUES

When When

Congruent Incongruent

With With

THE THE
INDIVIDUAL’S INDIVIDUAL’S
VALUES VALUES

Equals Equals

POSITIVE CONFLICTS
FEELINGS
Espoused versus enacted Values

What the company promotes its own values may be different from what is practice by the
organization’s individual members such values may be classified as either (1) espoused, or (2) enacted
values.

Espoused values are what members of the organization say they value. A business organization, for
instance, may state that it highly values its good relationship with customer. However, if the employees
of the said company give priority to calls from relatives and friends rather than responding immediately
to costumer’s inquires, they are not actually practicing the values espoused by the company. Those that
are reflected in the actual behaviour of the individual members of the organization are referred to as
enacted values.

Instrumental and terminal Values

Another classification of values may be presented as follows:

1. Terminal values, and

2. Instrumental values

Terminal Values represent the goals that a person would like to achieve in his or her timeline. Example
values are happiness, love, self-respect, and freedom.

Instrumental values refer to preferable modes of behaviour or means of achieving the terminal Values.
Examples of instrumental values are ambition, Honesty, Self-sufficiency, and courageousness.

INSTRUMENTAL TERMINAL
VALUES VALUES

 Ambition  Happiness
 Honesty  Pleasure
 Self-sufficiency  Self-respect
 Courage  Freedom
 Forgiving nature  World peace
 Helpfulness  Equality
 Self-control  Achievement
 Independence  Inner peace
 Obedience  Beauty in art and nature
 Open-mindedness  Family security
 Cleanliness  Salvation
 Affection/love  Friendship
 Politeness  Mature love
 Rationality  Wisdom
 Responsibility  Prosperity
 Competence  National security
 Cheerfulness  Social respect
 Intelligence  Exciting, active life
ATTITUDES

Attitudes are important in the study of human behaviour. This is so because they are linked with
perception, learning, emotions and motivation. Attitudes also form the basis for job satisfaction in the
workplace. Attitudes are feelings and beliefs that largely determining how employees will perceive their
environment, commit themeselves to intended actions, and ultimately behave. Attitudes reflect on how
feels about something. For instance, a person may think working over time is necessary if the situation
requires it, or may consider work an important ingredient of one’s physical and mental well-being.

THE MAIN COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDES

Attitudes consist of the following components:

1. Cognitive
2. Affective
3. Behavioural

The cognitive component of an attitude refers to the opinion of belief segment of an attitude. An
example is the opinion indicate in the statement “my boss is fickle-minded; he cannot stick to his
decision”.

The affective component of an attitude refers to the emotional or feeling segment. The bad feeling
insinuated in the statement “I hate my boss” is an example.

The behavioural component of an attitude refers to the intention to behave in a certain way toward
someone or something. An example is the action indicated in the statement “I have requested a transfer
to another department from my superiors”.

COGNITIVE My boss is fickle-minded; he cannot stick to his decision

(EVALUATION)

AFFECTIVE NEGATIVE ATTITUDE

(FEELING) I hate my boss
TOWARD BOSS

I am requesting for a transfer

BEHAVIORAL
(ACTION)
DIFFERENCES IN PERSONAL DISPOSITION

People differ in their personal disposition. Some have attitudes that are positively affective, while
some have negatively affective attitudes.

Positive affectivity refers to personal characteristic of employee that inclines them to be predisposed
to be satisfied at work. People who have positive affectivity are optimistic, upbeat, cheerful, and
courteous.

Negative affectivity is a personal characteristic of employee that inclines them to be predisposed to be

dissatisfied at work. People who have negative affectivity are generally pessimistic, , downbeat, irritable,
and sometimes abrasive.

Managers and supervisors will benefit from knowing the person disposition of their subordinates.
Their decisions regarding training, hiring, and promotion could be made better.

HOW ATTITUDES ARE FORMED

Attitudes are formed through learning. The two methods that mostly influence attitude formation are
direct experience and indirect means of social learning. Among the information stored in the human
mind, those that were gatherd through direct experience are the most accessible. So if one had an
unpleasant experience with another person, his attitude regarding that person would be negative
regardless of any other information otained from indirect means. Although indirect means affect the
information of attitudes, their influence is not as strong as direct experience.

Attitudes that are formed in an indirect way are the result of social interactions with the family, peer
groups, religious organizations, culture. For instance, if parents behave in a manner showing towards
smokers, the children will have a strong tendency to adapt an attitude of indifference towards smokers.

MOST IMPORTANT ATTITUDES IN THE WORKPLACE

Work behavior is of outmost importance to managers are superiors. Since work attitudes affect work
behavior, the requisite concerns are focused on them.

The most important attitudes in the workplace are:

1. Job satisfaction;
2. Job involvement; and
3. Organizational commitment.

EFFECTS OF EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES

Attitudes provide clues to the behavioral intentions or inclinations of an employee. The manner in
which a person will act can be gleanedfrom his attitudes.

Employee attitudes may be classified as either: positive jobs; or negative job attitudes.
 EMPLOYEE
ATTITUDES

POSITIVE
NEGATIVE

JOB INVOLVEMENT LACK OF JOB LOW ORGANIZATIONAL

INVOLVEMENT COMMITMENT

JOB SATISFACTION

ORGANIZATIONAL
COMMITMENT JOB DISSATISFACTION

PERFORMING EXCELLENTLY
IN ALL JOB ASPECTS
SERVING
CUSTOMERS  DAY DREAMING
BEYOND WORKING  UNAUTHORIZED
HOURS ABSENCES, EARLY
DEPARTURES,
EXTENDED BREAK,
WORK SLOWDOWNS
 VERBAL ABUSE,
DANGEROUS ACTIONS
AGAINST ANOTHER
EMPLOYEE
 EFFECTS OF EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES
Postive job attitudes indicate job satisfaction and are useful in predicting constructive
behaviours like serving costumers beyond official working hours, and performing excellently in
all aspects of their jobs. An example of positive job attitude is “ I enjoy wearing my office
uniform.”

Negative job attitudes are also useful in predicting understandable behaviour. Negative job
attitudes include those concerning jobs dissatisfaction, lack of involvement, low commitment to
the organization, and strong negative words like “ the office assigned to me does not speak well
of my position.”

When employees are dissatisfied with their jobs, they will have a strong tendency to
engage in any or all of the following:

1. Phsycological withdrawal like daydreaming on the jo;

2. Physical withdrawal like unauthorized absences, earl departures, extended breaks, or
work slowdowns; and
3. Aggression, like verbal abuse or dangerous actions against another employee.

Making Positive Attitude Work for the Organization

People with positive work attitudes make it easy for the organization to achieve its
objectives. As such, recruitment officer must require postive work attitudes before
employment offers are made. Those who are already employed by the organization but
whose attitudes are negative must be made to participate or become beneficiaries of
programs designed to change negative work attitude of employees to positive work
attitudes.

Job Satisfaction
The attitude people have about their jobs is called job satisfaction. In a strict sense,
however, job satisfaction refers to the positive feeling about one’s job resulting from an
evaluation of its characteristics. When the feeling about one’s job is not positive, the
appropriate term job dissatisfaction.

When people are satisfied with their jobs, the following benefits become
possible:
1. High productivity
2. A stronger tendency to achieve costumer loyalty
 3. Loyalty to the company
4. Low absenteeism and turnover
5. Less job stress and burnout
6. Better safety performance
7. Better life satisfaction
Factors Associated with Job Satisfaction
There are certain factors associated with job satisfaction. They are the following:
1. Salary- adequancy of salary and perceived equity compared with others;
2. Work itself- the extent to which job tasks are condisidered interesting and
provide opportunities for learning and accepting responsibility;
3. Promotion opportunity- chances for further advancement;
4. Quality of supervision- the technical competence and the interpersonal skill of
one’s immediate superior;
5. Relationship with co-workers- the extent to which co-workers are friendly
competent, and supportive;
6. Working condition- the extent to which the physical work environment is
comfortable and supportive of productivity; and
7. Job security- the beliefs that one’s position is relatively secure and continued
employment with organization is a reasonable expectation.

Ways of Measuring Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction may be measured by using any of the following approaches:

1. The single global rating method; and

2. The summation score method.

The single global rating method refers to that approach where individuals are asked to respond
to a single question, such as, “How satisfied are you with your job?”The respondents indicate
their answers by putting a check before any of the numbers from 5 to 1 as indicate belo:

1. Highly satisfied
2. Moderate satisfied
3. Indifferent
4. Moderate dissatisfied
5. High dissatisfied

The summuation score method is an approach where individuals indicate their feelings
regarding each key factors of the their job. The factors would normally consist of the
work ,supervission , current salary, promotion opportunities , and relations with co-
workers.and standard scale is used to rate the factors and then the overall job satisfaction score
is derived. An illustation of the summation. Score method is provided below.

Exhibit 1

A SAMPLE QUESTIONAIRE FOR THE SUMMATION SCORE METHOD OF JOB SATISFACTION

Please indicate on the blanks provided below how satisfied you are (in terms of percentage)
in each of the following factors of your job:

_______% 1. Work itself

_______% 2. Salary (or pay)

_______% 3. Promotion opportunities

_______% 4. Supervision

_______% 5. Co-workers

JOB INVOLVEMENT

Job involvement is another positive employees attitude. It refers on the degree on which a
person identifies with the job, actively participates in it, and considers performance important
to self-worth. People who are really “involved” in their view work as a central part of their
overall lives.

A positive self-image is a result of a person’s holding a meaningful job and activity performing
it.

People with a high degree of job involvement will seldom be late or absent. They are willing to
work long hours if necessary, and they will strive to be high perfomers.

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT

Organizational commitment is the third positive employee attitude. It refers to the degree to
which an employee identifies with a particular organizational and its goals and wishes to
maintain membership in the organization.

Organizational commitment often reflects the employee’s belief on the mission and goals of
the orgnizational, willingness to extend effort in accomplishment them, and intentions to
continue working in the organization. Employees who are organizationally commited have a
good attendance record, show willingness to adhere to the firm’s policies, and lower turnover
rates.
Organizational commitment may be categorized into three dimensions.

They are as follows:

1. Affective commitment;
2. Continuance commitment;and
3. Normative commitment .

Affective commitment refers to the employee’s emotional attachment to the organization and
belief in its values. For example, an employee may be affectively commited to his company
because of its employment policy hiring people regardless of their educational attainment.

Continuance commitment refers to the employee’s tendency or remain in an organization

because he cannot afford to leave. In fact, many employees continue to be committed to the
firm because they feel they could not get better employment elsewhere. The reasons why
employees choose to continue emplolyment with that firm may be classified as either (1)
economic, or (2) non-economic. Economic factors refer to salary, allowances, and retirement
pension. Non-economic benefits include participation in decision making, job security, and
certain job characteristics such as autonomy, responsibility, and interesting work.

Normative commitment refers to an obligationto remain with the company for moral or ethical
reason. For example, an employee working in the zoo may remain with his employer because
he feels most the animals under his care would respond only to him and it would be hard to
find a suitable replacement for him. He thinks that the existence of the zoo would be in
jeopardy if he leaves..