Dr.

BHAWANA PANDE
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

BABU BANARASI DAS

UNIVERSITY LUCKNOW
Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

COURSE: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

MBA3104
SEMESTER-1
MBA
Attitudes
Evaluative statements or judgments- either favorable or
unfavorable- concerning objects, people, or events.

Three components of an attitude:

◦ Cognitive – The opinion or belief segment of an attitude
(eg. My pay is low)
◦ Affective – The emotional or feeling segment of an
attitude( I am angry over how little I am paid)
◦ Behavioral – An intention to behave in a certain way
toward someone or something ( I am going to look for
another job)

◦ Attitudes are important for their behavioral component.

Moderating Variables
 Recent research indicates that attitudes significantly predict behaviors
when moderating variables are taken into account.
◦ Importance of the attitude- if an attitude is important to the
person he will show it more often in his behavior branded
clothes
◦ Close correspondence to behavior- Specific attitudes show
specific behaviors, whereas general attitudes tend to best
predict general behaviors. Job and intention to leave in 2
mnths
◦ Accessibility of the attitude- Attitudes that our memories can
easily access are more likely to predict our behavior.
Interestingly, you’re more likely to remember attitudes you
frequently express. My pay is low, you will talk more about it
◦ Social pressure on the individual- attitude will predict
behavior if there is less social pressure. tobacco
◦ Direct experience with attitude- Finally, the attitude–
behavior relationship is likely to be much stronger if an
attitude refers to something with which we have direct
personal experience. Experience Working with aggressive
male boss
Does Behavior Always Follow from Attitudes?
 A researcher, Leon Festinger said, – No, the reverse is sometimes
true!
 Cognitive Dissonance: Any incompatibility between two or more
attitudes or between behavior and attitudes
◦ Any kind of inconsistency is uncomfortable and the person tries to
reduce dissonance or discomfort to reach stability and
consistency.
◦ Research shows that people seek consistency by changing
attitudes, or by developing rationalization for the discrepancy.
◦ No individual can completely avoid dissonance.
◦ Festinger proposed that people do not always want to reduce
dissonance. The desire to reduce dissonance depends on:
 Importance of elements
 Degree of influence or control over the elements
 High rewards involved in dissonance
 Example: you are the manager and you feel laying off is not good but
due to restructuring you have to lay off. You are experiencing
dissonance.
 Importance of factors- since the issue here is important you cannot
ignore inconsistency. To deal with dilemma you will either change
your behavior(lay off people). or change attitude (there is nothing
wrong in laying off). Or bring more consonant elements to outweigh
dissonance (the long term benefits are more than associated costs)
 Degree of influence- if things are out of your control then less is the
need to change attitude.
 Rewards- high dissonance when accompanied by high rewards tends
to reduce the tension inherent in dissonance. You might feel you are
well compensated so you need to take hard decisions, such as laying
off.
What Are the Major Job Attitudes?
 Job Satisfaction
◦ A positive feeling about the job resulting from an evaluation of
its characteristics.

 Job Involvement
◦ It measures the degree to which people identify psychologically
with their job and consider their perceived performance level
important to self-worth.

 Psychological Empowerment
◦ Employee’s belief in the degree of influence over the job,
competence, job meaningfulness, and perceived autonomy.
 Organizational Commitment

◦ Identifying with a particular organization and its goals, while

wishing to maintain membership in the organization.

◦ Three dimensions:
 Affective commitment – emotional attachment to organization
 Continuance Commitment – economic value of staying
 Normative commitment– moral or ethical obligations (eg
completing the task and then leaving)

◦ Research shows positive link between affective commitment and

various outcomes like job satisfaction, intent to leave etc. as
compared to normative and continuance commitment. The link is
weakest in case of continuance commitment.
Perceived Organizational Support (POS)
◦ Degree to which employees believe the organization values their
contribution and cares about their well-being.
◦ POS is higher when rewards are fair, employees are involved in
decision-making, and supervisors are seen as supportive.
◦ Some findings show that high POS is related to higher Organization
Citizenship Behavior and performance.

Employee Engagement
◦ The degree of involvement, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the job
he or she does.
◦ Highly engaged employees are passionate about their work and a deep
connection to their company. Disengaged employees have ‘checked out-
putting time but no attention to work.
Job Satisfaction
◦ Job satisfaction is a broad term involving a complex individual summation of
a number of discrete job elements. The concept can be measured though two
approaches:

◦ Single global rating- involves response to a single question , such as, ‘All
things considered, how satisfied are you with the job’?
◦ For example, “Considering all the things, rate your job satisfaction on a scale
of 1 to 5 where 1 means highly satisfied and 5 means highly dissatisfied”

◦ The other approach is Summation Score- identifies key elements in a job and
asks for employee’s feelings about each. All scores are summed up to create
an overall job satisfaction score.

◦ Both are valid approaches. Single global rating is not time consuming but the
summation approach helps managers zero in on where problems exist.
How satisfied are people in their jobs?

 More workers are satisfied with their jobs than not.

 Less satisfied during economic contraction.
 Research shows that satisfaction levels vary a lot. People
on an average are satisfied with the job overall, and
their supervisors and coworkers. However, they tend to
be less satisfied with pay and promotion opportunities.
 There are cultural differences also in job satisfaction.
Employees in Western countries (emphasize positive
emotions and individual happiness) are more satisfied as
compared to Eastern counterparts.
 Highest is in Switzerland and least in South Korea.
 What Causes Job Satisfaction?
 Of the major job-satisfaction facets (work itself, pay, advancement
opportunities, supervision, co-workers), enjoying the work itself is almost
always strongly related to job satisfaction. Interesting jobs that provide
training, variety, independence and control satisfy most employees. People
enjoy stimulating and challenging work over routine jobs.

 There is interesting relationship between pay and job satisfaction. For

people who are living below poverty line, pay does correlate with satisfaction
and overall happiness. But once a person reaches a comfortable point, the
relationship disappears.
◦ Research shows that good benefits satisfy more than high pay levels.
◦ Money may motivate us, but not necessarily bring happiness or job
satisfaction.
 Personality can influence job satisfaction. People who are less positive about
themselves are less likely to be satisfied with their jobs. Those with positive
core self-evaluation (believe in inner worth and basic competence) are more
satisfied with their jobs. They are more likely to take up challenging jobs than
people with negative self core evaluation. Who give up when confronting
difficulties.
Employee Responses to Dissatisfaction
 Exit
◦ Behavior directed toward leaving the organization, including
looking for a new position as well as resigning.
 Voice
◦ Active and constructive attempts to improve conditions,
including suggesting improvements, discussing problems with
superiors and taking some form of union activity.
 Neglect
◦ Passively allowing conditions to worsen including chronic
absenteeism, lateness, reduced effort and increased error rate.
 Loyalty
◦ Passively but optimistically waiting for conditions to improve,
including speaking up for the organization in the face of external
criticism ant trusting the management to do things right.
Outcomes of Job Satisfaction at the workplace
 Job satisfaction and job Performance
◦ Satisfied workers are more productive and more productive workers
are more satisfied!

 Job satisfaction and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

◦ Satisfaction influences OCB (talk positive about org, help others and
go beyond duty) through perceptions of fairness. (you feel supervisor,
procedures, pay policies are fair)

 Job satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction

◦ Satisfied frontline employees increase customer satisfaction and
loyalty.

 Job satisfaction and Absenteeism

◦ Satisfied employees are moderately less likely to miss work.
Job satisfaction and Turnover
◦ Satisfied employees are less likely to quit. But other
factors like Economic environment, job opportunities,
tenure are important constraints on decision to leave.
 Satisfaction is less important in predicting turnover
in superior performers. Why? because the
organization makes effort to retain high performers
(more pay, promotion, praises, recognition)

Job satisfaction and 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.
Managerial Implications
Managers should watch employee attitudes

Managers should try to increase job

satisfaction and generate positive job
attitudes

Focus on the intrinsic parts of the job.

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