Chapter 3 - Attitudes & job satisfaction

Attitudes

• @@Attitudes@@: evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people or events.
  • 3 main components of attitudes
  • Cognitive component: opinion or belief segment of an attitude.
    • e.g., “My pay is low”.
  • Affective component: emotional or feeling segment of an attitude.
    • e.g., “I’m angry over how little I’m paid”.
  • Behavioral component: intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something.
    • e.g., “I’m going to look for another job that pays better”.
• @@Cognitive dissonance@@: any incompatibility between two or more attitudes or between behavior and attitudes.
  • e.g., A friend constantly says that French cars are worse than German cars. His father gives him a Renault. He starts saying that the cars are not actually as bad.
• Moderators of the attitudes-behavior relationship
  • Importance of the attitude
  • Correspondence to behavior
  • Accessibility
  • Social pressures
  • Direct experience with the attitude
• Main job attitudes
  • @@Job satisfaction@@: positive feeling about one’s job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics.
  • @@Job involvement@@: degree to which a person identifies with a job, actively participates in it and considers performance important to self worth.
  • Psychological empowerment: employees’ belief in the degree to which they affect their work environment, their competence, the meaningfulness of their job and their perceived autonomy in their work.
  • @@Organizational commitment@@: degree to which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organization.
  • Affective commitment: emotional attachment to an organization and a belief in its values.
  • Continuance commitment: perceived economic value of remaining with an organization compared to leaving it.
  • Normative commitment: obligation to remain with an organization for moral or ethical reasons.
  • @@Perceived organizational support (POS)@@: degree to which employees believe an organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being.
  • @@Employee engagement@@: employee’s involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the work he/she does.
  • Benefits of employee engagement
    • Higher customer satisfaction
    • More productive
    • Higher profits
    • Lower turnover
    • Fewer accidents

Job satisfaction

• Measuring job satisfaction

  • @@Single global rating@@: “How satisfied are you with your job?” (number between 1-5).
  • @@Summation score@@: key elements in a job and asks about employees feelings about each.

  → Both methods are equally valid and both have their pros and cons.

• How satisfied are people in their jobs?

  • Across Europe and most developed countries people are usually satisfied with their jobs.
  • Satisfaction levels vary a lot depending on which facet of job satisfaction.

• Causes of job satisfaction

  • Job conditions
  • Pay
  • Personality
  • @@Core self-evaluations@@: bottom-line conclusions individuals have about their capabilities, competence and worth as a person.

• The impact of satisfied and dissatisfied employees on the workplace

  • Employee responses to dissatisfaction
  • @@Exit@@: dissatisfaction expressed through behavior directed towards leaving the organization.
  • @@Voice@@: dissatisfaction expressed through active and constructive attempts to improve conditions.
  • @@Loyalty@@: dissatisfaction expressed by passively waiting for conditions to improve.
  • @@Neglect@@: dissatisfaction expressed through allowing conditions to worsen.
  • Outcomes of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction
  • Job satisfaction and job performance → pretty strong correlation, organizations with more satisfied workers are more effective
  • Job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) → moderately correlated
    • People who are satisfied are more likely to engage
    • Workers with certain personality traits are also more likely
    • When people are in a good mood → more likely to take part
  • Job satisfaction and customer satisfaction
    • Satisfied employees increase customer satisfaction and loyalty
    • Upbeat and friendly employees = happy customers
  • Job satisfaction and absenteeism → moderate to weak
    • Dissatisfied workers are likely to miss work
    • Workers can be satisfied but still want to have some vacation
  • Job satisfaction and turnover → stronger than absenteeism
    • Workers can be offered something better, not necessarily dissatisfied
  • Job satisfaction and workplace deviance
    • Workers who are dissatisfied are likely to act in some way or another
    • They will find a way to “get even” (stealing, slacking, etc.)

Global implications

• Job satisfaction is a concept that exists everywhere, across all cultures. However, there are still cultural differences in job satisfaction.
  • Western cultures tend to have higher levels of job satisfaction than in Eastern cultures.
  • Reasons: maybe they emphasize positive emotions and individual happiness.