Emotions at Work: Emotions experienced at work impact both work and nonwork behaviors. Similarly, nonwork-related emotions also affect behaviors in both spheres. It is important to understand the range of reactions, from attitudes to emotions to moods.
Job Satisfaction: History
Early Period:
Elton Mayo introduced emotions into I-O psychology in the mid-1920s.
Factory work leads to negative emotions like anger, fear, and lowered performance.
Mayo opposed labor unions, viewing them as a result of job dissatisfaction.
Previously, worker happiness was not a primary concern; wages were thought to be the sole determinant of satisfaction.
Early Research Projects:
Hoppock's Survey (1935):
Examined worker happiness across occupations in a small Pennsylvania town.
Found only 12% of workers were dissatisfied.
Identified variations in happiness within occupational groups.
Suggested that both job-related and individual difference variables influence job satisfaction.
Hawthorne Studies (late 1920s):
Conducted at Western Electric Company.
Examined the relationship between physical work environment aspects (lighting, breaks) and productivity.
Perceptions of workers had a greater impact on productivity than actual physical conditions.
Production improved regardless of experimental conditions.
The increased attention from supervisors improved attitudes, which in turn, boosted productivity.
Hawthorne effect: Change in behavior or attitudes resulting from increased attention.
Morale and production were initially linked, though later proven wrong.
The studies gave impetus to the study of worker attitudes and job satisfaction.
Active Research Years (1935-1955):
Job satisfaction was linked to preventing labor unrest and increasing productivity.
Satisfaction was measured by assessing important needs of workers and the extent to which they were being met.
Social psychology emerged, integrating theories with industrial psychology.
Late 1950s Reviews:
Brayfield and Crockett (1955): Little evidence of a connection between satisfaction and performance.
Herzberg et al. (1957): Connection between satisfaction and some work behaviors like absenteeism and turnover.
Two-Factor Theory: Job satisfaction results from intrinsic job characteristics, while job dissatisfaction results from extrinsic characteristics. Extrinsic factors satisfied “hygiene” needs, and intrinsic factors satisfied “motivator” needs. The theory was eventually rejected on logical and empirical grounds.
Antecedents and Consequences of Job Satisfaction (1935-1990):
Research relied on statistical analyses rather than theory.
Correlations between job satisfaction and observable work aspects were examined.
Pay, work challenge, quality of supervision, company policies, and physical environment were analyzed.
Locke (1976) provided a review of precursors to job satisfaction.
Factors for 21st century added to the list of variables that are assessed for job satisfaction:
Concern for job security.
Organization's time urgency.
Satisfaction with job changes.
Effects of perceived discrimination.
Attitudes toward a multicultural workplace.
Satisfaction with models like Six Sigma.
Demographic variables like age, gender, and genetic disposition were examined.
Without a comprehensive theory, data-driven research was not particularly helpful.
Consequences of job satisfaction were widely investigated.
Satisfying jobs are linked to fewer occupational injuries.
Positive relations between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction, productivity, profit, safety, and employee retention.
Increased satisfaction is associated with increased organizational citizenship behavior.
Pay satisfaction is associated with turnover intentions and actual turnover.
Positive correlation between job satisfaction and task performance.
Satisfied employees are less likely to be absent or late.
Job satisfaction is associated with positive job analysis ratings.
Positive association between job satisfaction and general life satisfaction and well-being.
Costs of dissatisfaction can rise to 1.5 times the salary of a productive individual who leaves.
Schneider and colleagues: Company success results in increased overall job satisfaction; job satisfaction follows company profitability rather than drives it.
Money might be best invested in high-performance work practices.
Measurement of Job Satisfaction
Overall vs. Facet Satisfaction:
Debate on the value of overall satisfaction and how it should be calculated.
Overall satisfaction can be the result of satisfaction with specific aspects of work.
High correlations exist between measures of satisfaction and facets of work.
Overall scores work fine for comparing plants/divisions; facet information is useful for identifying aspects of the work environment that are important for recruiting.
Single-item measures of job satisfaction may work well in many situations.
The "faces" scale is a single-item measure of job satisfaction.
A five-item scale can measure overall satisfaction.
Satisfaction Questionnaires:
Job Descriptive Index (JDI): Assesses satisfaction in five areas: work itself, supervision, people, pay, and promotion. It also includes the Job in General (JIG) scale. It has 72 items.
Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ): Assesses aspects of work with five items per area. There is a 20-item short version and a 100-item long version. Can calculate extrinsic and intrinsic satisfaction scores.
Both JDI and MSQ are acceptable.
Computer and Internet administration of surveys are used with increasing frequency.
Internet respondents are more diverse and express positive feelings toward the web-based administration mode.
Life events can make us reevaluate priorities.
Commitment
Commitment involves emotional attachment and evaluations of current and future circumstances.
Porter et al. (1974): Organizational Commitment includes:
Acceptance of organization's values.
Willingness to exert effort.
Desire to remain in the organization.
Forms of Commitment:
Meyer and Allen (1997): Commitment can be based on one of three elements:
Affective: Emotional attachment.
Continuance: Perceived cost of leaving.
Normative: Obligation to remain.
Affective and normative commitment, but not continuance commitment, are related to job performance.
Affective commitment has the strongest associations with job performance and organizational citizenship behaviors.
Affective commitment is a better predictor of absenteeism and turnover than continuance or normative commitment.
Normative and affective commitment are affected by tenure ("honeymoon" effect).
Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ): The most commonly used scale is Meyer, Allen, and Smith's (1993) Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ), which contains six items for each of the three commitment dimensions.
Individuals can be committed to entities other than an organization, such as an occupation.
Lee, Carswell, and Allen (2000): Both organizational and occupational commitment should be considered when studying work-related behavior.
Blau (2003): Two underlying dimensions to occupational commitment:
Practical and emotional costs of changing occupation.
Extent to which current opportunities are available.
Ellemers, de Gilder, and van den Heuvel (1998): Commitment to a work team influences decisions regarding absence and turnover.
Wasti (2003b): Some difficulties in applying the concept of normative commitment in collectivist cultures such as Turkey.
Markovits, Davis, and van Dick (2007): Organizational commitment was higher in Greek employees in the public sector as compared to the private sector.
Cooper-Hakim and Viswesvaran (2005): Identified 24 commitment definitions.
Neubert and Cady (2001): Program commitment refers to a commitment to a particular initiative taken by a company.
Mitchell et al. (2001): Job embeddedness represents varied types of commitment between individuals and coworkers, teams, organizations, and careers.
Organizational Identification (OID)
Emotional aspects of organizational membership.
Roots in social identity theory:
People value and seek self-esteem.
Group memberships play a role in a person's self-concept.
Individuals seek to maintain a positive social identity.
OID proposes that people identify with an organization to bolster self-esteem.