1. CHAPTER 4 WORK RELATED ATTITUDES AND VALUES Edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery

2. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Learning Outcomes Explain what is meant by the term ‘attitude’ Understand the process of attitude formation Explain how attitudes and behaviour are connected

3. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Learning Outcomes Discuss what is meant by the term ‘job satisfaction’ and why it is an important concept in the organisational behaviour literature Distinguish between important work-related attitudes and the implications they have for the organisation

4. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Explaining The Term ‘Attitude’ Attitudes - evaluative judgments relating to people, events or objects Three different components of an attitude: – Cognitive component - this refers to the values and beliefs that the individual holds about a particular person or thing – Affective component - this points to the feelings and emotions arising from an evaluation of the two elements in the cognition component. The affective component of attitude structure tends to be learned from our environment – Behavioural component - this is about the behavioural outcome of the process. This behaviour stems from the affective component of the model

5. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Attitude Formation Dispositional Characteristics – It is generally accepted that underlying personality predispositions influence attitude formation. Our personality is relatively stable but can change over time with the onset of new experiences Direct Experience – Many of the attitudes people hold are the result of direct experience with attitude objects – Attitude objects refer to the ‘things’ in our environment with which we directly interact (for example, school, friends, pensioners) – People tend to have positive or negative experiences with these objects which can go some way to influencing their attitudes Social Learning – The actions of other people in our social environment shape our attitudes too – For an infant, parents are arguably the most important source of information in attitude formation

6. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Connecting Attitudes and Behaviour Attitudes and behaviour are closely linked, but it is a complex relationship Theory of planned behaviour – Ajzen (1991) – The model posits that attitude toward the behaviour, subjective social and environmental norms and perception of behavioural control lead to the formation of a behavioural intention – Behavioural intention then predicts behaviour – See Figure 4.1, page 76 in your book

7. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Connecting Attitudes and Behaviour Cognitive Dissonance Cognitive dissonance (Festinger 1957) – An unpleasant cognitive state that motivates an individual to resolve perceived conflict among beliefs, attitudes and behaviours – For example, people often value their health, yet they smoke – The dissonance is an uncomfortable or stressful feeling that one often experiences with perceived inconsistency between cognitions and behaviour – This unpleasant feeling can be resolved by changing one element of the structure to restore consonance – For example, giving up smoking (behavioural) or rationalising that smoking light cigarettes is less harmful (belief)

8. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Attitude Change Cognitive Response Theory – A Cognitive Response is a thought created in response to persuasive communication – Often the thoughts generated trigger an attitude change – An individual interprets the message using pre-existing thoughts they already hold about the subject – An attitude is then changed (or not changed) depending on the degree of incentive to generate their attitude in the first place (Greenwald, 1968) – Cognitive Response Theory highlights the importance of initial thoughts to a message in triggering an attitude change

9. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Prejudice, Stereotypes and Discrimination A significant concept in this area is that of ‘in-groups’ and ‘out-groups’ – In-groups are social groups to which an individual believes he or she belongs – Out-groups are social groups to which the individual believes he or she does not belong Broadly speaking, we have a preference for people similar to ourselves

10. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Stereotyping When an individual encounters an out-group, their level of anxiety is heightened, which reduces their capacity to process information effectively For this reason, the individual resorts to stereotyping – A stereotype is a preconceived belief that suggests that all members of a particular category share a set of characteristics The tendency to see all out-group members in stereotypical ways can be observed in a variety of contexts (e.g. ‘salespeople are exploitative and aggressive’ and so on)

11. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Stereotyping Stereotyping Benefits – Allows us to categorise employees into groups – For example, those entering an organisation from college often join as part of a graduate programme – Such a programme supposes that each graduate requires a comprehensive introduction to the work environment given their assumed lack of work experience Stereotyping Problems – It is likely that one may overlook the array of differences and level of individuality of people being stereotyped – Confirmation bias - a tendency to seek out information that is in line with expectations and existing knowledge

12. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Prejudice Prejudice can be defined as a negative attitude towards members of a specific group and can be either explicit or implicit The concept of ‘prejudice’ falls neatly within the attitude domain Prejudice can be either – explicit and conscious (e.g. critical remarks about a person based on their race) – implicit and unconscious (e.g. believing it is important to show female employees the crèche facilities on site during induction but not the male employees)

13. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Prejudice Glick and Fiske (2001) propose that prejudice is determined by two social factors: – the extent to which the target group has a cooperative or competitive relationship with society – the social status of the target group within mainstream society – See Table 4.1, page 83 in your book

14. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Discrimination Discrimination is a negative action towards members of a specific group – Actively overlooking female employees for a position because of their group membership is discrimination As the workplace becomes increasingly diverse the threat of discrimination becomes more apparent Positive discrimination is the preferential treatment of members of a minority group over a majority group – The argument here is that in order for minority groups to receive the same opportunities as the majority group, some form of discrimination must occur

15. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Work-Related Attitudes Job satisfaction according to Locke (1976) is a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences – When an employee has a high level of job satisfaction they tend to view their job in a positive light – When dissatisfied with their job they tend to hold a negative attitude towards it

16. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Job Satisfaction There are three perspectives on job satisfaction (Baker, 2004): Task characteristics approach – This perspective proposes that certain task characteristics are related to employee attitudes. They include: (1) autonomy; (2) job feedback from the job; (3) job variety; (4) task identity; and (5) task significance Social information processing approach – Job attitudes are shaped by social cues processed from the work environment. For example leadership, organisational culture and teamwork Dispositional approach – The perspective indicates that the individual possesses dispositional characteristics that impact upon levels of job satisfaction

17. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Measuring Job Satisfaction Typically, attitude questionnaires ask respondents to indicate whether they agree or disagree with a series of ‘belief’ statements about an attitude object The Likert Scale has been the dominant methodological approach used in modern questionnaires – A number of attitude statements are presented to respondents. They are asked to determine the extent of their agreement or disagreement with these statements using a 5-point scale, with the two poles typically labelled ‘strongly agree’ and ‘strongly disagree’ Each method for measuring job satisfaction has its own limitations and it is recommended that a mixed-methods approach be used to more accurately measure the concept (e.g. combining both an interview and questionnaire approach)

18. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Job Satisfaction and Performance The ‘human relations’ movement in the middle of the 20 th century called attention to the positive outcomes of job satisfaction, such as higher levels of performance and productivity – Empirical support for this notion is, however, somewhat weak Judge et al., (2001) found that a modest relationship exists between satisfaction and performance However, the multi-faceted nature of job satisfaction and job performance presents methodological difficulties for researchers investigating the causal link between both concepts It is a much more valid approach to investigate the relationship between specific components of satisfaction and specific components of performance

19. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Attitudes Towards The Organisation Organisational commitment is an individual’s comparative strength of identification and involvement with an organisation Allen and Meyer, (1990) have distinguished between different types of commitment: – Affective Commitment: Concerns the individual’s emotional investment with their organisation – Continuance Commitment: Concerns an individual’s perception of the risks involved in leaving the organisation. Two factors are likely to influence the perception process: the personal sacrifice in leaving and the alternative sources of employment available – Normative Commitment: An individual’s perceived moral obligation to remain with the organisation Generally measured using the Likert Scale

20. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Attitudes Towards The Organisation Rousseau (1995) has highlighted how individuals will feel numerous commitments at work, such as to their line manager, their colleagues and their subordinates Wasti & Can (2008) found that: – commitment to the organisation predicted outcomes such as increased turnover – commitment to the supervisor predicted extra role behaviours like staying at work late Organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) – voluntary behaviour from the employee that is likely to have positive consequences for the organisation and refers to individual behaviour that is discretionary, not explicitly recognised by the formal reward system, that promotes the effective functioning of the organisation (Organ, 1997)

21. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Work-Related Attitudes and Behaviour in Organisations Employee engagement is the degree to which an individual is attentive and absorbed in the performance of their roles – Associated with intention to stay with the firm, Organisational Citizenship Behaviours, efficiency and task performance Job involvement is the extent to which an employee psychologically identifies with their job – Associated with organisational outcomes such as performance and attendance

22. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Work-Related Attitudes and Behaviour in Organisations Pro-social behaviours are those that benefit another party – Within the context of the organisation, these behaviours benefit the organisation in that they result in positive outcomes for the organisation Deviant behaviours are those that are counterproductive to an organisation – Many of these behaviours may seem inconsequential if they only happen very occasionally; however, if employees repeatedly engage in such behaviours then this can cause great disruption to the organisation Presenteeism refers to attending work while suffering with illness – Being ill is a legitimate reason not to turn up to work. While this behaviour can be seen as admirable, attending work while ill for a prolonged period can create a number of difficulties for the organisation

23. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Work Values Values refer to the degree of importance an individual ascribes to a particular belief they hold about an object – For example, most of us would prefer to work for an organisation that is socially responsible. However, some of us would only work for an organisation that is committed to corporate social responsibility (CSR) Like attitudes, a person’s value system is shaped by social factors such as the values of their parents, teachers and friends, and the cultural influences they are exposed to

24. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Work Values Individuals’ work values determine the meaning that work, their career and the organisation has for them. Work values are identified as the general and relatively stable goals that people try to reach through work – They are expressions of more general human values in the context of the work setting. The central idea put forward in the domain of work values is that they lead individuals to seek jobs or organisations that are characterised by certain attributes (Rentsch and McEwen, 2002)

25. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Summary What is the difference between a ‘good’ attitude and a ‘bad’ attitude? What are the key factors that influence a person’s attitude? In what way can an organisation influence the attitude formation process? Explain the association between attitudes and behaviour. Can the organisation predict an employee’s behaviour in the workplace? Why is job satisfaction such a complex issue for organisations? Is there any merit in measuring it?

26. Organisational Behaviour, edited by Christine Cross and Ronan Carbery ©Palgrave, Macmillan 2016 Summary What is ‘positive discrimination’? What are your thoughts on the criticism that it restricts the recruitment process to find the best candidate? Is it easy to change an attitude? Can a person learn to be prejudiced? Can a person unlearn their prejudice? Can you explain what is meant by the term ‘the ABCs’ of attitude formation? How are values different to attitudes? How do they influence behaviour in organisations?