CHAPTER 3: ATTITUDES AND JOB SATISFACTION

Learning Objectives After studying this chapter, you should be able to:  Contrast the three components of an attitude.  Summarize the relationship between attitudes and behavior.  Compare and contrast the major job attitudes.  Define job satisfaction and show how we can measure it.  Summarize the main causes of job satisfaction.  Identify four employee responses to dissatisfaction.

Contrast the Three Components of an Attitude  Attitudes are evaluative statements – either favorable or unfavorable – about objects, people, or events.  They reflect how we feel about something.

Contrast the Three Components of an Attitude

The Relationship Between Attitudes and Behavior  Early research: the attitudes that people hold determine what they do.  Festinger proposed that cases of attitude following behavior illustrate the effects of cognitive dissonance.  Cognitive dissonance is any incompatibility an individual might perceive between two or more attitudes or between behavior and attitudes.  Research has generally concluded that people seek consistency among their attitudes and between their attitudes and their behavior.

The Relationship Between Attitudes and Behavior Attitude predicts Behavior Mitigating Variables  Moderating Variables:  Importance of the attitude  Its correspondence to behavior  Its accessibility  The presence of social pressures  Whether a person has direct experience with the attitude  The attitude-behavior relationship is likely to be much stronger if an attitude refers to something with which we have direct personal experience.

Compare and Contrast the Major Job Attitudes  Job Satisfaction  A positive feeling about the job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics.  Job Involvement  Degree of psychological identification with the job where perceived performance is important to self-worth.  Psychological Empowerment  Belief in the degree of influence over one’s job, competence, job meaningfulness, and autonomy.

Compare and Contrast the Major Job Attitudes  Organizational Commitment  Identifying with a particular organization and its goals and wishing to maintain membership in the organization.  Theoretical models propose that employees who are committed will be less likely to engage in work withdrawal even if they are dissatisfied, because they have a sense of organizational loyalty.

Compare and Contrast the Major Job Attitudes  Perceived Organizational Support (POS)  Degree to which employees believe the organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being.  Higher when rewards are fair, employees are involved in decision making, and supervisors are seen as supportive.  High POS is related to higher OCBs and performance.

Compare and Contrast the Major Job Attitudes  Employee Engagement  The degree of involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the job.  Engaged employees are passionate about their work and company.

Compare and Contrast the Major Job Attitudes  Are these job attitudes really all that distinct?  No, these attitudes are highly related; and while there is some distinction, there is also a lot of overlap that may cause confusion.  Recent research identifies employees as being one of 4  Enthusiastic stayers  Reluctant stayers  Enthusiastic leavers  Reluctant leavers

Job Satisfaction; How Can it Be Measured?

Define Job Satisfaction; and Show How It Can Be Measured  Job Satisfaction  A positive feeling about a job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics.  Two approaches for measuring job satisfaction are popular  The single global rating.  The summation of job facets.

 How satisfied are Australians in their jobs? CURRENT GLOBAL RATINGS

Table 6.1: Average overall job satisfaction of employees & satisfaction with aspects of current employment by employee gender & hours worked All employeesFemaleMale AllF/TP/TAllF/TP/TAllF/TP/T Overall job satisfaction Australian Fair Work Commission Research Source: Australian Workplace Relations Study (AWRS) 2014, Employee survey. Australian Global Satisfaction Ratings 2015 Reference; viewed 28/02/ Employees were required to use a 7-point scale to indicate their level of satisfaction, where 1 was extremely dissatisfied and 7 extremely satisfied.

Job Satisfaction – Australian Fair Work Commission Report January 2016 Reference: AFWC drivers-job-satisfaction Figure 6.1: Aspects considered the most important when determining overall job satisfaction by gender, per cent of employees

Job Satisfaction; How Can it Be Measured?

Job Satisfaction; How Can it Be Measured

The Main Causes of Job Satisfaction  What causes job satisfaction?  Research shows that job satisfaction is correlated with life satisfaction.  Pay influences job satisfaction only to a point.  Personality also plays a role in job satisfaction.  People who have positive core self-evaluations, who believe in their inner worth and basic competence, are more satisfied with their jobs than those with negative core self-evaluations.

Summarize the Main Causes of Job Satisfaction

Identify Four Employee Responses to Dissatisfaction

 More specific outcomes of job satisfaction include:  Job Satisfaction and Job Performance  Happy workers are more likely to be productive workers.  Job Satisfaction and Organisation Citizen Behaviour (OCB)  People who are more satisfied with their jobs are more likely to engage in OCB.  Job Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction  Satisfied employees increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.  Job Satisfaction and Absenteeism  There is a consistent negative relationship between satisfaction and absenteeism, but it is moderate to weak.

Identify Four Employee Responses to Dissatisfaction  Job Satisfaction and Turnover  A pattern of lowered job satisfaction is a predictor of possible intent to leave.  Job Satisfaction and Workplace Deviance  If employees don’t like their work environment, they’ll respond somehow.  Managers Often “Don’t Get It”  Many managers are unconcerned about employee job satisfaction.  Others overestimate how satisfied employees are with their jobs, so they don’t think there’s a problem when there is one.

Implications for Managers  Pay attention to your employees’ job satisfaction levels as determinants of their performance, turnover, absenteeism, and withdrawal behaviors.

Implications for Managers  Measure employee job attitudes objectively and at regular intervals in order to determine how employees are reacting to their work.

Implications for Managers  To raise employee satisfaction, evaluate the fit between the employee’s work interests and the intrinsic parts of his/her job to create work that is challenging and interesting to the individual.

Implications for Managers  Consider the fact that high pay alone is unlikely to create a satisfying work environment.