1. Work-Related Attitudes
Feelings about Jobs, Organizations, and People
Chapter 5

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Learning Objectives
Define attitudes and describe their basic components.
Describe the concept of job satisfaction and summarize two major theories of job satisfaction.
Explain the major consequences of job dissatisfaction and ways of overcoming them.
Describe the concept of organizational commitment, the major consequences of low levels of organizational commitment, and how to overcome them.
Distinguish between prejudice and discrimination, and identify various victims of prejudice in organizations.
Describe some of the steps being taken by organizations today to manage diversity in the workforce and their effectiveness.
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Basic Definitions
Attitudes: Relatively stable clusters of feelings, beliefs, and behavioral intentions toward specific objects, people, or institutions.
Work-Related Attitudes: Attitudes relating to any aspect of work or work settings.
Job Satisfaction: Positive or negative attitudes held by individuals toward their jobs.
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4. Components of Attitudes
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Job Satisfaction
Most people are quite satisfied with their jobs.
Levels of job satisfaction, however, vary by country
Overall levels of satisfaction have been dropping in recent years
What kinds of workers tend to be more satisfied?
White-collar personnel
Older people
People with more experience on their jobs
Men and members of majority groups
Those who are dispositionally predisposed to be satisfied
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6. Satisfaction by Country
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7. Causes of Lowered Morale
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8. The Dispositional Model
The conceptualization proposing that job satisfaction is a relatively stable disposition of an individual – that is, a characteristic that stays with people across situations.
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9. Measuring Job Satisfaction
Job Descriptive Index:
A rating scale for assessing job satisfaction. Individuals respond to this questionnaire by indicating whether or not various adjectives describe aspects of their work.
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10. Measuring Job Satisfaction
Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire:
A rating scale for assessing job satisfaction in which people indicate the extent to which they are satisfied with various aspects of their jobs.
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11. Measuring Job Satisfaction
Pay Satisfaction Questionnaire:
A questionnaire designed to assess employees’ level of satisfaction with various aspects of their pay.
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12. Measuring Job Satisfaction
Critical Incidents Technique: A procedure for measuring job satisfaction in which employees describe incidents relating to their work that they find especially satisfying or dissatisfying.
Interviews: Questioning people in person about their attitudes in order to explore them more deeply.
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Two-Factor Theory
A theory of job satisfaction suggesting that satisfaction and dissatisfaction stem from different groups of variables (motivators and hygiene factors, respectively).
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14. Value Theory of Satisfaction
A theory suggesting that job satisfaction depends primarily on the match between the outcomes individuals value in their jobs and their perceptions about the availability of such outcomes.
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15. Consequences of Job Satisfaction
Employee Withdrawal: Actions such as chronic absenteeism and voluntary turnover (i.e., quitting one’s job) that enable employees to escape from adverse organization situations.
Absenteeism
Turnover
Task Performance
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Turnover
Unfolding model of voluntary turnover: A conceptualization that explains the cognitive processes through which people make decisions about quitting or staying on their jobs.
Decision depends on:
Shock to the system: An attention-getting event that gets employees to think about their jobs (e.g., merger with another company).
Decision frames: A set of internalized rules and images regarding how to interpret something that has occurred (e.g., based on what I know from the past, is there an obvious response?).
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Voluntary Turnover
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Task Performance
The relationship between satisfaction and performance is positive, but it is not very strong.
Explanations:
In many work settings, there is little room for large changes in performance.
Job satisfaction and performance may not be directly linked. Any direct relationship between them may stem from the fact that both are related to a third factor – receipt of various rewards.
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19. Promoting Job Satisfaction
Make jobs fun
Pay people fairly
Match people to jobs that fit their interests
Avoid boring, repetitive jobs
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20. Job Satisfaction in Tough Times
Be open and honest about the company’s financial situation.
Spend time with your best workers, helping them develop their careers.
Break assignments into manageable chunks.
Pay people what they’re worth.
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21. Organizational Commitment
The extent to which an individual identifies and is involved with his or her organization and/or is unwilling to leave it.
Continuance Commitment: The strength of a person’s desire to continue working for an organization because he or she needs to do so and cannot afford to leave.
Affective Commitment: The strength of a person’s desire to work for an organization because he or she agrees with its underlying goals and values.
Normative Commitment: The strength of a person’s desire to continue working for an organization because he or she feels obligations from others to remain there.
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22. Organizational Commitment
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23. Why Commitment Matters
Committed employees are less likely to withdraw.
Committed employees are willing to make sacrifices for the organization.
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24. Developing Commitment
Make jobs interesting and give people responsibility.
Align the interests of the company with those of the employees.
Enthusiastically recruit new employees whose values closely match those of the organization.
Listen to your employees.
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25. Prejudice vs. Discrimination
Negative attitudes toward the members of specific groups, based solely on the fact that they are members of those groups (e.g., age, race, sexual orientation).
Discrimination
The behavior consistent with a prejudicial attitude; the act of treating someone negatively because of his or her membership in a specific group.
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26. Prejudice vs. Discrimination
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Problems of Prejudice
Although the American workforce is becoming increasingly diverse, prejudice against various groups still exists, often with serious consequences.
Specific problems:
Prejudice can be a source of serious friction or conflict between people.
Prejudice may have adverse effects on the careers of people who are the targets of such attitudes.
Glass Ceiling: A barrier to job advancement caused by prejudicial attitudes.
Covictimization: The negative psychological impact suffered by individuals who share the same background as direct victims of discrimination.
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Bases for Prejudice
Age
Physical Condition
Gender (being female)
Sexual Orientation
Race and National Origin
Religion
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29. Does Discrimination Exist?
A survey of American workers shows that racial discrimination is believed to be prevalent in many forms. Its main victims, African Americans, tend to be more aware of discrimination than those who are least affected by it, white Americans.
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30. Major Approaches to Diversity
Affirmative Action Plans: Diversity programs designed to respond to affirmative action laws, which are legislation designed to give employment opportunities to groups that have been underrepresented in the workforce.
Diversity Management Programs: Programs in which employees are taught to celebrate the differences between people and in which organizations create supportive work environments for women and minorities.
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Affirmative Action
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32. Diversity Management Programs
Awareness-Based Diversity Training: A type of diversity management program designed to make people more aware of diversity issues in the workplace and to get them to recognize the underlying assumptions they make about people.
Skills-Based Diversity Training: An approach to diversity management that goes beyond awareness-based diversity training and is designed to develop people’s skills with respect to managing diversity.
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Diversity Management
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Avoiding Pitfalls
Focus on a range of differences between people – not stereotypes.
Managers should not treat someone as special because he or she is a member of a certain group.
Managing diversity requires total managerial support.
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Ensuring Success
Actively pursue the best people.
Make sure that people are accepted and fit in.
Educate everyone.
Assess how you’re doing.
Pay attention to details.
Plan for the future.
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