Job Attitudes

1
Job Attitudes

• Job Satisfaction
• Definition
• Measurement
• Primary Determinants
• Primary Outcomes
• Organizational Commitment

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Attitudes

• Have a Cognitive Emotional component
• Are separate from Behaviors
• Are related to, encompass, consist of, are
  influenced by Values Beliefs
• Examples include
• Job satisfaction
• Organizational Commitment
• Motivation

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Cognition Emotion
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Attitudes in the Workplace

• Job Satisfaction
• a pleasurable or positive emotional state
  resulting from the appraisal of ones job or job
  experiences (Locke, 1976)
• Organizational Commitment
• the degree to which an employee identifies
  with a particular organization and its goals, and
  wishes to maintain membership in the organization

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What Is Job Satisfaction?
MAJOR FACETS

• Pay
• Promotions
• Supervision
• Co-workers
• Work itself

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Job Satisfaction

• As an attitude, job satisfaction has both
  cognitive and emotional components.
• What do you know about your work situation?
• How do you feel about your work situation?

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Measuring Job Satisfaction

• Most assessments of job satisfaction are done
  with attitude surveys
• Some measures are simple, one-dimensional
• All in all, I am satisfied with my job.
• More advanced measures attempt to capture
  multiple dimensions work, pay, promotion,
  supervisor, co-workers
• Other measures are purely projective
• ? ?

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Measuring Job Satisfaction

• Satisfaction with Pay
• I feel I am being paid a fair amount for the work
  I do
• Satisfaction with Promotion
• People get ahead as fast here as in other places
• Satisfaction with Supervisor
• My supervisor is quite competent in doing his/her
  job
• Satisfaction with Co-Workers
• I like the people I work with
• Satisfaction with Work
• My job is enjoyable

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What Causes Job Satisfaction?
Factors Contributing to Satisfaction/Motivation
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What Causes Job Satisfaction?

• Two factors that really matter in predicting
  overall job satisfaction
• Job challenge/complexity
• Degree to which job allows employee to use
  variety of skills, has autonomy, and is seen as
  significant
• Positive disposition self-concept
• Degree to which individual is positive - in
  general - and has positive regard for him or
  herself

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Does Pay Satisfy?
lProf/Tech
lSecretaries
Job satisfaction (100)
lNurses
lPhysicians
lManagers
lTemps
lLawyers
lManagers
lFaculty
lExecutives
Salary x 1,000
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Facets and Overall Satisfaction
Work satisfaction is, far and away, the strongest
predictor of overall job satisfaction.
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Variance Decomposition of Predictors of Job
Satisfaction
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Work and Overall Satisfaction
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Job Satisfaction Outcome and Predictor

• Job Satisfaction as an Outcome
• Managers attempt to create an environment that
  fosters job satisfaction challenging work, good
  benefits, considerate management, fair pay
• Job Satisfaction as a Predictor
• Managers expect that satisfied employees will be
  productive, stay committed, perform well

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Three Explanations (Jex Figure 5.1)
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A Job Design Approach to Satisfaction

• Job Characteristics
• Evaluation of job depends on job conditions
• Employees compare current expected aspects of
  job (e.g., pay, supervision)
• Assumes that working conditions (including the
  job itself) can be adjusted to encourage positive
  evaluations

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Job Satisfaction as Outcome

• Job Characteristics Theory
• Skill Variety, Task Identity, Task Significance,
  Feedback, Autonomy,
• A job design approach to satisfaction
• Hertzbergs Two-Factor Theory
• Certain work conditions are satisfiers, such as
  achievement, recognition
• Other work conditions are dis-satisfiers, such
  as uncertainty, injustice

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Job Characteristics Model
PERSONAL AND WORK OUTCOMES
CRITICAL PSYCHOLOGY STATES
CORE JOB DIMENSIONS
Skill variety Task identity Task significance
Experienced meaningfulness of the work
High internal work motivation High-quality work
performance High satisfaction with the work Low
absenteeism and turnover
Experienced responsibility for outcomes of the
work
Autonomy
Knowledge of the actual results of the work
activities
Feedback
Employee growth need strength
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A Social Information Processing Approach

• Jobs are social constructions that exist in the
  minds of employees
• Employees look at their behavior retrospectively
  and form attitudes (i.e., job satisfaction) to
  make sense of it.
• Opinions and attitudes are largely shaped by cues
  provided by the social environment.

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Internal Dispositions

• Employees have a natural tendency to be satisfied
  (or dissatisfied) with their jobs regardless of
  the working conditions
• Neutral Objects Satisfaction Questionnaire - a
  measure of attitudes toward neutral, common
  elements of everyday life
• Telephone Service
• 8 1/2 x 11 paper
• Dispositional traits are strongly related to
  satisfaction
• Positive Affect Job Satisfaction, r .49
• Negative Affect Job Satisfaction, r -.33

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Explaining Job Satisfaction
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Judgments of satisfaction are stable over time

• A study of identical twins reared apart 35 of
  twins job satisfaction scores were shared
• Part of the way people feel about their jobs
  (35) is hard wired.
• In another study A childs temperament (as early
  as age 10-12) predicted satisfaction and
  attainment when these individuals were age 55

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Dispositions and Job Satisfaction

• Positive disposition and self-concept are among
  the best predictors of job satisfaction
• Why?
• People with positive self-regard see more
  challenge in their work, even for work that is no
  more complex
• People with positive self-image actually attain
  more challenging jobs
• NOSQ
• Implications?

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Job Satisfaction as Predictor

• Job Satisfaction -gt Turnover
• Satisfied employees are less likely to leave
• Job Satisfaction -gt Absenteeism
• Satisfied employees miss fewer days of work
• Job Satisfaction -gt Withdrawal
• Satisfied employees are less likely to steal
• Job Satisfaction -gt Performance
• Happy workers are productive workers

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Outcomes of Job Dissatisfaction
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Job Satisfaction-Job Performance
Correlation between job satisfaction and job
performance
Job Complexity
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Quick Summary

• Job Satisfaction
• Is an important work attitude
• Is a pleasurable or positive emotional state
  resulting from the appraisal of ones job or job
  experiences
• Can be measured with attitude surveys, some of
  which are multi-dimensional (work, pay, etc.)
• Can be an outcome encouraged through job design
  and good management
• Can be a predictor of other important work
  outcomes like productivity, commitment, etc.

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Can Managers Create Satisfied Employees?

• Yes
• Managers can shape the environment to encourage
  employee satisfaction
• Mentally challenging work
• Equitable rewards
• Supportive working conditions
• Supportive colleagues

• No
• Research suggests that job satisfaction is
  largely determined by genetics
• 80 of Happiness (or subjective well-being) is
  attributable to genes
• Job satisfaction tends to be consistent across
  time and across jobs

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Organizational Commitment

• The degree to which an employee identifies with a
  particular organization and its goals, and wishes
  to maintain membership in the organization

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Organizational Commitment

• Affective you believe strongly in the goals and
  objectives of the organization employees stay
  with an organization because they want to
• This organization has a great deal of personal
  meaning to me
• I feel a strong sense of belonging to my
  organization
• Continuance employees stay because they cant
  afford to leave they have to stay
• It would be very hard for me to leave the
  organization, even if I wanted to
• I feel I have too few options to consider leaving
  the organization
• Normative employees stay because they feel
  obligated to do so they ought to stay
• This organization deserves my loyalty
• I owe a great deal to my organization

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High Commitment -gt High Productivity?

• Not necessarily
• Consider the employee who simply cant afford to
  leave - Continuance Commitment ? Productivity ?
• Consider a free agent in the last year of his
  contract Commitment ? Productivity ?
• Consider the employee who feels obligated to
  stay, even though theyre unhappy Normative
  Commitment ? Productivity ?
• Commitment is an attitude, which is subject to
  changes in the environment (think layoffs,
  uncertainty, unfair treatment)

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Work Attitudes

• Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment
  are important work outcomes
• It is expected that managers can shape the
  environment to improve both
• Both are attitudes, both are subject to change
• Satisfaction Commitment are both negatively
  related to Absenteeism, Turnover, Withdrawal
• Satisfaction Commitment are only loosely
  related to Performance

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How strongly are attitudes related to outcomes?