Ders Adı Organizational Behavior

Konu Adı Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

1. Attitudes

Attitudes are evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people, or events. They
reflect how we feel about something. In other words, saying “I like my job”, reflects your attitude
toward work.

Attitudes are made up of three components:

1) The cognitive component is the belief in the way things are.

2) The affective component is the more critical part of the attitude, as it calls upon emotions
or feelings.
3) The behavioral component describes the intention to behave in a certain way toward
someone or something. These three components work together to aid in our
understanding of the complexity of an attitude.

Early research assumed that attitudes were causally related to behavior. One researcher, Leon
Festinger, argued that attitudes follow behavior. Sometimes we observe people who will change what
they say so it doesn’t contradict their behavior. When attitudes and behaviors don’t line up, individuals
will experience cognitive dissonance. This incongruity is uncomfortable and individuals will seek to
reduce the dissonance to find consistency. This feeling of mental discomfort leads to an alteration in
one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance. For example,
when people smoke (behavior) and they know that smoking causes cancer (cognition), they are in a
state of cognitive dissonance. They know that smoking is bad, but still choose to smoke. In order to
lessen the physical discomfort from this conflict, they will engage in one or more of the following
behaviors:

1. Modify one of their thoughts (e.g. “Ah, I really don’t smoke THAT much, so I’m ok”)

2. Trivialize the behavior (e.g. “Hmm, actually I don’t think smoking is a big deal. The evidence is
weak that smoking causes cancer”)

3. Add thoughts (e.g. “I exercise and eat healthy, so my smoking behavior won’t hurt me that
much)

4. Deny the dissonance (e.g. “Smoking and cancer aren’t related”

or

5. Change their behavior (e.g. stop smoking)1

1
https://innervoiceapp.com/cognitive-dissonance-and-excessive-screen-times-negative-effects-on-language-
development/
 Ders Adı Organizational Behavior
Konu Adı Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

When there is dissonance, people alter either their attitudes or behavior to minimize the
dissonance, or they develop a rationalization for the discrepancy. Recent research found, for instance,
that the attitudes of employees who had emotionally challenging work events improved after they
talked about their experiences with coworkers. Social sharing helped these workers adjust their
attitudes to behavioral expectations.

People are willing to live with some discomfort, but the degree to which this is true depends on
the importance of the elements, how much influence the individual has on the situation, and the
rewards available. Individuals will be more motivated to reduce dissonance when the attitudes or
behavior are important or when they believe the dissonance is due to something they can control. A
third factor is the rewards of dissonance; high rewards, such as a higher pay raise, accompanying high
dissonance tend to reduce the tension inherent in the dissonance.

Some variables moderate the relationship between attitude and behavior. These variables include
the importance of the attitude to the person, the correspondence of the attitude to the behavior, the
accessibility of the attitude, the presence of social pressures on behavior, and the direct experience a
person has with the attitude. These mitigating variables will affect whether or not and to what degree
a certain attitude will predict behavior.

Finally, the attitude–behavior relationship is likely to be much stronger if an attitude refers to

something with which we have direct personal experience.

2. Job Attitudes

Most of the research in OB has been concerned with three major job attitudes: job satisfaction,
job involvement, and organizational commitment. In addition, perceived organizational support and
employee engagement are important.

2.1. Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is the positive feeling about the job resulting from an evaluation of its
characteristics.

2.2. Job Involvement

Job involvement looks at the degree of psychological identification with the job. Related to this is
psychological empowerment, which is defined as employees’ beliefs in the degree to which they
influence their work environment, their competencies, the meaningfulness of their job, and their
perceived autonomy. Research suggest that psychological empowerment strongly predicts job
attitudes and strain, while it moderately predicts performance behaviors.
 Ders Adı Organizational Behavior
Konu Adı Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

2.3. Organizational Commitment

Another important job attitude is organizational commitment, which is defined as the act of
identifying with a particular organization and its goals, and wishing to remain a member of the
organization. John Meyer and Natalie Allen developed their Three Component Model of Commitment
and published it in the 1991 "Human Resource Management Review." The model explains that
commitment to an organization is a psychological state, and that it has three distinct components that
affect how employees feel about the organization that they work for.

The three components are:

1. Affection for your job ("affective commitment").

2. Fear of loss ("continuance commitment").

3. Sense of obligation to stay ("normative commitment").

You can use this model to increase commitment and engagement in your team, while also helping
people to experience a greater feeling of well-being and job satisfaction. Let's look at each of Meyer
and Allen's three types of commitment in greater detail.

Affection for Your Job (Affective Commitment)

Affection for your job occurs when you feel a strong emotional attachment to your organization,
and to the work that you do. You'll most likely identify with the organization's goals and values, and
you genuinely want to be there.

If you're enjoying your work, you're likely to feel good, and be satisfied with your job. In turn, this
increased job satisfaction is likely to add to your feeling of affective commitment.

Fear of Loss (Continuance Commitment)

This type of commitment occurs when you weigh up the pros and cons of leaving your organization.
You may feel that you need to stay at your company, because the loss you'd experience by leaving it is
greater than the benefit you think you might gain in a new role.

These perceived losses, or "side bets," can be monetary (you'd lose salary and benefits);
professional (you might lose seniority or role-related skills that you've spent years acquiring); or social
(you'd lose friendships or allies).

The severity of these "losses" often increases with age and experience. You're more likely to
experience continuance commitment if you're in an established, successful role, or if you've had
several promotions within one organization.
 Ders Adı Organizational Behavior
Konu Adı Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

Sense of Obligation to Stay (Normative Commitment)

This type of commitment occurs when you feel a sense of obligation to your organization, even if
you're unhappy in your role, or even if you want to pursue better opportunities. You feel that you
should stay with your organization, because it's the right thing to do.

This sense of obligation can stem from several factors. You might feel that you should remain with
your organization because it has invested money or time in your training. Or perhaps it provided a
reward in advance, such as paying for your college tuition.

This obligation can also result from your upbringing. For instance, your family might have stressed
that you should stay loyal to your organization.2

2.4. Perceived Organizational Support (POS)

Perceived organizational support (or POS) is the degree to which employees believe the
organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being. The perception of fairness is a
key factor in determining the willingness of employees to work hard for the organization. In addition,
employees have a higher POS when they perceive that they have some input in decision making
processes. An excellent example is R&D engineer John Greene, whose POS is sky-high because CEO
Marc Benioff and 350 fellow Salesforce.com employees covered all his medical expenses and stayed
in touch with him throughout his recovery after he was diagnosed with leukemia.

POS is important in countries where power distance, the degree to which people in a country
accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally, is lower. In low-power
distance countries like the United States, people are more likely to view work as an exchange than as
a moral obligation, so employees look for reasons to feel supported by their organizations. In high
power-distance countries like China, employees POS perceptions are not as deeply based on
demonstrations of fairness, support, and encouragement.

2.5. Employee Engagement

Employee engagement goes beyond just job satisfaction. It also includes involvement and
enthusiasm for the job. Highly engaged employees have a passion for their work and feel a deep
connection to their company. Disengaged employees have essentially checked out—putting time but
not energy or attention into their work.

Engagement is a real concern for most organizations because surveys indicate that few—between
17 percent and 29 percent—are highly engaged by their work. Engagement is a very general concept,
perhaps broad enough to capture the intersection of the other variables we’ve discussed. In other
words, it may be what these attitudes have in common.

2
The Three Component of Commitment ,.Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/three-
component-model-commitment.htm
 Ders Adı Organizational Behavior
Konu Adı Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

2.6. Are These Job Attitudes All That Distinct?

No; there is a high degree of overlap between the different job attitudes. For example, if a worker
has higher job satisfaction, he or she tends to be more engaged and show a stronger commitment to
the organization. Researchers are trying to find ways to measure the different attitudes in order to get
at their distinctiveness.

3. Job Satisfaction

When it comes to job satisfaction, some jobs are less attractive, as shown in Exhibit 3-2.

As we have discussed, job satisfaction is defined as a positive feeling about a job resulting from an
evaluation of its characteristics. There are multiple ways to measure job satisfaction, but two
approaches are popular.

The single global rating approach is a response to one question, such as, “All things considered,
how satisfied are you with your job?” Respondents circle a number between 1 and 5 on a scale from
“highly satisfied” to “highly dissatisfied.”

The second approach, the summation of job facets, is more sophisticated. It identifies key
elements in a job, such as the nature of the work, supervision, present pay, promotion opportunities,
and relations with coworkers.
 Ders Adı Organizational Behavior
Konu Adı Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

Research shows that over the past 30 years, the majority of U.S. workers have been satisfied with
their jobs. However, the recent economic downturn has generated a dramatic drop-off in satisfaction
levels, with just half of workers reporting feeling satisfied now.

As shown here in Exhibit 3-3, people have typically been more satisfied with their jobs overall, with
the work itself, and with their supervisors and coworkers, than they have been with their pay and
promotion opportunities.

Exhibit 3-3 Average Job Satisfaction Levels by Facet

Exhibit 3-4 provides results of a global study of job satisfaction levels of workers in 15 countries. Mexico
and Switzerland report the highest levels of job satisfaction.
 Ders Adı Organizational Behavior
Konu Adı Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

Exhibit 3-4 Average Levels of Employee Job Satisfaction by Country

4. What Causes Job Satisfaction?

Interesting jobs that provide training, variety, independence, and control satisfy most employees.
There is also a strong correspondence between how well people enjoy the social context of their
workplace and how satisfied they are overall. Interdependence, feedback, social support, and
interaction with coworkers outside the workplace are strongly related to job satisfaction even after
accounting for characteristics of the work itself.

Personality also plays a role in job satisfaction. Research has shown that 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.

Pay also has an influence on job satisfaction but not as much as one might think. Exhibit 3-5 shows
the relationship between the average pay for a job and the average level of job satisfaction. Once an
individual reaches a level of comfortable living (in the United States, that occurs at about $40,000 a
year, depending on the region and family size), the relationship between pay and job satisfaction
virtually disappears. Money does motivate people but what motivates us is not necessarily the same
as what makes us happy.
 Ders Adı Organizational Behavior
Konu Adı Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

Exhibit 3-5 Relationship between Average Pay in Job and Job Satisfaction of Employees in That
Job

Source: Based on T. A. Judge, R. F. Piccolo, N. P. Podsakoff, J. C. Shaw, and B. L. Rich, “The Relationship
between Pay and Job Satisfaction: A Meta-Analysis of the Literature,” Journal of Vocational Behavior
77, no. 2 (2010): 157–67.

An organization’s commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR), or its self-regulated

actions to benefit society or the environment beyond what is required by law, increasingly affects
employee job satisfaction. Organizations practice CSR in a number of ways, including environmental
sustainability initiatives, nonprofit work, and charitable giving.

Recognizing how important socially responsible efforts are to their customers, employees and
stakeholders, many companies focus on a few broad CSR categories, including:

1. Environmental efforts: One primary focus of CSR is the environment. Businesses, regardless
of size, have large carbon footprints. Any steps a company can take to reduce its footprint is
considered good for both the company and society.
2. Philanthropy: Businesses can practice social responsibility by donating money, products or
services to social causes and nonprofits. Larger companies tend to have plentiful resources
that can benefit charities and local community programs; however, as a small business, your
efforts can make a big difference. If there is a specific charity or program you have in mind,
 Ders Adı Organizational Behavior
Konu Adı Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

reach out to the organization and ask them about their specific needs and whether a donation
of money, time or perhaps your company's products would best help them.
3. Ethical labor practices: By treating employees fairly and ethically, companies can demonstrate
CSR. This is especially true of businesses that operate in international locations with labor laws
that differ from those in the United States.
4. Volunteering: Participating in local causes or volunteering your time (and your staff's time) in
community events says a lot about a company's sincerity. By doing good deeds without
expecting anything in return, companies can express their concern (and support) for specific
issues and social causes3.

The relationship between CSR and job satisfaction is particularly strong for Millennials. Although
the link between CSR and job satisfaction is strengthening, not all employees find value in CSR.
Therefore, organizations need to address a few issues in order to be most effective:

• First, not all projects are equally meaningful for every person’s job satisfaction, yet participation for all
employees is sometimes expected.

• Second, some organizations require employees to contribute in a prescribed manner.

• Third, CSR measures can seem disconnected from the employee’s actual work, providing no increase
to job satisfaction.

5. Outcomes of Job Satisfaction

Now, let’s look at specific outcomes of job satisfaction related to job performance, OCB, customer
satisfaction, and life satisfaction.

Job Performance: Happy workers are more likely to be productive workers—the evidence suggests
that productivity is likely to lead to satisfaction. Individuals with higher job satisfaction perform better,
and organizations with more satisfied employees tend to be more effective than those with fewer.

Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB): OCBs include people talking positively about their
organizations, helping others, and going beyond the normal expectations of their jobs. It seems logical
to assume job satisfaction should be a major determinant of an employee’s organizational citizenship
behavior (OCB). Finally, research shows that when people are more satisfied with their jobs, they are
more likely to engage in OCBs.

Why does job satisfaction lead to OCB? One reason is trust. Research in 18 countries suggests that
managers reciprocate employees’ OCB with trusting behaviors of their own. Individuals who wheel
that their coworkers support them are also more likely to engage in helpful behaviors than those who

3
What Is Corporate Social Responsibility?Skye Schooley (2020). Retrieved from

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4679-corporate-social-responsibility.html
 Ders Adı Organizational Behavior
Konu Adı Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

have antagonistic coworker relationships. Personality matters, too. Individuals with certain personality
traits (extraversion and conscientiousness) are more satisfied with their work, which in turn leads them
to engage in more OCB. Individuals who receive positive feedback on their OCB from their peers are
more likely to continue their citizenship activities.

Customer Satisfaction: Evidence indicates that satisfied employees increase customer satisfaction and
loyalty. A number of companies are acting on this evidence. Online shoe retailer Zappos is so
committed to finding customer service employees who are satisfied with the job that it offers a $2000
bribe to quit the company after training, figuring the least satisfied will take the cash and go. Zappos
employees are empowered to “create fun and a little weirdness” to ensure that customers are satisfied
and it works: Of the company’s more than 24 million customers, 75% are repeat buyers. For Zappos,
employee satisfaction has a direct effect on customer satisfaction.

Life Satisfaction: Research in Europe indicated that job satisfaction is positively correlated with life
satisfaction, and your attitudes and experiences in life spill over into your job approaches and
experiences. Furthermore, life satisfaction decreases when people become unemployed, according to
research in Germany, and not just because of the loss of income. For most individuals, work is an
important part of life, and therefore it makes sense that our overall happiness depends in no small
part on our happiness in our work (our job satisfaction).

6. The Impact of Job Dissatisfaction

What happens when employees dislike their jobs? The exit–voice–loyalty–neglect framework
shown in Exhibit 3-6 is helpful for understanding the consequences of dissatisfaction. The exhibit
illustrates employees’ four responses to job dissatisfaction, which differ along two dimensions:
constructive/destructive and active/passive.

The responses are as follows:

1. Exit. The exit response directs behavior toward leaving the organization, including looking for
a new position or resigning.
2. Voice. The voice response includes actively and constructively attempting to improve
conditions, including suggesting improvements, discussing problems with superiors, and
undertaking union activity.
3. Loyalty. The loyalty response means passively but optimistically waiting for conditions to
improve, including speaking up for the organization in the face of external criticism and
trusting the organization and its management to “do the right thing.”
4. Neglect. The neglect response passively allows conditions to worsen and includes chronic
absenteeism or lateness, reduced effort, and increased error rate.

Exit and neglect behaviors are linked to performance variables such as productivity, absenteeism,
and turnover. But this model expands employee responses to include voice and loyalty- constructive
 Ders Adı Organizational Behavior
Konu Adı Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

behaviors that allow individuals to tolerate unpleasant situations or improve working conditions. The
model helps us understand various situations. For instance, union members often express
dissatisfaction through the grievance procedure or formal contract negotiations. These voice
mechanisms allow them to continue in their jobs while acting to improve the situation.
Next, we will talk about a behavioral response to job dissatisfaction: counterproductive work
behavior (CWB).

Counterproductive Work Behavior (CWB)

We can look at job dissatisfaction by exploring counterproductive work behavior. Substance abuse,
stealing at work, undue socializing, gossiping, absenteeism, and tardiness are examples of behaviors
that are destructive to organizations.
They are indicators of a broader syndrome called counterproductive work behavior (CWB), also
termed deviant behavior in the workplace, or simply employee withdrawal. CWB doesn’t just
happen—the behaviors often follow negative and sometimes longstanding attitudes. Generally, job
dissatisfaction predicts CWB. People who are not satisfied with their work become frustrated, which
lowers their performance and makes them more likely to commit CWB. Other research suggests that,
in addition to vocational misfit (being in the wrong line of work), lack of fit with the organization
(working in the wrong kind of organizational culture) also predicts CWBs.
As a manager, you can take steps to mitigate CWB. You can poll employee attitudes, for instance,
and identify areas for workplace improvement. If there is no vocational fit, the employee will not be
fulfilled, so you can screen for that. Tailoring tasks so a person’s abilities and values can be exercised
should increase job satisfaction and reduce CWB. Furthermore, creating strong teams, integrating
supervisors with them, providing formalized team policies, and introducing team-based incentives may
help lower the CWB “contagion” that lowers the standards of the group.

• Absenteeism: We find a consistent negative relationship between satisfaction and absenteeism.

The more satisfied you are, the less likely you are to miss work.
• Turnover: Satisfaction is also negatively related to turnover, but the correlation is stronger than
what we found for absenteeism.
• Workplace Deviance: Job dissatisfaction predicts unionization, stealing, undue socializing, and
tardiness. If employees don’t like their work environment, they will respond somehow.

Managers Often “Don’t Get It”

It should come as no surprise that job satisfaction can affect the bottom line. Regular surveys can
reduce gaps between what managers think employees feel and what they really feel.

7. Implications for Managers

Of the major job attitudes – job satisfaction, job involvement, organizational commitment,
perceived organizational support (POS), and employee engagement – remember that an employee’s
job satisfaction level is the best single predictor of behavior.
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Konu Adı Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

Pay attention to your employees’ job satisfaction levels as determinants of their performance,
turnover, absenteeism, and withdrawal behaviors.
Measure employee job attitudes objectively and at regular intervals to determine how employees
are reacting to their work.
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.
Consider the fact that high pay alone is unlikely to create a satisfying work environment.

SOURCES
• Robbins S.P. & Judge, T. A. (2019). Organizational Behavior, 18th Edition, Global Edition,
Pearson: United Kingdom.
• Mutlucan, Nigar Çağla (2019). Örnek Olaylarla Örgütsel Davranış. Beta Yayınları.
• https://innervoiceapp.com/cognitive-dissonance-and-excessive-screen-times-negative-
effects-on-language-development/
• The Three Component of Commitment. Retrieved from
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/three-component-model-commitment.htm
• What Is Corporate Social Responsibility? Skye Schooley (2020). Retrieved from
https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4679-corporate-social-responsibility.html