1

Values, Attitudes & Emotions

at Work
OBHR101 MPW AY1617 T1 Week 5

Last week
Intelligence & Personality as predictors of job
performance
But! Implicit beliefs about abilities also matter
But! Personality as behavioral tendency not
behavior itself

This week
Other predictors: Values
Other outcomes: Job attitudes
A process: Theories; Emotions and Moods
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What are values?

Values represent basic convictions
Have a tendency to be stable

Beliefs about what is good and bad

Predicts attitudes: Personally or socially
preferable to an opposite or converse mode of
conduct or end-state of existence
Predicts motivation: Signals attractive (seek)
and unattractive (change/avoid) aspects of our
environment
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Why do we care about values?

Values at work
Values help us understand job attitudes and
motivation at work
We enter an organization with preconceived
notions of what ought and ought not be.
High agreeableness good or bad
These notions are not value-free; on the contrary,
they contain our interpretations of right and wrong
and our preference for certain behaviors or outcomes
over others.

Values cloud objectivity and rationality

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Why do we care about values?

For yourself value congruence with
organization is important!

Rank-order the following according to

importance to SMU:

COMMITMENT
INTEGRITY
RESPONSIBILITY
COLLEGIALITY
LEADERSHIP
EXCELLENCE
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Values at work
Schwartz Values Survey: Order of values = An
individuals set of values ranked in terms of
intensity is considered the persons value
system.
Established in our early years from parents,
teachers, friends, and others.

Schwartz Values

Wide survey of over 60,000 people to identify common values

Power - This takes value from social status and prestige. The ability to control others is important
and power will be actively sought through dominance of others and control over resources.

Achievement - Value here comes from setting goals and then achieving them. The more challenge,
the greater the sense of achievement. When others have achieved the same thing, status is
reduced and greater goals are sought.

Hedonism - Hedonists simply enjoy themselves. They seek pleasure above all things and may,
according to the view of others, sink into debauchery.

Stimulation - The need for stimulation is close to hedonism, though the goal is slightly different.
Pleasure here comes more specifically from excitement and thrills and a person with this driver is
more likely to be found doing extreme sports than propping up a bar.

Self-direction - Those who seek self-direction enjoy being independent and outside the control of
others. The prefer freedom and may have a particular creative or artistic bent, which they seek to
indulge whenever possible.

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Schwartz Values
Universalism - The universalist seeks social justice and tolerance for all. They promote
peace and equality and find war anathema except perhaps in pursuit of lasting peace.
Benevolence - Those who tend towards benevolence are very giving, seeking to help
others and provide general welfare. They are the 'earth mothers' who nurture all.
Tradition - The traditionalist respects that which has gone before, doing things simply
because they are customary. They are conservatives in the original sense, seeking to
preserve the world order as is. Any change makes them uncomfortable.
Conformity - The person who values conformity seeks obedience to clear rules and
structures. They gain a sense of control through doing what they are told and
conforming to agreed laws and statutes.
Security - Those who seek security seek health and safety to a greater degree than
other people (perhaps because of childhood woes). Though they may worry about the
potential of military force, they welcome the comfort that their existence brings.

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What does your value system look like

vis a vis SMU? Fit? No Fit?
COMMITMENT Sticking to an
agreement and seeing it
through to completion
INTEGRITY Upholding honesty
and truthfulness in oneself and
to others
RESPONSIBILITY Taking
ownership and accountability
for ones actions.
COLLEGIALITY Valuing people
and building positive and
lasting relationships.
LEADERSHIP Leading and
motivating others to achieve
long-term goals.
EXCELLENCE Demonstrating
excellence

Tradition
Benevolence
Benevolence / Conformity
Benevolence

Achievement/ Benevolence
Achievement
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What are some cultural variations in

values?

From the GLOBE study of

62 Societies (and 825
organizations) (House et al
2004)

Individualism
The extent to which
people emphasize
personal versus group
goals.

Power Distance
The extent to which
members of a culture
accept inequality.
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What are some cultural variations

in values?
Assertiveness
The degree to which individuals are assertive,
confrontational and aggressive. Value competition

Uncertainty Avoidance
The extent to which people are tolerant and comfortable
with ambiguous situations.

Future Orientation
The extent to which a culture values persistence, thrift,
and perseverance.
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15

What do the clusters mean? (from

Northouse, 2007)
Anglo: competitive and result-oriented
Confucian Asia - result-driven, encourage group
working together over individual goals
Eastern Europe - forceful, supportive of coworkers, treat women with equality
Germanic Europe - value competition &
aggressiveness and are more result-oriented
Latin America - loyal & devoted to their families and
similar groups
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What do the clusters mean? (from

Northouse, 2007)
Latin Europe - value individual autonomy
Middle East - devoted & loyal to their own people,

women afforded less status

Nordic Europe - high priority on long-term success,
women treated with greater equality
Southern Asia - strong family & deep concern for
their communities
Sub-Sahara Africa - concerned & sensitive to others,
demonstrate strong family loyalty

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Cultural Values
Why are cultural values important to our
understanding of organizational behavior?
They too influence our attitudes.
They too influence our behaviors.

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Person-Environment Fit
Research on work values typically looks at
congruence between employees values and
those of their environments (e.g.,
organization, coworker, supervisor).
Broken down into P-O, P-G and P-S fit (among
others)
Predicts job performance and job attitudes

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Values and Attitudes

Attitudes are fairly stable evaluative tendencies to
respond consistently to a stimulus (e.g., person, object).
Attitudes have a specific target, values are broad
tendencies.
Cognitive component I deserve the promotion
Affective component I dont like my supervisor
Behavioral component Bye! *looks for new job*
Reasons (values) for working influence our attitudes and
feelings toward work.
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Fishbein and Ajzens Theory of Planned

Behavior (1985)
Values?
Persons beliefs
that behavior leads to
specified outcomes
and evaluation of
those outcomes

Attitude toward
the behavior

Relative Importance
of attitudes and normative
beliefs to person
Persons beliefs that
specified individuals
think s/he should (not)
perform the act and
motivation to comply
with specified persons.
Persons Control
Beliefs

Intentions

Behavior

Subjective
Norm Concerning
the Behavior

Culture?
Perceived
Behavioral
Control

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Does Behavior Always Follow from

Attitudes?
Yes
No

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Attitudes
Do attitudes guide actions?
Attitudebehavior correlation is?
r = .38 (meta-analysis): moderate correlation across studies
and topics

Yes, when
Attitude is important to us
Attitude is accessibility/ made aware to ourselves
Are you in touch with what your value system?

Absence of external pressure (e.g. social pressure)

Behavior is something we have experience in
Quitting, Signing a contract Its good to have these
experiences now as part of your internships!

Attitude is specifically relevant to behavior

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Attitudes
But what about the other way around? Do
actions affect our attitudes?
Yes, often

Basic social-psychological research:

Zimbardos Stanford Prison experiment
Role playing in organizations

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Attitudes
Cognitive Dissonance - tension caused when
our attitudes and behaviors do not align
To resolve this, we have to change one:
ATTITUDES or BEHAVIOR
If we do something that is contrary to our initial
attitude, we

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Vs
L, 30, Singaporean
Worked 2 years in this Danish
company as a management intern
2 months on assignment in NYC
Loved NYC
thought about waiting on tables to stay;
Got offered a job from another company in NYC
Previous other MTs were given temp posts
while they figured out their assignments and if
they wanted to stay with the company
She didnt! Pressured by Danish company to
sign on as full-time employee
Visa issues: decide in 4 days or we pull your
visa
Move back to Denmark in 4 days? Stay in NYC?
Initial attitude: HR is a bully, unfair, really angry
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Attitudes
1. Change our attitude
I like working for this company

2. Rationalize - Acting contrary to ones

attitudes does not always bring about
change
I dont like working for this company, but its only
for the next 2 years

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Attitudes
3. Effort justification Attributing a greater
value (than the objective value) to an
outcome which was achieved through effort
The amount of reward or justification for acting
contrary to ones beliefs influences the amount of
dissonance experienced.
I packed up everything and moved from New York
in 4 days to Denmark, I must like this company

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Attitude Summary
Why should we care?
Attitudes influence behaviors and behaviors
influence attitudes
Changing one likely results in a change in the
other
Influences your well-being

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Job attitudes in OB
Job attitudes are evaluations of ones job that
express ones feelings toward, beliefs about, and
attachment to ones job. This definition
encompasses:

Job satisfaction (JobSat)

Job involvement
Organizational Commitment (OrgComm)
Turnover intentions (TI)
Perceived organizational support (POS)
etc
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Job Satisfaction
Defined as the positive and negative feelings and
attitudes (or cognitions) we hold about our jobs
Why do we care about job sat?

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Job Satisfaction: Measurement

So how do you capture Job Satisfaction?
Global rating
Summation of job facets

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Job Satisfaction: Measurement

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Job Satisfaction: Measurement

JDI: Job Descriptive Index (facet level)
5 facets: Pay, promotion opportunities, coworkers,
supervision, work itself.
E.g., Work: Boring, Creative
Participants respond N, Y, ? (0, 3, 1, reverse code
where necessary)

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Think of the kind of supervision that you get on

your job. How well does each of the following
words or phrases describe the kind of supervision
you get? Circle YES if the word or phrase
describes your SUPERVISOR, NO if it does not,
and ? if you cannot decide.
1. Praises good work

No

Yes

2. Annoying

No

Yes

3. Tactful

No

Yes

4. Bad

No

Yes

5. Knows job well

No

Yes
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 And you think

your job is crappy!
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Job Satisfaction Correlates

Just like attitudes in general, personality
contributes to feelings of job satisfaction
people are predisposed by virtue of their
personalities to be more or less satisfied despite
changes in discrepancy.
Which personality constructs are relevant here?

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Disposition
Studies that point to a dispositional link in job
satisfaction:
Staw (1985) Stability in the midst of change: A dispositional
approach to job attitudes.

Identical twins reared apart tend to have similar levels of

job satisfaction.
Job satisfaction tends to be fairly stable over time, even
when changes in employer occur.
Disposition measured early in adolescence is correlated
with ones job satisfaction as a mature adult.

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Disposition (continued)
These findings suggest that some personality
characteristics originating in genetics or early learning
contribute to adult job satisfaction.
People who are extraverted and conscientious tend to be
more satisfied with their jobs.
Those high in neuroticism are less satisfied.
People who are high in self-esteem and internal locus of
control are more satisfied.
People High in PA are more satisfied on average (with
everything)
People with high CSEs

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Disposition (continued)
In general, people who are optimistic and
proactive report higher job satisfaction.
Mood and emotion may contribute to this
connection.

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Job Sat - Life Satisfaction

Disposition broadly predicts Life Satisfaction So
are Job Sat and Life Sat related?
Spillover hypothesis: job (dis)satisfaction spills over
into life
Compensation hypothesis: someone who is
dissatisfied with their job will look for pleasureable
experiences in non-work lives
Segmentation hypothesis: job and life satisfaction are
independent of each other; no correlation
Correlation = .58 implies?
Spillover = 68 %; compensation = 17%; and
segmentation = 15%
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Some Key Job Features that Contribute to

Job Satisfactions
The job itself: provide training, variety, independence,
and control
Social context of the work:
Interdependence, feedback, social support, and
interaction with co-workers outside the workplace are
strongly related to job satisfaction even after accounting
for characteristics of the work itself
Pay
For people who are poor or who live in poor countries, pay
does correlate with job satisfaction and overall happiness.
No effect 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)
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Consequences of Job Dissatisfaction

Exit: behavior directed toward leaving the organization, including
looking for a new position as well as resigning.
Voice: actively and constructively attempting to improve conditions,
including suggesting improvements, discussing problems with superiors,
and some forms of union activity.
Loyalty: 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.
Neglect: passively allowing conditions to worsen, including chronic
absenteeism or lateness, reduced effort, and increased error rate.
2. Exit and neglect behaviors encompass our performance variables
productivity, absenteeism, and turnover.
Voice and loyalty are constructive behaviors that allow individuals to
tolerate unpleasant situations or to revive satisfactory working
conditions.
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Consequences of Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction has a number of
consequences:
Performance
Task
Contextual
Organizational citizenship behaviour
Counterproductive behavior

Customer satisfaction and profit

Absence from work
Turnover
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Job Sat-Job Performance (task)

Is a happier worker more productive?
Debatable. Zero to moderate correlations (r = .2 - .3 range)
depending on the study.

Moderators?
Inconsistent or low correlations between 2 variables
suggest the possibility of moderators.
Moderators are variables that change the relations
between two other variables.

Mediators?
Yes, to be discussed later
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Potential Moderators
Job Sat-Job Performance (task)
Job Autonomy:
Satisfaction affects motivation, but only affects
performance when employees have more freedom to
perform their work.

Job Complexity:
More complex jobs typically are associated with more
autonomy, and we find stronger satisfaction-perf
relations for complex compared to simple jobs.

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Job Sat - Contextual Performance (and

Task Performance)

Person A
Job Sat.

Person A
Helping Behavior

Person A
Task Performance

Person B
Job Sat.

Person B
Helping Behavior

Person B
Task Performance

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Job Sat Customer Satisfaction

Does job satisfaction relate to customer
satisfaction?
Yes, why?
display more positive emotions toward customers:
emotional contagion
less likely to quit or be absent, so they have more job
experience and knowledge and are better able to serve
their customers.
Customers may build loyalty to service provider rather
than organization.

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Job Sat - Absence from Work

Absenteeism is an expensive behaviour.
Less satisfied employees are more likely to be
absent.
Satisfaction with the content of the work is the
best predictor of absenteeism.
The absence-satisfaction connection is not
very strong.

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Job Sat - Absence from Work

Several factors constrain the ability of many
people to convert their like or dislike of work into
corresponding attendance patterns:
Remember this? Intentions vs behavior
Some organizations have attendance control policies.
It might be unclear to employees how much absenteeism is
reasonable or sensible.
Some absence is unavoidable.

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Job Sat - Absence from Work

The norm for absenteeism and the absence
culture might have a stronger effect than an
individual employees job satisfaction.

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Job Sat - Absence from Work

If the situation prohibits emission of one
behavior in family, another behavior in the
same family is usually emitted.
This means that

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Job Sat. - Turnover

Turnover refers to resignation from an
organization and it can be very expensive.
Research indicates a moderately strong
connection between job satisfaction and
turnover.
Less-satisfied workers are more likely to quit.
The relationship is far from perfect as your
class tickets reflect
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A Model of Employee Turnover

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Job Sat. - Turnover

The model shows that job satisfaction as well
as commitment to the organization and
various shocks can contribute to intentions
to leave.
Research shows that such intentions are very
good predictors of turnover.
Why satisfied people sometimes quit their
jobs and dissatisfied people stay
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Job Sat. - Turnover

Such as?
dissatisfaction offset by a strong commitment to
the overall values and mission of the organization.
so embedded in the community that he or she is
willing to endure a dissatisfying job rather than
move.
A weak job market
I really hated it but once I paid of my
mortgage!...
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Organizational Commitment
Affective want to stay
Continuance need to stay
Normative ought to stay

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58

What predicts each?

Affective
Interesting work
Enriched jobs

Continuance
Pension funds
Rapid promotions
Embeddedness

Normative
Tuition reimbursement
Important work - vision

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Organizational Commitment: Correlates

Age
r = .20

Gender
r = -.09 (woman lower)

Education
r =-.04

Salary
r =.17

Job Performance
r = .13
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A Model of Employee Turnover

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Integrated attitudes and behavioral

outcomes
Harrison, Newman, & Roth (2006) proposed:
Overall job attitude (comprised of both satisfaction and
commitment)
Overall behavioral criterion (comprised of performance, OCBs,
lateness, absence, and turnover).

Do they relate?
Yes, strongly (r = .59) and over time. (compared to the r = .38
(meta-analyzed): moderate correlation across studies and topics you saw
earlier)

JOB ATTITUDES MATTER!

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and Managers frequently dont get it

Despite effects on important outcomes
Mangers are frequently unconcerned about job
satisfaction
or severely over-estimate subordinates job sat

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Perceived Organizational Support

(POS)
POS: Employees global beliefs regarding the
extent to which their organization values their
contributions and cares about their wellbeing. These beliefs are founded in
perceptions of the organization's readiness to
reward increased work effort and satisfy
socioemotional needs.

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65

Think about
The relationships between
POS and job performance is
Positive? Negative? No
relationship?

Hypothesis!

Why?
1. Relational model of authority,
personalised relationships lead to
social exchange
2. Norm of reciprocity

Theoretical
explanation!

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Farh, Hackett, & Liang (2007)

Power
Distance
POS

Hypothesized that the relations

between POS (perceived
organizational support) and
outcomes is moderated by power
distance.

Outcomes

(e.g. job performance,

organizational
commitment, voice,
altruism)
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Results

Hypothesis
supported!
68

Why? (aka theory)

Theoretical
explanation!

Among high PD individuals,

Maintain greater social distance
Defer to authority
Rely less on reciprocity norm

Start thinking about your research paper in

this way.. Think about a topic that interests
you, hypothesize relationship between
constructs, provide a plausible theoretical
explanation for the hypothesis!
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 So going back to value congruence

Lets play a game of guess the correlates

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P-O (person-organization) Fit: Correlates

Job Performance
r = .00

Job satisfaction
r = .40

Organizational Commitment
r= .54

Turnover intentions
r = -.38
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P-G (person-coworker) Fit: Correlates

Job satisfaction
r = .24

Job Performance
r = .15

Organizational Commitment
r= .00

Turnover intentions
r = -.17
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P-S (person-supervisor) Fit: Correlates

Job satisfaction
r = .35

Job Performance
r = .00

Organizational Commitment
r= .00

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Fit: Summary
Value congruence (fit) is consistently related to
job satisfaction.
Fit is infrequently related to job performance.
e.g. PG Fit at .15

Value congruence with other employees

(coworkers or supervisors) does not predict
organizational commitment, but fit with the
organization does.
P-O fit relates strongly to organizational-level
outcomes (commitment).
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Why does fit relate to employee

outcomes?
People are more attracted to and trusting of
others who are similar to them
Improved communication, increased
predictability in social interactions
Similar values leads to
Common ways of cognitive processing and
interpreting events
Reduced uncertainty
Improved interpersonal relationships
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During the 10-month period between his arrest and

conviction, Salter continued to teach, the university
has admitted, while Ms Smith said she remained so
traumatised she was afraid to leave the house.
This is despite regulations laid out on the universitys
own website which say staff and students are subject
to disciplinary procedures that, amongst other things,
proscribe violent behaviour.
The policy reads: The University will take disciplinary
action in accordance with its procedures against
anyone who behaves in a violent manner including,
should it be necessary, the immediate exclusion of the
perpetrator from the campus.
Violence is defined as: Any incident in which a
member of the University community is abused,
threatened, subjected to overly aggressive behaviour
or language or assaulted, in circumstances arising out
of the course of their employment of studies or not
any damaging or hurtful effects either physical or
emotional result.
Their actions conveyed a message to their students
that domestic abuse is acceptable and that university
staff will not be held accountable for their behaviour.
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Next up

EMOTIONS

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Emotions
Why should we care? Emotions dont play a role in
organizations, right?
Until recently, researchers have basically ignored the role
of emotions in organizations.
Why?
Difficult to identify and measure.
Emotions were seen as dysfunctional and inconsistent with the
rationality paradigm of organizational research.

But actually, discrete emotions are identifiable,

measurable, predictable, useful
Affective Events Theory (AET): employees react
emotionally to things that happen to them at
work, and this reaction influences their job
performance and satisfaction

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Emotions
What are some emotions and how do they
differ?
Intensity (Activation Level)
Pleasantness (Valence)

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Circumplex Model of Emotion

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7 basic emotions

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Emotions are lawful phenomena

(Frijda, 1988; Zeelenberg & Pieters, 2006)

Emotional
experience

Anger!

General affect
feelings
Precipitating
events
Boss responded to
my colleagues
request for overtime
but ignores mine

Appraisal of
events
Negative event caused by
others, involving
unfairness:
Boss doesnt care that I
really need the money to
pay for medical bills
Demeaned, disrespected

thoughts

Behavioral
Behavioral
response
response?

Action
tendences
emotivations

Assault, oppose,
boiling inwardly,
Restore fairness
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Emotions (and moods) as input,

process?
Input: Emotions and moods have important
effects on outcomes (e.g. motivation and
decision making as we will see in later weeks)
Process:
Emotions can also transmit effects of
personality/emotionality
The affective process can also transmit effects of
the group/organization via emotional contagion

83

Emotional Labor
Emotional labor is the act of expressing
organizationally-desired emotions.
Deep acting versus surface acting

84

Surface or Deep acting?

Surface acting You fake, or pretend to have, an
emotion by using unnatural and artificial body
language and verbal communication. Smiling and using
a soft tone of voice help you show emotion that you
don't feel, or hide emotion that you do feel.
Deep acting You control your internal emotions,
directing them to believe that you actually are happy,
and enjoying the interaction with the other person.
Rather than feel like you're pretending, you convince
yourself you're not experiencing a negative reaction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNzXcxy3CTc
85

Emotional Display Rules

Integrative emotional display rules in action

86

Emotional Labor
In some jobs, employees must exaggerate
positive emotions while in others they must
suppress negative emotions.
All jobs have their implicit display rules, however,
service roles are especially laden with them.
What are the consequences of the requirement
for emotional regulation?

87

Outcomes of Emotional Labor

Function of person (ability) and situation (amount

needed)
Positive outcomes

Better job performance

More positive social interactions
Sense of accomplishment

Negative outcomes

Emotional Dissonance (feelings not aligned with behaviors)

Emotional Exhaustion & Burnout

Job Dissatisfaction
Felt Inauthenticity

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Group 3
Can customers tell when service providers are
faking being happy? What does fake being
happy do to service providers? Does it matter?
(Think about what outcomes are important
here)
Use Evidence (empirical articles)

89

The Four EI Skills

What I See
PERSONAL
SelfCOMPETENCE Awareness

What I Do
SelfManagement

SOCIAL
Social
COMPETENCE Awareness

Relationship
Management

Source:
Talentsmart, Inc.

90

The Case for EI

Intuitive appeal
EI predicts criteria that matter.
EI weakly but consistently correlated with job
performance, even after controlling for GMA,
conscientiousness, and neuroticism

EI is biologically based
Genetically based
Distinct from intelligence
91

Case against EI
Ill-defined construct among researchers
Ability-based perspective of tests VS broad variety of
ideas that we can measure by self-reports

Measurement issue: Right vs wrong answers?

Color association? Purple = cold?
Self-reported ability? Im good at reading other
people,
Measures not rigorously tested like in IQ

Still, EI is wildly popular among consulting firms

and in the popular press
92

The Four EI Skills

What I See
PERSONAL
SelfCOMPETENCE Awareness

What I Do
SelfManagement

SOCIAL
Social
Relationship
Emotional
regulation
COMPETENCE Awareness
Management

Source:
Talentsmart, Inc.

93

Emotional regulation
Emotion regulation: identify and modify the
emotions you feel
Related to life satisfaction, income, SES
Cognitive
reappraisal

Expressive
suppression

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Emotional regulation response stage

Deep acting
Surface acting
Responding naturally? Venting?
Group 4 please tell us more about emotional
regulation and age! If people experience
cognitive decline and physical decline as they
get older, why would they report higher levels
of well-being than young people? Are older
people better at regulating emotions?
95

Recap
Values matter!
Attitudes matter!
Emotions matter!
They all indicate what matters to people/you

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Next week
Its already week 6!! Consultations please! We are doing
first cut presentations in week 7!
Talk about Motivational theories in Organizational Behavior
Read Chapter 7 + Grant, A. M. (2008). The significance of
task significance: Job performance effects, relational
mechanisms, and boundary conditions. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 93(1), 108.
Class tickets:
What are the 3 key elements of motivation?
Give an example of interpersonal justice or lack of that you
experienced in the workplace, how did that make you feel?
What did you do as a result?

97