CHAPTER 9: EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES AND THEIR EFFECTS

Human Behavior in Organization

The Nature of Employee Attitudes

*Attitudes – are the feelings and beliefs that largely determine how employees will perceive their
environment, commit themselves to intended actions, and ultimately behave.

Employee Predispositions:

a.) Positive affectivity: people that are optimistic, upbeat, cheerful, and courteous
b.) Negative affectivity: people that are generally pessimistic, downbeat, irritable, and even abrasive.

JOB SATISFACTION: is a set of favorable or unfavorable feelings and emotions with which
employees view their work.

NATURE & EFFECTS OF JOB SATISFACTION:

1.) Elements
- affective attitude (feelings)
- objective thought (belief)
- behavioral intentions (intentions)

2.) Individual Focus

- Morale: describing overall group satisfaction

3.) Overall or Multidimensional

4.) Stability of Job Satisfaction

- job satisfaction is dynamic

5.) Environmental Impact

- Spillover effect: impact of job satisfaction on life satisfaction, and vice versa

6.) Importance
- supervisors need to be alert to subtle clues about employee satisfaction levels

7.) Level of Job Satisfaction

- about half of all workers are satisfied
- level of job satisfaction across groups is not constant, but it is related to a number of variables (age,
occupational level, and organizational size)
 Some Related Elements of Life Satisfaction

JOB INVOLVEMENT: is the degree to which employees immerse themselves in their jobs, invest time
and energy in them, and view work as a central part of their overall lives.

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT: or employee loyalty is the degree to which an employee

identifies with the organization and wants to continue actively participating in it.

Factors that Inhibit and that Stimulate Employee Commitment:

INHIBITING FACTORS STIMULATING FACTORS

Excessive blaming Clarity of rules and policies

Insincere gratitude Investments in employees (training)

Failure to follow through Respect and appreciation for efforts

Inconsistencies and Employee participation and autonomy

incongruities
Inflated egos and bullying Making employees feel valued
WORK MOODS: employees’ feelings about their jobs that can change within a day, hour, or
minute.
- can be described as ranging from negative to positive and from weak to strong and intense
- STRONGLY POSITIVE WORK MOODS: visible in workers’ energy, passion, vitality, and
enthusiasm; important to a manager
- directly affected by managerial actions

Effects of Employee Attitudes

*Positive Job Attitudes

- Helps predict constructive behaviors

*Negative Job Attitudes

- Helps predict undesirable behaviors
- Psychological Withdrawal: emotional detachment from one’s job, such as engaging in
daydreaming

Outcomes of Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction on Job:

1.) Employee Performance

- Performance-satisfaction-effort loop: flow model that show the directional relationship between
performance, satisfaction, and effort
2.) Turnover: rate at which employees leave an organization
3.) Absences: employees who fail to show up for as scheduled
4.) Tardiness: arriving late for work
- Physical Withdrawal: unauthorized absences, early departures, extended breaks, work
slowdowns, or acts of aggression and retaliation

5.) Presenteeism: The act of employees persistently coming to work despite troublesome (and
often recurring) physical and emotional health conditions that substantially affect their work
performance.
6.) Theft: unauthorized removal of company resources by an employee
7.) Violence: various forms of verbal or physical aggression at work
8.) Organizational citizenship behavior: discretionary actions that promote the organization’s
success
Studying Job Satisfaction

Job Satisfaction Survey – procedure by which employees report their feelings toward their jobs
and work environment.

Benefits:
- Monitoring attitudes
- Additional Benefits

IDEAL SURVEY CONDITIONS

Surveys are most likely to produce some of the benefits reviewed above when the following
conditions are met:

• Top management actively supports the survey.

• Employees are fully involved in planning the survey
• The study is designed and administered in a manner consistent with standards for sound research
• Management is capable of taking, and willing to take follow-up action.
• Both the results and action plans are communicated to employees.

USE OF EXISTING JOB SATISFACTION INFORMATION SOURCES OF INFORMATION

• Labor turnover
• Performance records
• Waste and scrap reports
• Quality records
• Absences and tardiness records
• Reports form counselors
• Grievances
• Labor turnover
• Performance records
• Waste and scrap reports
• Quality records
• Absences and tardiness records
• Reports form counselors
• Grievances
TYPES OF SURVEY QUESTIONS

1. Closed-end questions – are those questions presented in an interview or survey format which
direct the respondent to simply select and mark the answers that best represent his or her own
feelings.
2. Open-end questions – are those questions presented in an interview or survey format in which
employees respond in their own words to express their feelings, thoughts and intentions.

CLOSED-END QUESTIONS

SOME TYPES OF CLOSED-END QUESTIONS:

• Index of Organizational Reactions – uses multiple choice questions.

-other surveys use questions with “true or false” or “agree or disagree” answers.

• Job Descriptive Index – provides respondents with a set of statements (e.g. “My work is routine)
and asks them to indicate whether the term describes their work situation by checking either
“Yes,” “No,” or “?” (“I can’t decide”) responses.

OTHER APPROACHES

• Use of numerical scale to indicate their degree or agreement or disagreement.

EXAMPLE:

My feeling of security in my job (circle one number):

How much is there now? (min.) 1 2 3 4 5 (max.)

• Comparison of the “now” responses with perceptions of desired status.

EXAMPLE:

How much should there be? (min.) 1 2 3 4 5 (max.)

How important is this factor to you? (min.) 1 2 3 4 5 (max.)

• Asking respondents for their “hindsight” ratings

EXAMPLE:

How satisfied were you with the level of communications before the newsletter was
introduced? (min.) 1 2 3 4 5 (max.)
Brief descriptions provided by the MINNESOTA SATISFACTION QUESTIONNAIRE for each
number on the scale

EXAMPLE: 1 = not satisfied

2 = slightly satisfied

3 = satisfied

4 = very satisfied

5 = extremely satisfied

OPEN-END QUESTIONS

EXAMPLE:

“Our sick-leave plan stinks! You don’t let us carry over unused leave more than two years, so I
have no protection from serious illness that causes me to be absent more than a month.”

TWO TYPES OF OPEN-END QUESTIONS

1. Directed questions – questions that focus employee attention on specific parts of the job and ask
questions about those aspects. This approach permits in-depth analysis of satisfaction
with a specific job condition.
2. Undirected questions – questions that ask for general comments about the job. This approach
allows the management to learn about the topics that currently are troubling and seem
important to them.

CRITICAL ISSUES

Two elements that serve as backbone of any effective study:

1. Reliability – is the capacity of a survey instrument to produce consistent results, regardless of

who administers it.
2. Validity – is the capacity to measure what they claim to measure.

SOCIAL DESIRABILITY BIAS – modifying one’s responses to a survey or an interviewer based on

what the respondent thinks that society values.

EXAMPLE:

Overestimating the importance of challenge in their job because they think that is what society
values.
USING SURVEY INFORMATION

• Communicating the Results

Communicate the job satisfaction information to all managers so that they can understand
it and prepare to use it.

• Comparative Data
Using comparisons among departments as an effective way to encourage managers to sit
up and take note of satisfaction data.

• Employee Comments
This information often makes a greater impression on management than scores, statistics
and charts do.

• Committee Work Follow-Up

Organize working committees (tack forces) whose responsibility is to review the survey
data and develop plans for corrective action.

• Feedback to Employees
Details of what was done should be shared with employees as soon as possible.

Changing Employee Attitudes

Guidelines for changing employee attitudes:

• Make the reward system closely tied to individual or team performance.

• Set challenging goals with employees so that those with achievement drives can experience the
opportunity for satisfaction through their accomplishment.
• Define clear role expectations so that employees struggling with ambiguity can overcome that
concern.
• Refrain from attacking the employee’s attitude. Use active listening skills instead, because an
undefended attitude is more receptive to change.
• Provide frequent feedback to satisfy the need for information about performance levels.
• Exhibit a caring, considerate orientation by showing concern for employee feelings.
• Show appreciation for appropriate effort and citizenship behaviors.