CHAPTER 9

EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES
&
THEIR EFFECTS
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

 The Nature of Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

 The Relationship between Performance and Satisfaction
 Job Involvement and Organizational Commitment
 Some Positive and Negative Effects of Employee Attitudes
 Organizational Citizenship Behaviors
 Benefits of Studying Employee Attitudes
 Design and Use of Job Satisfaction Surveys
THE NATURE OF EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES

• ATTITUDES are the feelings and benefits that largely determine how
employees will perceive their environment.
• People differ in their personal dispositions as they enter organizations.
• Some people have positive affectivity ;
• optimistic, upbeat, cheerful and courteous.
• Some have negative affectivity ;
• pessimistic, downbeat, irritable, abrasive.
• Key employee attitudes are;
 job satisfaction
 job involvement,
 organizational commitment and
 positive work mood.
 Job Satisfaction
Elements Job Satisfaction is a set of favorable or unfavorable feelings and
emotions with which employees view their work. It is an affective attitude.

Attitudes consist of feelings, thoughts and intensions to act.

An employee may say ;
o “I enjoy having a variety of tasks to do” feelings
o “My work is quite complex” thoughts
o “I plan to quit this job in three months” intensions
Job Satisfaction
• Individual Focus
Job Satisfaction typically refers to the attitudes of a single employee.
When assessments of individual satisfaction are averaged across all
members of a work unit, the general term used to describe overall group
satisfaction is morale.

Group morale is especially important to monitor since individuals often

take their social cues from their work associates and adapt their own
attitudes to conform to those of the group.
Job Satisfaction
• Overall or Multidimensional?
If job satisfaction is viewed only as an overall attitude, managers may miss
seeing some key hidden exceptions as they assess an employee’s overall
satisfaction.
Although an employee’s general job satisfaction may be high, he may be
dissatisfied with his vacation schedule.
Job satisfaction studies focus on various parts that are believed to be
important. Including ;
o Pay
o One’s supervisor
o The nature of tasks performed
o An employee’s coworkers or team
o Immediate working conditions
Therefore job satisfaction is best viewed as being
multidimensional.
 Job Satisfaction
• Stability of Job Satisfaction
o Attitudes are acquired over a long period of time.
o Job satisfaction or dissatisfaction emerges as an employee gains more
and more information about the workplace.
o Job satisfaction is dynamic, it can decline more quickly than it
develops.
o Employee needs may fluctuate suddenly.

Therefore managers need to pay attention to employee attitudes at all

times.
 Job Satisfaction
• Environmental Impact
Job satisfaction is part of life satisfaction. The nature of a worker’s
environment off the job indirectly influences his or her feelings on the job.
Since a job is an important part of life for many workers, job satisfaction
influences general life satisfaction. The result is that there is a spillover
effect that occurs in both directions between job and life satisfaction.

Consequently, managers need to monitor employee’s attitudes toward

other parts of life.
Job Satisfaction

Job Family

Some related
elements of
life satisfaction

Politics Leisure

Religion
Job Satisfaction

• Level of Job Satisfaction

Level of job satisfaction across groups is not constant, but it is related to a
number of variables. The key variables revolve around age, occupational
level and organizational size.

As workers grow older, they initially tend to be slightly more satisfied with
their jobs. They lower their expectations to more realistic levels and adjust
themselves better to their work situations. Later, their satisfaction may
suffer as promotions are less frequently and they face the realities of
retirement.

People with higher-level occupations tend to be more satisfied with their

jobs since they are usually better paid, have better working conditions and
hold jobs that make fuller use of their abilities.

Levels of job satisfaction are higher in smaller organizational units. Personal

closeness, friendship, small-group teamwork are important aspects.
Job Involvement
• 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.

• Job-involved employees are likely to believe in the work ethic,

enjoy participating in decision making and work long hours.
They also will attempt to be high performers.
Organizational Commitment

• Organizational commitment or employee loyalty, is the degree to which

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

• It is a measure of the employee’s willingness to remain with a firm in

the future. It often reflects the employee’s belief in the mission and
goals of the firm, willingness to expend effort in their accomplishment.

• Commitment is usually stronger among long term employees.

• Committed employees have good attendance records, demonstrate a

willing adherence to company policies and have lower turnover rates.
Work Moods
• Employees have feelings about their jobs that are highly dynamic ;
they can change within a day, hour or minute. These variable
attitudes toward their jobs are called work moods.

• Ranging from negative to positive and from weak to strong and

intense.
“I hate this task” “I’m excited by this new challenge”

• When workers experience strongly positive work moods, it is often

visible in terms of their energy, activity and enthusiasm.
• Result in closer attention to customer service, lower absenteeism,
greater creativity and interpersonal cooperation.
• Directly affected by managerial actions such as sharing praise,
creating an atmosphere filled with occasional fun, humor and levity,
providing a workspace filled with pleasant surroundings and
reasonable amount of social interactions.
EFFECTS OF EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES
• Dissatisfied employees may engage in psychological withdrawal,
physical withdrawal or even overt acts of aggression and retaliation
for presumed wrongs.
o Psychological withdrawal Daydreaming during the job
o Physical withdrawal Unauthorized absences, early
departures...

• Satisfied employees may provide acts of customer service beyond

the call of duty, have sparkling work records and actively pursue
excellence in all areas of their jobs.

• Satisfaction and dissatisfaction is related to the areas of

performance, turnover, absences and tardiness, theft, violence and
other behaviors which organizations are vitally concerned about
controlling.
Employee Performance
• High performance contributes to high job satisfaction. Level of
satisfaction leads to either greater or lesser commitment which then
affects effort and eventually affects performance again. The result is a
continuously operating performance-satisfaction-effort loop.

PERFORMANCE REWARDS Perception of Satisfaction

or
Economic equity in rewards
Dissatisfaction
Sociological FAIR
Psychological UNFAIR
Greater or Lesser Effort Greater or Lesser
Commitment

TURNOVER (Absenteeism, Tardiness, Theft, Violence, Poor organizational citizenship)

Turnover

• Higher job satisfaction is associated with lower employee turnover.

The more-satisfied employees are less likely to go through a
progressive process in which they think about quitting or announce
their intention to quit.

• Negative consequences of employee turnover (especially if the

turnover rate is high).
o It is hard to replace departed employee.
o Direct and indirect replacement costs are expensive.
o Employees may be demoralized from the loss of valued coworkers.
o Both work and social patterns may be disrupted until replacements are
found.
Turnover
Absences and Tardiness
• Some absences are caused by legitimate medical reasons, therefore a
satisfied employee may have a valid absence. Dissatisfied employees
do not necessarily plan to be absent, but they seem to find it easier to
respond to the opportunities to do so, these voluntary absences often
occur on Mondays and Fridays.

• Another way in which employees may exhibit their dissatisfaction with

job conditions is through tardiness. A tardy employee is one who
comes to work but arrives beyond the designated starting time. It is
short-period absenteeism ranging from a few minutes to several hours.

• It is another way in which employees physically withdraw from active

involvement in the organization.

• Disadvantages
o Impede the timely completion of work.
o Disrupt productive relationships with coworkers.
Theft
• Unauthorized removal of company resources.
o Stealing products.
o Using company services without authorization.
o Forging checks.

• Causes of employee theft

o They feel exploited.
o Overworked
o Frustrated by the impersonal treatment.

• Tighter organizational controls or incentive systems do not solve

theft problems, since they are directed at the symptoms and not at
the underlying causes such as severe dissatisfaction.
Violence

• One of the most extreme consequences of employee dissatisfaction

is exhibited through violence, or various forms of verbal or physical
aggression at work.

• Including customers and strangers millions of people are victims of

workplace violence.

• Managers must increasingly be on the lookout for signs that

employee dissatisfaction might turn into verbal or physical harm at
work and they must make the appropriate preventive actions.
STUDYING JOB SATOSFACTION
• Management needs information on employee job satisfaction in
order to make sound decisions, both in preventing and solving
employee problems.
• A typical method used is a job satisfaction survey. It is a procedure
by which employees report their feelings toward their jobs and work
environment. Individual responses are then combined and analyzed.

Benefits of Job Satisfaction Studies

• Monitoring Attitudes
A survey tells how employees feel about their jobs, what part of
their jobs these feelings are focused on, which departments are
particularly affected, and whose feelings are involved.
• Additional Benefits
Safety valve, emotional release, training needs can be identified,
help managers plan and monitor new programs.
Ideal Survey Conditions

• Top managment actively supports the survey.

• Employees are fully involved in planning the survey.
• A clear objective exists for conducting the survey.
• The study is designed and administered in a manner consistent with
standards for sound research.
• Managment is capable of taking, and willing to take, follow-up
action.
• Both the results and action plans are communicated to employees.
Use of Existing Satisfaction Information

• Managers might examine existing data for learning about current

employee feelings.
• Behavioral indicators of job satisfaction.
SURVEY DESIGN AND FOLLOW-UP

• Types of Survey Questions

o Closed-end questions
Present a choice of answers in such a way that employees simply select
and mark the answers that best represent their own feelings.
o Open-end questions
Present a variety of topics but let employees answer in their own words.
directed, focus on specific parts of job.
undirected, general comments about the job.
The typical survey form uses both approaches, but open-end questions may
be more impressing for managers.

• Critical Issues
o Reliability, the capacity of a survey instrument to produce consistent
results.
o Validity, collected data must be measured.
SURVEY DESIGN AND FOLLOW-UP
• Using Survey Information
Analysis and use of the resulting data require skilled management
judgment. It is the final important step in a job satisfaction survey. When
the appropriate action is taken, results can be excellent.

Communicating the Result, is to communicate job satisfaction survey to

managers so that they can understand it and prepare to use it. This
document is known as a survey report.

Comparative Data, all the questions and job satisfaction categories can be
compared with one another in a search for meaningful relationships.

Employee Comments, because they are more personal they often make
greater impression on management than scores, statistics and charts do. It
is a mistake to correct only the big problems shown in a survey while
ignoring many minor conditions that will add up to big problems.
SURVEY DESIGN AND FOLLOW-UP

Feedback to Employee, when corrective action is taken as the result

of a survey, details of what was learned and what was done should
be shared with employees as soon as possible.
By this way, people who participated will feel that management
listened to them and took action on the basis of their ideas. Also
feel like their ideas are really wanted.

If a job satisfaction survey is made, management should be

prepared to take action on the result. Since management asked
employees for their ideas, employees are justified in believing that
action will be taken on at least some of them.
CHANGING EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES
If management desires to change employee attitudes in a more
favorable direction, there are many routes to pursue and the
potential gains can make it worthwhile to try.

Guidelines for changing employee attitudes:

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