ATTITUDES AND

JOB SATISFACTION
By Amit Gursale
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
 Contrast the three components of an attitude.
 Summarize the relationship between attitudes and behavior.
 Compare and contrast the major job attitudes.
 Define job satisfaction and show how it can be measured.
 Summarize the main causes of job satisfaction.
 Identify four employee responses to dissatisfaction.
 Show whether job satisfaction is a relevant concept in
countries other than the United States.

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 WHAT IS ATTITUDE
 Attitude is a tendency or predisposition to evaluate and object
or symbol of that object in a certain way. Katz & Scotland
 Attitude is an enduring organization of motivational, emotional,
perceptual & cognitive processes with respect to some aspect
of individual’s world. Kretch & Crutchfield
 Attitude is a mental and neutral state of readiness organized
through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence
upon individuals response to all objects and situation with
which it is related. G. W. Allaport

COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDES

The emotional or
Affective
Cognitive feeling segment
The opinion or of an attitude
belief segment of Behavioral

an attitude
An intention to
behave in a certain
way toward someone
Attitude or something

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EXAMPLE OF ATTITUDE
 Cognitive (Evaluation) (basis beliefs, ideas, values)
 Quality of working hard is a value statement of faith that a
manager may have.

 Affective (Feeling) (persons feeling about ….. ABC

 I dislike Manoj (as he is not hard working, I like Praveen as he is
hard working.

 Behavioural (Action) (Based on cognitive & affective

components)
 I do not like Manoj as he is not hardworking, I therefor would like
to disassociate myself with him.
EXAMPLE OF ATTITUDE
 Cognitive (Evaluation)
 My manager gave promotion to a coworker who
deserve it less than me. MY SUPERVISOR IS UNFAIR
 Affective (Feeling)
 I dislike my supervisor.

 Behavioural (Action)
 I am looking for other work, I have complained about
my supervisor to anyone who would listen.
DOES BEHAVIOR ALWAYS
FOLLOW FROM ATTITUDES?
 Leon Festinger – No, the reverse is sometimes true!

 Cognitive Dissonance: Any incompatibility between two

or more attitudes or between behavior and attitudes
 Individuals seek to reduce this uncomfortable gap, or dissonance,
to reach stability and consistency
 Consistency is achieved by changing the attitudes, modifying the
behaviors, or through rationalization
 Desire to reduce dissonance depends on:
 Importance of elements
 Degree of individual influence
 Rewards involved in dissonance

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MODERATING VARIABLES
 The most powerful moderators of the attitude-behavior
relationship are:
 Importance of the attitude
 Correspondence to behavior
 Accessibility
 Existence of social pressures
 Personal and direct experience of the attitude

Attitudes Predict Behavior

Moderating Variables

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PREDICTING BEHAVIOR FROM
ATTITUDES
 Important attitudes have a strong relationship to

?
behavior.
 The closer the match between attitude and behavior,
the stronger the relationship:
 Specific attitudes predict specific behavior
 General attitudes predict general behavior
 The more frequently expressed an attitude, the
better predictor it is.
 High social pressures reduce the relationship and
may cause dissonance.
 Attitudes based on personal experience are stronger
predictors.

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MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL
MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL
 Marriott International strives for consistency between
employee attitudes and behavior through its motto “Spirit
to Serve.” CEO and chairman J. W. Marriott, Jr., models
the behavior of service by visiting hotel employees
throughout the year.
 “I want our associates to know that there really is a guy
named Marriott who cares about them,” he says. The
company honors employees with job excellence awards
for behavior that exemplifies an attitude of service to
customers and co-workers.
 WHAT ARE THE MAJOR JOB
ATTITUDES?
 Job Satisfaction
 A positive feeling about the job resulting from an evaluation of
its characteristics
 Job Involvement
 Degree of psychological identification with the job where
perceived performance is important to self-worth
 Psychological Empowerment
 Belief in the degree of influence over the job, competence, job
meaningfulness, and autonomy

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 ANOTHER MAJOR JOB ATTITUDE
 Organizational Commitment
 Identifying with a particular organization and its goals, while
wishing to maintain membership in the organization.
 Three dimensions:
 Affective – emotional attachment to organization
 Continuance Commitment – perceived economic value of
staying
 Normative – moral or ethical obligations
 Has some relation to performance, especially for new
employees.

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ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT
 ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT
 At Veterinary Cancer Group in Tustin, California, employees
are committed to their company because they identify with
their organization and its goals and want to remain part of
the small business.
 The client care specialists shown in this photo and their co-
workers share the cancer clinic’s goal of improving the quality
of life for patients and giving support to the families of
patients. Veterinarian Mona Rosenberg, who founded the
practice, has created a positive work environment at the clinic
by hiring kind and compassionate people and by valuing the
work of each employee, resulting in the favorable employee
attitude of organizational commitment.
 AND YET MORE MAJOR JOB
ATTITUDES…
 Perceived Organizational Support (POS)
 Degree to which employees believe the organization values
their contribution and cares about their well-being.
 Higher when rewards are fair, employees are involved in
decision making, and supervisors are seen as supportive.
 High POS is related to higher performance.

 Employee Engagement
 The degree of involvement with, satisfaction with, and
enthusiasm for the job.
 Engaged employees are passionate about their work and
company. (17 to 29 %) (80 % reduced grievances and 34%
more satisfied customers) 3-16
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
 Employee engagement is high at Genentech, a
biotechnology firm where employees share a serious
commitment to science and patients and are passionate
about the work they do.
 Genentech employees discover, develop, manufacture,
and commercialize medicines that treat patients with
serious or life threatening medical conditions. Feeling that
their contributions are important and meaningful,
employees cite the chance to make a difference in the
lives of patients as the number one reason they enjoy
working at Genentech.
 ARE THESE JOB ATTITUDES
REALLY DISTINCT?
 No: these attitudes are
highly related.
 Variables may be
redundant (measuring the
same thing under a
different name)
 While there is some
distinction, there is also a
lot of overlap.

Be patient, OB researchers are working on it!

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JOB SATISFACTION
 One of the primary job attitudes measured.
 Broad term involving a complex individual summation of
a number of discrete job elements.
 How to measure?
 Single global rating (one question/one answer) - Best
 Summation score (many questions/one average) - OK

 Are people satisfied in their jobs?

 In the U. S., yes, but the level appears to be dropping.
 Results vary by employee facets of the job.
 Pay and promotion are the most problematic elements.3-20
 CAUSES OF JOB SATISFACTION
 Pay influences job satisfaction only to a point.
 After about $40,000 per year (in the U.S.), there is no
relationship between amount of pay and job satisfaction.
 Money may bring happiness, but not necessarily job
satisfaction.

 Personality can influence job satisfaction.

 Negative people are usually not satisfied with their jobs.
 Those with positive core self-evaluation are more satisfied
with their jobs.
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WHAT ARE THE MAIN CAUSES OF
JOB DISSATISFACTION
 On the job stress – 32 %

 Pay – 26 %

 Promotion – 21 %

 Work – 51 %

 Security – 14 %

 Supervisor – 9 %

 Co workers – 3 %
EMPLOYEE RESPONSES TO
DISSATISFACTION
Active

Exit Voice
• Behavior • Active and
directed toward constructive
leaving the attempts to
organization improve
conditions
Destructive Constructive

Neglect Loyalty
• Allowing • Passively waiting
conditions to for conditions to
worsen improve

Passive
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JOB SATISFACTION
JOB SATISFACTION
 JOB SATISFACTION
 Customers of CSN Stores appreciate the excellent service
provided by the online retailer’s customer representatives
shown here at the company’s offices in Boston.
 Service firms like CSN understand that satisfied employees
increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. CSN believes that
customers deserve exceptional service and is dedicated to
hiring people who are friendly and willing to help others.
 The company helps shape a positive on the- job attitude by
giving employees product knowledge training and teaching
them how to assess customer needs and how to guide buyers
in making well-informed decisions.
 OUTCOMES OF JOB
SATISFACTION
 Job Performance
 Satisfied workers are more productive AND more productive workers
are more satisfied!
 The causality may run both ways.

 Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

 Satisfaction influences OCB through perceptions of fairness.

 Customer Satisfaction
 Satisfied frontline employees increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

 Absenteeism
 Satisfied employees are moderately less likely to miss work.

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MORE OUTCOMES OF JOB
SATISFACTION
 Turnover
 Satisfied employees are less likely to quit.
 Many moderating variables in this relationship.
 Economic environment and tenure
 Organizational actions taken to retain high
performers and to weed out lower performers
 Workplace Deviance
 Dissatisfied workers are more likely to unionize, abuse
substances, steal, be tardy, and withdraw.

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WORKPLACE DEVIANCE
 When employees do not like their work environment, they
will respond in some way. An attempt to form a union is
one specific behavior that may stem from job
dissatisfaction. At several different Wal-Mart locations
throughout the United States, dissatisfied employees have
tried, unsuccessfully, to organize a union as a way to
receive better pay and more affordable health insurance.
Joined by supporters, the employees shown here from a
Wal-Mart warehouse and distribution center in California
are protesting low wages and no health care or other
benefits.
MORE OUTCOMES OF JOB
SATISFACTION
 Despite the overwhelming evidence of the impact of job
satisfaction on the bottom line, most managers are either
unconcerned about or overestimate worker satisfaction.
(262 large organization studied: 86 % managers think that
employees being treated well, whereas only 55 %
employee agreed)

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 GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS
 Is Job Satisfaction a U.S. Concept?
 No, but most of the research so far has been in the U.S.

 Are Employees in Western Cultures More Satisfied With

Their Jobs?
 Western workers appear to be more satisfied than those in
Eastern cultures.
 Perhaps because Westerners emphasize positive emotions
and individual happiness more than do those in Eastern
cultures.

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 SUMMARY AND MANAGERIAL
IMPLICATIONS
 Managers should watch employee attitudes:
 They give warnings of potential problems
 They influence behavior

 Managers should try to increase job satisfaction and

generate positive job attitudes
 Reduces costs by lowering turnover, absenteeism, tardiness, theft,
and increasing OCB

 Focus on the intrinsic parts of the job: make work

challenging and interesting
 Pay is not enough

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