Job Attitudes

Chapter 3
Week 3
Attitudes

 Attitudes are evaluative statements – either favourable or

unfavourable – about objects, people or events.
 In other words, attitude reflects how we feel about
something.
 Attitudes consist of three components:

 Cognition (belief component of an attitude)

 Affect
 Behaviour
Attitudes (continued)

 The cognitive component refers to your opinion or belief about the

attitude object. For example, you might believe that your
supervisor is fair or your co-workers are untrustworthy.

 Affect is the emotional or feeling component of an attitude.

Specifically, it refers to your liking or disliking of a particular object.
For instance, you may feel positively or negatively towards your
supervisor.

 The behavioural component refers to an intention to behave in a

particular way towards an object. For example, you might intend to
exert extra effort on behalf of your supervisor.
Relationship between Cognition,
Affect and Behaviour
Cognitive = belief
‘My supervisor is fair’

Positive attitude
Affective = feeling
towards supervisor
‘I really like my supervisor’

Behavioural = action
‘I want to work hard for my
supervisor’
Cognitive Dissonance

 Early research showed that the attitudes people hold, tend to

effect their behaviour.

 However, sometimes behaviour can influence attitudes

through the process of Cognitive Dissonance.

 Cognitive dissonance occurs when people perceive an

inconsistency between their beliefs, feelings and behaviour.
Cognitive Dissonance – Example 1

 An example of cognitive dissonance would be the conflict

between wanting to smoke (behavior) and knowing that
smoking is unhealthy (belief).

 A smoker may resolve this conflict either by:

 Quitting Smoking (change behavior)

or
 Rationalizing that smoking does not lead to adverse
consequences (change belief)
Cognitive Dissonance – Example 2

 Consider a situation in which a woman who values financial

security (belief) is dating (behavior) a man who is financially
unstable.

 The conflict:
 It is important for her to be financially secure (belief)
 She is dating a man who is financially unstable (behavior)

 To reduce this dissonance, she can either:

 Leave the relationship (change behavior)

or
 Reduce her emphasis on financial security (change belief)
Work Related Attitudes

• Work-related attitudes reflect one’s feelings and beliefs

about various aspects of the job or the organization as a
whole.

 Job Satisfaction
 Organizational Commitment
 Perceived Organizational Support
 Work Engagement
Job Satisfaction

 Job satisfaction can be viewed as a discrepancy between what an

individual expects to receive from a job such as good pay and
promotion opportunities and what he or she actually receives.

 In other words, job satisfaction reflects one’s feelings about

specific facets of the job such as:

 Nature of work
 Promotion prospects
 Salary
 Relationship with colleagues and supervisors
 Physical working conditions
 Antecedents & Consequences of Job
Satisfaction
Demographic
Characteristics
• Age Turnover
• Gender
• Education level
Absenteeism

Intrinsic
Factors Job
• Stimulating work Satisfaction Deviant Behavior
• Autonomy
• Advancement
Performance

Extrinsic Factors
• Pay
• Job security OCB
• Relations with supervisor Other Factors
• Physical Working Conditions • Leadership
• Personality
Measurement of Job Satisfaction

 Measuring Job Satisfaction

 Single Global Rating

 Summation Score
Single Global Rating
Instructions: Please indicate the extent to which you are satisfied or dissatisfied
with your job by circling a number from 1 to 5.

Highly Dissatisfied Neutral Satisfied Highly

Dissatisfied Satisfied
1 2 3 4 5

‘All things considered, how satisfied are you with your job?’
 Summation Score
Instructions: Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with each
of the following statements by writing a number from 1 to 5 in the space provided.

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

Disagree Agree
1 2 3 4 5

1. I feel I am being paid a fair amount for the work I do -------

2. I am satisfied with my chances for promotion -------
3. I like doing the things I do at work -------
4. I like my supervisor -------
5. I enjoy my coworkers -------
Interpretation of Scores:
 4 < JS < 5 --------- High Job Satisfaction
 3 < JS < 3.99 --------- Moderate Job Satisfaction
 1 < JS < 2.99 ---------- Low Job Satisfaction
How Employees Can Express
Dissatisfaction
 Exit - Behavior directed toward leaving the organization.

 Voice - Active and constructive attempts to improve

conditions.
 Loyalty – Passively but optimistically waiting for
conditions to improve.
 Neglect – Passively allowing conditions to worsen.
Responses to Job Dissatisfaction
Organizational Commitment

 Organizational Commitment

 Identifying with a particular organization and its goals, and

wishing to maintain membership in the organization.

 There are separate dimensions of organizational

commitment:

 Affective Commitment
 Continuance Commitment
 Normative Commitment
Organizational Commitment
(continued)
• Affective commitment refers to the employees’ attachment to, identification
with and involvement in the organization. Employees with a strong affective
commitment continue employment with the organization because they want to
do so.

• Continuance commitment refers to the desire to remain with the organization

because of the costs associated with leaving that particular organization.
Employees whose major association with the organization is based on
continuance commitment remain because they need to do so.

• Normative commitment reflects a feeling of obligation to continue employment

in an organization. Employees who hold a strong normative commitment feel
that they ought to remain with the organization.
Organizational Commitment
(continued)
 Previous research indicates that affective commitment has the
strongest impact on important organizational outcomes such as,
OCB, job performance and employee retention.

 Normative commitment also tends to have a positive impact on

organizational and employee relevant outcomes, but its effect is
comparatively weaker than affective commitment.

 However, continuous commitment is mostly unrelated or

negatively related to these outcome variables.
Building Organizational Commitment

 Fair policies and procedures

 Job security

 Employee involvement

 Enriched jobs

 Climate of trust
Perceived Organizational Support
(POS)
 Extent to which employees feel the organization values their
contribution and cares about their well-being.
 Research shows that people perceive their organization to be
supportive when:
 Rewards are deemed fair
 Employees have a voice in the decision making process
 Employees consider their supervisors to be supportive.
POS (continued)

 POS has been found to be positively associated with:

 Job performance

 OCB

 Organizational commitment

 Customer service

 Employee retention
Work Engagement - Introduction

 Traditionally, psychology has focussed almost exclusively on negative

aspects of human behaviour such as:
 Malfunctioning
 Weakness
 Pathology

 However, during the last 20 years or so there has been a shift towards
positive psychology, which instead of concentrating on weaknesses and
malfunctioning focuses on:
 Human Strengths
 Well-Being
 Optimal Functioning

 This trend towards positive psychology has led to the emergence of the
concept of Work Engagement.
Introduction (continued)

 Engagement is the positive antipode of workplace burnout!

 Burnout is typically described as a syndrome characterised by

feelings of:

 Exhaustion (i.e. depletion or draining of mental resources)

 Cynicism (i.e. development of a negative or distant attitude

towards one’s work)

 Reduced Professional Efficacy (i.e. the tendency to evaluate

oneself negatively)
Definition of Work Engagement

 Work engagement refers to a positive, fulfilling work related

state of mind that is characterized by vigour, dedication and
absorption.
 Specifically, engaged employees are:
 Energetic, hard working and resilient (vigor)

 Enthusiastic and passionate about their work (dedication)

 Completely engrossed in their work activities (absorption)

Antecedents of Work Engagement

Job Resources

Personal Resources
Job Resources

Examples of job resources include:

 Performance Feedback

 Supervisory Coaching

 Autonomy

 Social Support from Supervisors and Colleagues

 Performance Based Rewards

Personal Resources

 Examples of personal resources include:

 Self Efficacy - A person’s belief that he or she has the ability to

complete a task successfully.

 Optimism - Refers to the tendency to believe that one will

generally experience good outcomes in life.

 Organizational Based Self-Esteem – refers to an individual’s

belief that he or she is an important and worthwhile member of
the organization.
Consequences of Work Engagement

 Greater commitment & satisfaction

 Lower turnover and absenteeism rates

 Improved health and well-being

 More extra role behaviours

 Higher levels of performance & innovation