Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

BITS Pilani
Pilani | Dubai | Goa | Hyderabad
 BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

MBAHL ZG511, Managing People and Organizations

Lecture No. 4
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 three outcomes of job satisfaction.
– Identify four employee responses to dissatisfaction.

MPO Lecture 4
BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
Attitudes

Evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people, or events

MPO Lecture 4
BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
 Three Components of an Attitude

MPO Lecture 4
BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
 Attitudes and Behavior
• 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

MPO Lecture 4
BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
 Example on Cognitive Dissonance

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZazJLzruDc

MPO Lecture 4
BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS46mfwfRMU

MPO Lecture 4
BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
What are the Major Job Attitudes?

• Job Satisfaction
• Job Involvement
• Organizational Commitment
• Perceived Organizational Support
• Employee Engagement
.

MPO Lecture 4
BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
Measuring 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)
– Summation score (many questions/one average)
• Are people satisfied in their jobs?

MPO Lecture 4
BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
Causes of Job Satisfaction

• Job Conditions

• Pay

• Personality

• CSR

MPO Lecture 4
BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
Outcomes of Job Satisfaction
• Job Performance

• Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

• Customer Satisfaction

MPO Lecture 4
BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
Employee Responses to Dissatisfaction

Active

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

Destructive Constructive

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

Passive
MPO Lecture 4
BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
 Case – Crafting a Better Job

• Consider for a moment a midlevel manager at a multinational foods company, Fatima, who would
seem to be at the top of her career. She’s consistently making her required benchmarks and goals, she
has built successful relationships with colleagues, and senior management has identified her as “high
potential.” But she isn’t happy with her work. She’d be much more interested in understanding how
her organization can use social media in marketing efforts. Ideally, she’d like to quit and find
something that better suits her passions, but in the current economic environment, this may not be an
option. So she has decided to proactively reconfigure her current job.
• Fatima is part of a movement towards job “crafting,” which is the process of deliberately reorganizing
your job so that it better fits your motives, strengths, and passions. The core of job crafting is creating
diagrams of day-to-day activities with a coach. Then you and the coach collaboratively identify which
tasks fit with your personal passions, and which tend to drain motivation and satisfaction. Next, the
client and coach work together to imagine ways to emphasize preferred activities and de-emphasize
those that are less interesting. Many people engaged in job crafting find that upon deeper
consideration, they have more control over their work than they thought.
MPO Lecture 4
BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
 Case – Crafting a Better Job
• So how did Fatima craft her job? She first noticed that she was spending too much of
her time monitoring her team’s performance and answering team questions, and not
enough time working on the creative projects that inspire her. She then considered
how to modify her relationship with the team so that these activities incorporated her
passion for social media strategies, with team activities more centered around
developing new marketing. She also identified members of her team who might be
able to help her implement these new strategies and directed her interactions with
these individuals towards her new goals. As a result, not only has her engagement in
her work increased, but she has also developed new ideas that are being recognized
and advanced within the organization. In sum, she has found that by actively and
creatively examining her work, she has been able to craft her current job into one
that is truly satisfying.

MPO Lecture 4
BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
 Case – Crafting a Better Job

• As you may have noted, Fatima exhibited a proactive personality – she was eager to
develop her own options and find her own resources. Proactive individuals are often
self-empowered and are, therefore, more open to seeking workable solutions when
they are not satisfied. Research would lead us to believe Fatima will be successful in
her customized job. In fact, it is quite possible her employer never would have
helped her craft a better job had she not sought help, and that her proactivity is
responsible for her success. To the extent possible, then, all employees should feel
encouraged to be proactive in creating their best work situations.

MPO Lecture 4
BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
 Discussion Questions

• Why do you think many people are in jobs that are not satisfying? Do organizations
help people craft satisfying and motivating jobs, and if not, why not?

• Think about how you might reorient yourself to your own job. Are the principles of
job crafting described in the case relevant to your work? Why or why not?

• Are there any potential drawbacks to the job crafting approach? How can these
concerns be minimized?

MPO Lecture 4
BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
 Model Answer for Question 1

• The why or why not view might suggest that firms do try to create satisfying jobs by
incorporating a number of elements including job enrichment, job rotation, job
education, and job training (different from education) as methods to make job
satisfaction higher.

• Some firms do not try to make jobs more satisfying. They want productivity
regardless of how satisfied the employees are.

MPO Lecture 4
BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
 Model Answer for Question 2

• Students can compare their work experiences to the example of Fatima.

MPO Lecture 4
BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
 Model Answer for Question 3

• One of the concerns most likely to be mentioned is the erosion of focus on the job to
be done. The concern would be that modifying job methods might lead to more
inefficient ways of completing the task, and therefore, a loss of productivity.

MPO Lecture 4
BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
Assess your Job Satisfaction: Use the following scales

1. Extremely dissatisfied
2. Dissatisfied
3. Slightly dissatisfied
4. Neutral
5. Slightly satisfied
6. Satisfied
7. Extremely satisfied

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BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
 Exercise: Assess Your Job Satisfaction

1. The amount of job security I have.

2. The amount of pay and fringe benefits I receive.
3. The amount of personal growth and development I get in doing my job.
4. The people I talk to and work on my job.
5. The degree of respect and fair treatment I receive from my boss.
6. The feeling of worthwhile accomplishment I get from doing my job.
7. The chance to get to know other people while on the job.

06/12/20 MPO Lecture 4

BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
 Exercise: Assess Your Job Satisfaction

8. The amount of support and guidance I receive from my supervisor.

9. The degree to which I am fairly paid for what I contribute to this organization.
10. The amount of independent thoughts and action I can exercise in my job.
11. How secure things look for me in future in this organization.
12. The chance to help other people while at work.
13. The amount of challenge in my job.
14. The overall quality of the supervision I received on my work.

06/12/20 MPO Lecture 4

BITS Pilani, Deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956
 BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

Question Session
 BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

End of Lecture