Organizational Behavior
Lecture 3
Dr. Amna Yousaf
PhD (HRM)
University of Twente, the
Netherlands
Recap Lecture 2
 Model of Employee Behavior
 Major Categories of Employee Behavior
 External Influences on Employee Behavior
 Factors in the External Environment
 Factors in the Work Environment
 Internal Factors that Influence Employee
Behavior
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Attitudes
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs)
Attitudes and Job Satisfaction
Lecture 3
Lecture Outline
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Main Components of Attitudes
Does behavior always follow from attitudes
What are major job attitudes
Measuring job satisfaction
How satisfied people are with their jobs?
Impact of satisfied and dissatisfied people on workplace
Job satisfaction and National culture
Attitudes
3-4
Evaluative statements or judgments
concerning objects, people, or events.
Three components of an attitude:
 Cognitive
– The opinion or belief segment of an
attitude
 Affective – The emotional or feeling segment of
an attitude
 Behavioral – An intention to behave in a certain
way toward someone or something
Attitudes
Evaluative statements – either favorable or
unfavorable – concerning objects, people or events
Attitudes reflect how one feels
about something
Consistency of Attitudes
People seek consistency among their attitudes
and between their attitudes and their
behavior
 When there is an inconsistency, the individual may
alter either the attitudes or behavior, or develop a
rationalization for the discrepancy.
Self-Perception Theory
The view that behavior influences
attitudes
 Argues that attitudes are used after the fact
to make sense out of an action that has
already occurred rather than as devices that
precede and guide action.
 Tend to infer attitude from behavior when
you have had few experiences regarding an
issue.
What Are the Major Job Attitudes?
3-8
 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.
Attitudes
 A person’s general positive or negative feelings
towards a person, place, thing, event, or idea
 Tend to be VERY stable and hard to change
 Attitudes are important in training – e.g., does the
trainee intend to use the training or ignore it?
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Attitudes…
 Attitudes determine behavior but not directly.
 Attitudes combine with perecieved social pressure ( norms) to form
intentions
 Intentions directly predict behavior
 Reactions to feedback or other employee attitudes can have
implications for HRD interventions such as training and career
porograms.
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Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs)
 Abilities – general capacities related to the performance of specific tasks
 Skills – combines abilities and capabilities (develped through training
programs etc)
 Knowledge – understanding of the factors or principles related to a
specific subject
 HRD programs mostly focus on changing skills and knowledge
Werner & DeSimone (2006) © 2007 Prentice Hall Inc. All11rights
reserved.
Attitudes
Attitudes
Evaluative
statements or
judgments
concerning
objects,
people, or
events.
Cognitive component
The opinion or belief segment
of an attitude.
Affective Component
The emotional or feeling segment
of an attitude.
Behavioral Component
An intention to behave in a certain
way toward someone or something.
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reserved.
Types of Attitudes
Job Satisfaction
A collection of positive and/or negative feelings that
an individual holds toward his or her job.
Job Involvement
Identifying with the job, actively participating in it,
and considering performance important to self-worth.
Organizational Commitment
Identifying with a particular organization and its
goals, and wishing to maintain membership in the
organization (Affective, Normative, and Continuance
Commitment)
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Types of Attitudes, cont’d.
Perceived Organizational Support (POS)
Degree to which employees feel the organization cares
about their well-being.
Employee Engagement
An individual’s involvement with, satisfaction with, and
enthusiasm for the organization.
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An Application: Attitude Surveys
Attitude Surveys
Eliciting responses from employees through
questionnaires about how they feel about their jobs,
work groups, supervisors, and the organization.
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reserved.
Job Satisfaction
 Measuring Job Satisfaction
 Single global rating
 Summation score
 How Satisfied Are People in Their Jobs?
 In general, people are satisfied with their jobs.
 Depends on facets of satisfaction—tend to be less satisfied with
pay and promotion opportunities.
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reserved.
Causes of Job Satisfaction
 Pay only influences Job Satisfaction to a point
 After about $40,000 a year, there is no relationship between
amount of pay and job satisfaction.
 Personality can influence job satisfaction
 Negative people are usually not satisfied with their jobs
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How Employees Can Express Dissatisfaction
Exit
Voice
Behavior directed toward
leaving the organization.
Active and constructive
attempts to improve
conditions.
Loyalty
Neglect
Passively waiting for
conditions to improve.
Allowing conditions to
worsen.
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The Effect of Job Satisfaction on
Employee Performance
 Satisfaction and Productivity
 Satisfied workers are more productive AND more
productive workers are more satisfied!
 Worker productivity is higher in organizations with more
satisfied workers.
 Satisfaction and Absenteeism
 Satisfied employees have fewer avoidable absences.
 Satisfaction and Turnover
 Satisfied employees are less likely to quit.
 Organizations take actions to retain high performers and
to weed out lower performers.
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Job Satisfaction and OCB
 Satisfaction and OCBs
 Satisfied employees who feel fairly treated by and are trusting
of the organization are more willing to engage in behaviors
that go beyond the normal expectations of their job.
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Job Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction
 Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction
 Satisfied workers provide better customer service
 Satisfied employees increase customer satisfaction
because:
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They are more friendly, upbeat, and responsive.
They are less likely to turnover, which helps build long-term
customer relationships.
They are experienced.
 Dissatisfied customers increase employee job
dissatisfaction.
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reserved.
Another Major Job Attitude
3-22
 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 – economic value of staying
 Normative – moral or ethical obligations
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Has some relation to performance, especially for new
employees.
 Less important now than in past – now perhaps more of
occupational commitment, loyalty to profession rather
than to a given employer.
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And Yet More Major Job Attitudes…
3-23
 Perceived Organizational Support (POS)
 Degree to which employees believe the organization
values their contribution and cares about their wellbeing.
 Higher when rewards are fair, employees are involved
in decision-making, and supervisors are seen as
supportive.
 High POS is related to higher OCBs and performance.
 Employee Engagement
 The degree of involvement, satisfaction with, and
enthusiasm for the job.
 Engaged employees are passionate about their work
and company.
Are These Job Attitudes Really Distinct?
3-24
 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.
Job Satisfaction
3-25
 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 depend on how job satisfaction is measured.
 Pay and promotion are the most problematic elements.
Causes of Job Satisfaction
3-26
 Pay influences job satisfaction only to a point.
 After about $40,000 a 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.
Outcomes of Job Satisfaction
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 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.
More Outcomes of Job
Satisfaction
3-28
 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.
Despite the overwhelming evidence of the impact of
job satisfaction on the bottom line, most managers
are either unconcerned about or overestimate
worker satisfaction.
Does Behavior Always Follow from Attitudes?
3-29
No, the reverse is sometimes true! (Leon Festinger )
 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
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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
3-30
 The most powerful moderators of the attitude-
behavior relationship are:
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Importance of the attitude
Correspondence to behavior
Accessibility
Existence of social pressures
Personal and direct experience of the attitude
Attitudes predict behavior, as influenced by
moderating variables.
Predicting Behavior from Attitudes
3-31
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.
Global Implications
3-32
 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.
Managerial Implications
3-33
 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, and theft, and increasing OCB
 Focus on the intrinsic parts of the job: make
work challenging and interesting
 Pay
is not enough
Chapter Check-Up: Attitudes
In general, when we think of attitudes and organizations, we think
of
1) Job Satisfaction
2) Happiness
3) Job Involvement
4) Mood at work
5) Organizational Commitment
6) 1 and 2
7) 1, 3, and 5
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reserved.
Chapter Check-Up: Attitudes
Ernesto is the known as the Donut Hut King---every day he brings
donuts and coffee to the office for everyone. He says it helps
everyone think more clearly! Ernesto is demonstrating
1. Job satisfaction
2. Organizational citizenship
behavior
3. Productivity
4. Job involvement
5. Conscientiousness
Write down three things someone could do at
work that would constitute an OCB. Compare
your list with a neighbor’s.
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reserved.