OB Class 9/19
Chapter 4 – Job Satisfaction

Job Satisfaction  a pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s
job or job experience
o Decrease in job satisfaction


Not liking boss

Not finding work interesting

Not liking their coworkers
Employees are satisfied when their job provides the things they value
o Value  things that the job consciously or unconsciously want to seek or attain

Value-Percept Theory  argues that job satisfaction depends on whether you perceive
that your job supplies things that you value
o Dissatisfaction = [ Values (want) – Values (have) ] x [ Value (importance)]
o People evaluate job satisfaction to specific “facets” of the job

Commonly assessed work values
o Pay – whether its enough, adequate , secure for normal experiences
o Promotions – whether satisfied with company promotion policy and frequency
(frequent, fair, based on ability)
o Supervision – feelings about their boss (competent, polity, good communicato)
o Coworkers – how they feel about coworkers ( smart, responsible, helpful, fun,
and interesting)
o Work itself – feelings about their work tasks (challenging, interesting, respected,
and make use of key skills)
o Altruism – helping others, moral causes
o Status – prestige
o Environment – comfort, safety

Formulas for all of the work values 
o Value Satisfaction = [ Value (want) – Value (have)] x [ Value (importance)]

Job Characteristics Theory  describes the central characteristics of intrinsically
satisfying jobs
o Variety  degree to which the job requires a number of different skills and
talents
o Identity  degree to which the job requires completing a whole, identifiable
piece-of-work from beginning to end with a visible outcome
o Significance  degree to which work has a significant impact on the lives of
other people, particularly people in the world at large
o Autonomy  degree to which the job provides independence, freedom, and
discretion to the individual performing the work
o Feedback  degree to which carrying out the activities required by the job
provides employees with clear information about how well they are performing

Mood  states of feeling that are often mild in intensity, last for an extended period of
time, and are not explicitly directed or caused by anything

Flow  a state in which employees feel a total immersion in the task at hand
sometimes losing track of time

Affective events theory  workplace events can generate affective reactions –
reactions that can go on to influence work attitudes and behaviors
o Emotions  states of feelings that are often intense, last only a few minutes,
and are clearly directed at or caused by someone or a circumstance

Positive emotions joy, pride, relief, hope, love, and compassion

Negative emotions  anger, anxiety, fear, guilt, shame, sadness, envy,
and disgust
o Emotional labor  need to manage emotions to complete job duties
successfully
o Emotional contagion  one person can “catch” or “be infected by” the
emotions of another person
Chapter 5 -- Stress

Stress  defined as a psychological response to demands that possess certain stakes for
the person and that tax or exceed the person’s capacity or resources.4

Stressors  demands that cause people to experience stress

Strains  when demands tax or exceed a person ‘s capacity

Transactional Theory of stress  explains how stressors are perceived and appraised as
well as how people react to those perceptions and appraisals
o Primary appraisal  when people first encounter stressors
o Hindrance stressors  stressful demands that people perceive to hinder their
progress toward accomplishing personal goals

Role conflict  conflicting expectations people may have of us

Role ambiguity  lack of information about what needs to be done in a
role

Role overload  when the number of demanding roles that a person
holds is so high that the person simply cannot perform some or all of the
roles effectively
o Work Challenge stressors

Time pressure  strong sense that the amount of time that you have to
do a task is not quite enough

Work complexity  degree to which the requirements of the work ( in
terms knowledge, skill, and abilities) tax or exceed the capabilities of the
person who is responsible for completing the work

Work responsibility  nature of the obligations that someone has
towards others
o Nonwork hindrance stressors

Work-family conflict  special form of role conflict in which the
demands of a work role hinder the fulfillment of the demands of a family
role

Negative life events  number of life events are perceived as quite
stressful, particularly when they result in significant changes to a person’s
life

Financial uncertainty  refers to conditions that create uncertainties
with regard to the loss of livelihood, savings, or the ability to pay
expenses.
o Nonwork challenge stressors

Family time demands  refer to the time that a person commits to
participate in an array of family activities and responsibilities.

Personal development activities include participation in formal
education programs, music lessons, sports-related training, hobbyrelated self-education, participation in local government, or volunteer
work.

Positive life events  are sources of nonwork challenge stressors. For
example, marriage, the addition of a new family member, and graduating
from school are stressful in their own way.

How do people deal with stressors
o Coping  Coping refers to the behaviors and thoughts that people use to
manage both the stressful demands they face and the emotions associated with
those stressful demands

Behavior coping  involves the set of physical activities that are used to
deal with a stressful situation.

Cognitive coping  refers to the thoughts that are involved in trying to
deal with a stressful situation.

Problem-focused coping  refers to behaviors and cognitions intended
to manage the stressful situation itself.

Emotion-focused coping  refers to the various ways in which people
manage their own emotional reactions to stressful demands.

Stress  Chapter 5
o Physiological strains  illness, high blood pressure, etc
o Psychological strains  depression, anxiety, etc.
o Behavioral strains  alcohol and drug use, teeth grinding, etc.

Burnout  emotional, physical , and mental exhaustion resulting from coping with
stressful demands on an ongoing basis

Individuals in the stress process
o Type A Behavioral Patterns  people have a strong sense of time urgency and
tend to be impatient, hard-driving, competitive, controlling, aggressive, and even
hostile.

Way people deal with stress
o Social support

instrumental support  which refers to the help people receive that can
be used to address the stressful demand directly.

Emotional support  refers to the help people receive in addressing the
emotional distress that accompanies stressful demands.
Class – Going over interview assignment

Difference between Organaizational and Interpersonal Behaviors (both are citizenship
behavior types)? Test
questions
o Organizational – what youre doing on behalf of representing the company to
build its face and reputation
o Interpersonal – about what youre doing to help somebody else within the
organization

Commitment
o Affective
o Continuance
o Normative

Task types
o Creative
o Adaptive
o Routine

Counterproductive behaviors

Psychological withdrawal

Physical withdrawal
Class 9/19/2018
Chapter 4 – Job Satisfaction

Job Satisfaction vs Job Performance
o Job Satisfaction is internal (how you feel about the job) where as Job
Performance is an output (what youre doing)
 Job Satisfaction  a pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s
job or job experiences
o It is based on both COGNITION (calculated opinions of your job) and AFFECT
(emotional reactions to your job)
 Affect colors cognition, and vice versa
 Factors that you value in your job (effecting job satisfaction)
o Pay
o Promotions
o Supervision
o Cowrokers
o Work itself
o Altruisim
o Status
o Environment
 Which of these are important to you is based on your perception
 Value- Percept theory
o Dissatisfaction = (V(want) – V(have)) x V(importance)
o This is perception of the individual
o Most important:
 Pay satisfaction
 Promotion satisfaction
 Supervision satisfaction
 Coworker satisfaction
 Satisfaction with the work itself
o The correlation ranking: work itself then supervision then coworkers then
promotion then pay
 The work itself is the most important for most people
 Job Characteristics theory
o Satisfaction with the work itself
 Meaningfulness of work
 Variety – Variety of tasks you do
 Identity – seeing the job through from start to finish
o Teamwork is rated lower on the sense of identity
o Seeing it through to the end ranks higher on sense of
identity
 Significance – see a meaningful impact on the organization from
the work you did
o It’s bigger than you and the impact is greater than your
immediate sphere
 Responsibility for outcomes
 Autonomy  input into how you work and when you work
o This gets more and more important as you move along
your career
 Knowledge of results
 Feedback  once you complete a job, you get a sense of how well
you did
o You get this sense of how well you did from clients,
supervisors, coworkers
o Supervisor if for just for the task you did not and not
overall performance
o (Knowledge and skill) along with (Growth Need Strength) affects Satisfaction of
work itself
 These are qualifiers that influence particular individuals
 Growth need strength is more internal determination to pursue these
characteristics to make the job more satisfying
 Video example of Mr. Fireworks
o Deals with the daily operations and puts on the big shows at Disney
o Didn’t want to be stuck at a desk when he was younger
o Characteristics:
 Identity – he sees it through from getting the fireworks in the morning to
seeing the fireworks at night
 Autonomy – he gets to pick what type of fireworks he wants to choose
for the show
 Stephen Kellogg’s top 5
o Know why youre working
o Climb ladders that matter
o See that the grass only looks greener on the other side
o Understand the positive effects of your work
o Maintain your “soul”
 Hour-by-hour fluctuations in job satisfaction durng the workday
o Not always going to be steady state
 General states of feeling not typically directed at or caused by anything and not intense
enough to interrupt ongoing though the processes.
o Mood effects work and vice versa
o Generally separated into positive and negative moods
 Emotions have a specific referent
o Positive : joy, pride, relief, hope, love
o Negative: anger, fear, guilt, sadness, disgust
o Positive emotions can trigger citizenship behaviors while negative emotions can
trigger counterproductive behaviors
 Emotional Contagion and emotional labor
o Think about the last time you went shopping…
 How friendly was the customer service rep
 How did that person’s emotional state make you feel
o Many times employees need to show emotions that they don’t feel
 EX: flight attendants, doctors, teachers
 Correlation between job satisfaction and job performance
o Moderate Positive correlation
 Correlation between job satisfaction and organizational commitment
o Strong positive correlation
Chapter 5 – Stress (Class)

Stress  a psychological response to demands where there is something at stake and
where coping with with the demands taxes or exceeds a person’s capacity or resources
o Some stress is actually good

Stressors  The Demands

Strain negative physical and emotional consequences of stress

Jobs that are more stressful
o High stakes
o In charge of other people
o Competition (Turnaround)
o Time you have to do the task

Framework
o Stressor-Stress-Strain Framework
o Stressors  Stress  Strain

Stressors (Work Hindrance, Work Challenge, Nonwork Hindrance,
Nonwork Challenge)

Hindrance  is a stressor
o Perceived as hindering progress toward personal
accomplishments or goal attainment


Trigger anxiety or anger (negative emotions)
Challenge Stressors
o Perceived as opportunities for learning, growth, or
entertainment

Trigger emotions such as pride and enthusiasm
(positive emotions)

Stressors
o Work Hindrance

Role conflict

Role ambiguity  probably the most common, linked to
miscommunication

Role overload

Daily hassles
o Work Challenge

Time pressure

Work complexity

Work responsibility
o Nonwork Hindrance

Work-family conflict

Negative life events

Financial uncertainty
o Nonwork Challenge


Family time demands

Personal development

Positive life events

Stressor-Stress-Strain Framework
Yerkes-Dodson Law Stressors
o Stress is a bell curve with performance on the y-axis and stress is on the x-axis
o There is a point where there is just enough stress to have you perform at
maximum performance but not enough stress that it hinders your performance

Transactional Theory of Stress
o Stress  Primary Apraisal (Is it stressful?  evaluate the significance and
meaning of stressors encountered)


Yes?  secondary appraisal (how can I cope)

No?  Benign job demand
Coping with Stress
o Coping  behaviors and thoughts people use to respond to stress

Behavioral  do something

Cognitive  in your head (look up)
o Types of stress

Problem-focused  an issue or assignment (look up)

Emotion-focused  what it takes for you to find out your internal
capacity to deal with stress
o Examples of Coping Strengths

Behavioral & Problem focused  working harder, seeking assistance,
acquiring additional resources

Behavioral & Emotion Focused  engaging in alternative activities,
seeking support, venting anger

Cognitive & problem focused  strategizing, self motivation, changing
priorities

Cognitive & emotion focused  avoiding, distancing, and ignoring;
looking for the positive in the negative; reappraising

Consequences of Stress
o Stress 


Physiological strains illness, high blood pressure, etc.

Psychological strains depression, anxiety, etc

Behavioral strainsalcohol and drug use, teeth grinding, etc
Individual factors
o Not everyone reacts to stressors in the same way
o Some cope better: Hardiness
o Others cope worse: Type A Behavior Pattern
o Social support can also help manage stress


Instrumental

Emotions
How important is stress
o Hindrance stressors have weak negative effect on job performance
o Hindrance stressors strong negative effect organizational commitment
o Challenge stressors have weak positive effect on job performance
o Challenge stressors have moderate positive effect on organizational
commitment

Organizational Stress Management Interventions – how can organizations help
o Primary – attempt to alter the source of the workplace stress by making changes
such as redesigning jobs to give employees greater flexibility or more decision
control
o Secondary – help employees better recognize and manage stress symptoms as
they occur
o Tertiary – help employees recover from stressful events
Motivation

Question of the Day
o Why are some employees more motivated than others

Motivation  a set of energetic forces that originate within and outside an employee
(individual) that initiates work-related effort and determines its direction, intensity, and
persistence
o Direction
o Intensity
o Persistence

What motivates you?
o Positive spin  jobs, graduating with a summa cum laude
o Negative spin  not wasting tuition money, wanting to not fail

Herzerg’s Two-factor Theory
o Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Top to bottom (listed from top of pyramid to bottom)

Top Two parts of pyramid are motivators (achievement,
recognition, work itself, responsibility, advancement)
o Self-Actualization
o Esteem

Bottom Three  Hygiene factors (interpersonal relations,
company policy/administration, supervision, salary, working
conditions
o Belonging and love
o Safety and security
o Basic physiological needs

More motivational theories
o Expectancy theory

Motivation is fostered when the employee believes three things:

Effort results in performance (Expectance)
o the ultimate outcome comes from the performance

Performance results in outcomes (instrumentality)
o If I perform well, will I receive outcomes?

Those outcomes are valued (Valence)
o Will the outcomes be satisfying?

Effort – expectancy  Performance – instrumentality Outcomes
(valence)

(Expectancy) x Sum (Instrumentality x Valence)

Self-efficacy is a qualifier that increases the relationship between
effort and performance, it is a belief that a person has the capabilities
needed to execute the behaviors required for task success


Past accomplishments

Vicarious experiences

Verbal persuasion

Emotional cues
Self-efficacy strengthens the relationship between effort and
performance

The outcome (either extrinsic or intrinsic) have to be valuable to YOU

Example: Katherine Switzer is the first woman to run in the Boston
Marathon

The outcome she valued was to just finish the race but then
evolved to finishing the race so that people can see that women
can do it too

Incentives is also the carrot and the stick. There are extrinsic and intrinsic
incentives
o Goal setting theory

Goals are the primary drivers of the intensity and persistency of effort

Motivation is fostered when employees are given specific and difficult
goals


Better than no goals, easy goals, or “do your best” goals
This theory focuses on the outcome and focusing on an outcome that is
both specific and difficult

Task performance goals up as goal difficulty goes up from easy to
moderate to difficult to impossible




Starts going down in the impossible range

Peak is right between difficult and impossible
Why does it work?

Triggers self set goals

Create task strategies
When does it work

Feedback is provided

Low task complexity

High goal commitment
There has to be some support systems in place
o Equity theory

Motivation is maximized when an employee’s ratio of outcomes to inputs
matches those of a comparison other

Key point: motivation is based on a relative assessment

Comparison others
o Internal  coworkers, supervisors, subordinates, CEO
o External: friends, neighbors
o Psychological empowerment
Truth, Justice, Ethics



Reputation  reflects the prominence of its brand in the minds of the public and the
perceived quality of its goods and services
Trust
o What does reputation depend on?
 Trust  defined as the willingness to be vulnerable to a trustee based on
positive expectations about the trustee’s actions and willingness
 Justice  perceived fairness of an authority’s decision making
 Ethics  degree to which the behaviors of an authority are in
accordance with generally accepted moral norms
o What is trust rooted in?
 Disposition based meaning that your personality traits include a
general propensity to trust others
 Trust propensity a general expectation that the words,
promises, and statements of individuals can be relied upon

 Cognition based  rooted in rational assessment of the authority’s
trustworthiness
 Trustworthiness  attributes of a trustee that inspire trust
 Ability  skills, competencies, and areas of expertise that enable
an authority to be trustworthy
 Benevolence  belief that the authority wants to do good for the
trustor, apart from any profit-centered reason
 Integrity  perception that the authority adheres to a set of
values that the trustor finds acceptable
 Affect based  depends on feelings towards the authority that go
beyond rational assessment
 Based more in emotion than reason
Justice
o Distributive justice  perceived fairness of decision making outcomes
 Whether decision outcomes, such as pay and promotion, are allocated
using proper norms
o Procedural Justice  reflects the perceived fairness of decision making
processes
 Fostered when authorities adhere to rules of fair process
 One is voice, giving opportunity for employees to speak up during
decision making processes
o Interpersonal Justice perceived fairness of the treatment received by
employees by authorities
 Abusive supervision  sustained display of hostile verbal and non-verbal
decisions
 Respect and propriety fosters this
o Informational Justice  perceived fairness of the communication provided from
authorities


Justification and truthfulness foster this
Ethics
o Prescriptive is how they should act
o Descriptive is how they tend to act
o Four stages
 Moral awareness
 Moral intensity
 Moral attentiveness
 Moral judgment
 Moral intent
 Ethical behavior (three above lead to this)
Chapter 8 Learning and Decision Making





Learning  reflects relatively permanent changes in an employee’s knowledge or skills
that results from experience
Decision making  process of generating and choosing from a set of alternatives to
solve a problem
o Three months to a year to perform satisfactorily
Why do some people learn better than others?
o Expertise  knowledge and skill that distinguishes experts from novices and less
experienced people
Types of knowledge
o Explicit knowledge  kind of information you think about when you picture
someone sitting down at a desk to learn
o Tacit knowledge  what employees can only learn through experience
Methods of learning
o Reinforcement  operant conditioning, we learn by observing the link between
our voluntary behavior and consequences
 Contingencies of reinforcement  4 specific consequences to modify
employee behavior
 Positive reinforcement  positive outcome follows a desired
behavior
 Negative reinforcement  unwanted outcome is removed
following a desired behavior
 Punishment  unwanted outcome follows an unwanted behavior
 Extinction  removal of a consequence following an unwanted
behavior
 Schedule of reinforcement  timing of consequences are important
 Continuous reinforcement  specific consequence follows each
and every occurrence of a desired behavior
 Fixed interval schedule  rewarded after a certain amount of
time
 Variable interval schedule  reinforce behavior at more random
points of time



Fixed ratio schedules  reinforces behaviors after a certain
number of them have been exhibited
 Variable ratio schedule  rewards people after a varying number
of exhibited behaviors
o Observation 
 Social learning theory says that people can learn through observing
others
 Behavior modeling  when employees observe a behavior, learn from it,
and repeat the behavior
 Attentional processes (learner focuses attention on the critical
behavior of others)
 Retention processes (learner remembers the behaviors of the
model once the model is no longer present)
 Production processes (learner must have the appropriate skill set
and be able to replicate the behavior)
 Reinforcement (learner must observe the model receiving
reinforcement and then receive it himself
o Goal Orientation  kinds of activities and goals that people prioritize
 Learning orientation  building competence is more important than
demonstrating
 Performance-prove orientation  focus on demonstrating their
competence so others think highly of them
 Performance-avoid orientation  demonstrating competence so others
will not think negatively of them
Methods of decision making
o Programmed decision  decisions that become somewhat automatic
o Intuition  emotionally charged judgements that arise through quick,
nonconscious, holistic associations
 Crisis situation
o Nonprogrammed decision  decision in a new, complex situation
o Rational decision making model  step-by-step approach to making decisions
that maximize outcomes by examining all available alternatives
 Identify the criteria
 Generate a list of alternatives
 Evaluation of all the alternatives
 Select the best alternative with the best outcome
Decision making problems
o Limited information
 Bounded rationality 
 Satisficing  choose first alternative
o Faulty perceptions
o Faulty attributions
o Escalation of commitment
Class 10/03/2018 Learning and Decision Making







Why are some employees better decision-makers than others? How do employees
recognize and mitigate the barriers to decision making
o It’s all about the learning and how it’s applied
Learning  permanent changes in an employee’s knowledge or skill that result from
experience
o Distinguishing factor between experts & novices
Types of knowledge
o Explicit – relatively easy to communicate; can learn from a source (i.e. book,
video)
 Read/Write will be highly scoring on the test taken earlier for class. It is a
category of how you learn the best; the other categories are kinesthetic,
visual, and auditory
o Tacit  more difficult to communicate; can learn through practice (i.e. doing)
 Kinesthetic will be highly scoring
 A lot of the information in new employee information will come from
here
o Video: Cirque Du Soleil Video (EXAMPLE)
 They already have athletic background and expertise before they even
go into to training
 It’s a lot of tacit learning in the training camp because they could only
learn it through experience
How do employees learn?
o Reinforcement (operant conditioning process)
o Observation (social learning theory)
o Goal Orientation (Individual predispositions for learning)
Operant conditioning Process
o Antecedent  condition that precedes behavior
o Behavior  action performed by employee
o Consequence  result that occurs after behavior
Reinforcement/Operant Conditioning Process
o Contingencies of Reinforcement
 Increases desired behaviors
 Positive reinforcement (Consequence added for wanted
outcome)
 Negative Reinforcement (consequence removed for unwanted
outcome)
 Decreases unwanted behaviors
 Extinction (consequence is removed for wanted outcome)
 Punishment (consequence added for unwanted outcome)
Schedule of reinforcement



o Continuous  after every desired behavior, high potential level of performance,
e.g. praise
o Fixed Interval  after fixed time periods, average potential level of
performance, e.g. paycheck
o Variable Interval  reward given after variable time periods, moderately high
potential level of performance, e.g. supervisor walk-by
o Fixed Ratio  after fixed number of desired behaviors, high potential level of
performance, e.g. piece-rate pay
o Variable ratio  after variable number of desired behaviors, very high potential
level of performance, e.g. commission pay
Decision-Making
o Identify the problem
o Is the problem recognized> has it been dealt with before
 Yes -? Programmed decision (intuition, “gut feeling”)
 No  rational decision making model
Rational decision making model
o Determine appropriate criteria for making a decision
o Generate list of available alternatives
o Evaluate the alternatives against criteria
o Choose the solution that maximizes
o Implement appropriate solution
Decision making challenges
o Limited information
o Faulty perceptions
 Perception: the process of selecting, organizing, storing, and retrieving
information about the environment
 Leads to useful but often distorted versions of reality
 Selective perceptions
 Projection biases
 Social identity theory
 Heuristics  mental shortcuts to get to a quicker decision based
on what we think we know and previous experiences
o Cognitive shortcuts that are used when making decsions
under uncertainty
o Availability  an assessment of frequency or probability
based on the ease with which instances or occurrences
can be brought to mind
o Anchoring and Adjustment  look at something really
quickly to figure it out
 A strategy for estimating unknown quantities
(starting with the known information and
adjusting away from that until it feels sufficient)
o Hindsight bias
o Framing Bias
 Tendency to make decisions based on how
something is phrased





o Faulty attributions
 Attributions refer to how we explain actions and events that occur
around us
 Fundamental attribution error  tendency to judge others’
behaviors as due to internal factors
 Self-serving bias  tendency to attribute own failures to external
factors & own successes to internal factors
 Assessments
o Consensus (did others act the same under similar
situations
 Distinctiveness (does this person tend to act differently in other
circumstances
 Consistency (does this person always do this when performing
this task
o Escalation of commitment
 Sinking ship (sunk costs)
 The decision to continue a failing course of action
 Gambling
 Holding onto stocks
 Business and real estate deals
 Staying in a doomed relationship
Both faulty perceptions and faulty attributions contribute to bias
Bounded rationality
o Boil problem down into something easily understood
o Generate a few solutions
o Evaluate alternatives as soon as we think of them
o Use distorted and inaccurate information to evaluate alternatives
o Choose an alternative
Learning has a moderate positive effect on job performance
o It effects task performance which effects job performance
Learning has a weak positive effect on organizational commitment
Why are some employees better decision-makers than others
o It’s all about the learning