CHAPTER 9: EMOTIONS, ATTITUDES, AND WORK
Learning Objectives
Module 9.1
Understand how emotions experienced at work affect work and non-work behavior.
Understand the early history of job satisfaction research.
Describe the antecedents and the consequences of job satisfaction.
Describe the major approaches to measuring job satisfaction.
Module 9.2
Understand the forms of work satisfaction described by Bruggemann and Bussing.
Explain the distinction between moods and emotions.
Describe how dispositions and core evaluations can be helpful in understanding job
satisfaction.
Describe the concept of commitment and its different forms.
Module 9.3
Understand the psychological implications of job loss.
Describe the arguments of the proponents and opponents of telecommuting.
Identify the influences on and outcomes of work-life balance.
Describe how cultural variables can affect the study of work attitudes and emotions.
Chapter Outline
Module 9.1 Job Satisfaction
The Experience of Emotion at Work
Job Satisfaction: Some History
The Early Period of Job Satisfaction Research
An Evolution
Antecedents and Consequences of Job Satisfaction
The Measurement of Job Satisfaction
Overall versus Facet Satisfaction
Satisfaction Questionnaires
The Concept of Commitment
Forms of Commitment
Individual Difference Variables and Commitment
A New Focus: Organizational Identification
Module 9.2 Moods, Emotions, Attitudes, and Behavior
Is Everybody Happy? Does It Matter If They Are?
The Concept of “Resigned” Work Satisfaction
Satisfaction versus Mood versus Emotion
Dispositions and Affectivity
The Time Course of Emotional Experience
Genetics and Job Satisfaction
The Concept of Core Self-Evaluations
Withdrawal Behaviors
Module 9.3 Special Topics Related to Attitudes and Emotions
Job Loss
Telecommuting
Work–Family Balance
Psychological Contracts
Work-Related Attitudes and Emotions from the Cross-Cultural Perspective
Glossary Terms for Chapter 9
This list of key terms and important concepts from Chapter 9 can be used in conjunction
with reviewing the material in the textbook. After reviewing Chapter 9 in the textbook,
define each of the following key terms and important concepts fully. Check your
answers with the textbook, and review terms with which you have difficulty. Good luck!
Module 9.1
job satisfaction
Hawthorne Effect
Value theory
overall satisfaction
facet satisfaction
Job Descriptive Index (JDI)
Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ)
intrinsic satisfaction
extrinsic satisfaction
commitment
affective commitment
continuance commitment
normative commitment
occupational commitment
job imbeddedness
Hobo syndrome
organizational identification (OID)
Module 9.2
resigned work satisfaction
constructive work dissatisfaction
mood
emotion
affect circumplex
process emotion
prospective emotion
retrospective emotion
negative affectivity (NA)
positive affectivity (PA)
core self-evaluations
emotional labor
withdrawal behaviors
work withdrawal
job withdrawal
progression hypothesis
Module 9.3
telecommuting
work/family balance
psychological contracts
1. The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist (TIP) articles of interest:
Ekman, P. (October 2008). SIOP 2008 invited address: emotional skills. The IndustrialOrganizational Psychologist, 46 (2), 21-24. (Article discusses recent research on
emotions and achieving psychological balance)
Madigan, J., & Dickson, M. (April 2008). Good science-good practice. The IndustrialOrganizational Psychologist, 45 (4), 67-72. (Article discusses the effects of
telecommunicating on employees' relationships, attitudes, emotions, and work
performance)
Warr, P., (January 2007). Jobs and happiness. The Industrial-Organizational
Psychologist, 44 (3), 19-24. (Article discusses the tools needed for Job satisfaction)
Debate Topics:
-
Does every member of a group need to be happy in order to accomplish a task?
Is telecommuting an effective substitute for the traditional work arrangements?
Critical Thinking Exercises (CTEs)
9.1 Use the questions in Table 9.2 to describe the best job and the worst job you have
ever had. What are the differences between them?
9.2 Sometimes job satisfaction is defined as a cognition (attitude), sometimes as an
emotion, and sometimes as both. Consider a time when you were satisfied with your job
and a time you were dissatisfied with your job (these can be two different jobs) and list
the cognitions (thoughts) you had and the emotions you had below:
SATISFIED
DISSATISFIED
Cognition
Emotion
9.3 Consider two professional athletes who have been traded from one team to another.
One athlete had been with the same team for seven years before being traded, while the
other athlete had been with a team for two years before the trade. Analyze the
commitment levels of each athlete using the three elements suggested by Meyer and
Allen.
9.4 The progression approach to withdrawal behaviors proposes that little withdrawals
(tardiness) eventually escalate into larger withdrawals (absence). Assuming this
proposition is true, how would it affect your behavior as a manager?
9.5 If an organization announces a downsizing, would the emotional impact be greatest
on (a) a worker who joined the organization directly from school five years ago, (b) one
who joined the organization directly from school a year ago, or (c) one who graduated
from school three years ago, but was laid off by a previous employer and employed by
the current organization for one year? Explain your answer.
9.6 American workers are more likely to confront a supervisor or manager if they are
unhappy with some aspect of their work. Asian workers are less likely to engage in such
confrontation. Does this mean that the Asian workers will experience more job
dissatisfaction or negative emotions than their American counterparts? Explain your
answer.