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To what extent should managers be concerned about low levels of job satisfaction
and organisational commitment among their employees?
The debate on whether happy workers are productive workers point to job
satisfaction and organisational commitment as factors that effect productivity. This
implies that low levels of job satisfaction and organisational culture, associated with
negative job attitude, correlates with low levels of productivity. This essay will
argue that whilst managers should be concerned with low levels of job satisfaction
and organisational commitment, there is little they can do to help increase job
satisfaction and organisational commitment. It will first define job satisfaction and
organisational commitment; next it will look at the relationship between negative
job attitudes and undesirable behaviour. It will contend that negative job attitudes
contribute to individual behaviours that merge to cause general undesirable
behaviour criterion. Next, it will argue managers should pay attention to different
facets of job attitude at different levels of the company. Finally, it will look at the
strength and durability of attitudes through cognitive biases, dispositional studies
and a twin study. It will conclude that whilst there is a relationship between job
attitude and job behaviour, that companies are limited in their ability to improve job
attitudes.
Job satisfaction is defined as an emotional state resulting from the evaluation or
appraisal of ones job experiences1. Organisational commitment, on the other hand,
is defined as a feeling of sharing beliefs and values with ones entire organisation 2.
One of the difficulties in approaching the issue of whether job satisfaction and
organisational commitment should be a concern to managers is that neither concept
prescribes specific actions or indicators as both are subjective experiences3.
Commonly used measurements of job satisfaction are the Job Descriptive Index and
the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, which measure satisfaction using
different criteria 4 . The problem with not having a universally agreed upon
measurement is a lack of reliability; it is difficult to compare results across studies if
they have used different measures. Scarpello and Campbell found that faceted
measures did not correlate well with global measures5. We also lack validity, if there
is no consensus on which measure is accurate, how will we know that we are truly
Locke, John. "The Nature and Causes of Job Satisfaction." Handbook of Industrial
and Organizational Psychology. By Marvin D. Dunnette. Chicago: Rand McNally
College Pub., 1976. 1297-349. Print.
2 Meyer, John P., and Natalie J. Allen. "A Three-component Conceptualization of
Organizational Commitment." Human Resource Management Review 1.1 (1991): 6189. Web.
3 Harrison, David A., Daniel A. Newman, and Philip L. Roth. "How Important Are Job
Attitudes? Meta-Analytic Comparisons Of Integrative Behavioral Outcomes And
Time Sequences." Academy of Management Journal 49.2 (2006): 305-25. Web.
4 Saari, Lise M., and Timothy A. Judge. "Employee Attitudes and Job Satisfaction."
Human Resource Management 43.4 (2004): 395-407. Web.
5 Ibid.
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measuring job satisfaction? Furthermore, job satisfaction and organisational
commitment are often grouped under the umbrella term job satisfaction; measures
of job satisfaction often overlap with measures of organisational commitment. Thus,
it is often difficult to distinguish the two.
Studies have indicated a correlation between low job satisfaction and organisational
commitment with negative job behaviours such as withdrawal from a company6.
Social exchange theory posits that human relationships are formed by the use of a
subjective cost-benefit analysis and the comparison of alternatives7. Thus, it can be
applied to job satisfaction and organisational commitment. If an employee feels
dissatisfied with the job and company due to lack of interesting work of adequate
pay provided, they may feel less obligated to reciprocate in performance and
retention. Harrison et al argued that job attitudes, such job satisfaction and
organisational commitment, first contribute to individual tendencies to engage in
specific behaviours, which then coalesce to cause general behavioural criterion 8.
Whereas positive job attitudes correlate with individuals to contributing rather than
withholding desirable inputs, negative job attitudes lead to low contextual
performance and high lateness, absenteeism and turnover. These behaviours
indicate withdrawal and the eventual departure of the employee from the company
and should be of concern to companies due to the decline in productivity produce
and the high costs associated with high turnover as it entails replacement the
employees via marketing, recruitment and training. Harrison et al found that
negative job attitudes were associated with lower levels of contextual performance.
They argued that avoiding citizenship is a way for employees to reduce work
inclusion, which signals that an employee may leave soon. This is because a major
factor-inhibiting turnover is depth and breadth of interpersonal relationships
developed through citizenship behaviours9. Their study also found that lateness
tends to precede absence and absence predicts turnover, thus this series of
behaviours represent a unified tendency towards leaving the company.
Companies should consider differences in the factors that effect turnover for
employees at different levels in the organisation; this in turn will help them tailor
measures for each level to ensure a low turnover. A study by Moynihan et al found
job satisfaction is a stronger predictor of intention to leave an organisation than
organizational commitment for executives than lower level employees as they hold
different expectation about the employment relationship10. Although job security
Ibid.
Homans, George Caspar. Social Behavior as Exchange. Indianapolis, IN: BobbsMerrill, College Division, n.d. Print.
8 Harrison, David A., Daniel A. Newman, and Philip L. Roth. "How Important Are Job
Attitudes? Meta-Analytic Comparisons Of Integrative Behavioral Outcomes And
Time Sequences." Academy of Management Journal 49.2 (2006): 305-25. Web.
9 Ibid.
10 Moynihan, Lisa M., Wendy Robyn. Boswell, and John W. Boudreau. The Influence of
Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment on Executive Withdrawal and
6
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and career growth within organisations have been cited as factors that foster
retention11, these factors may not be relevant to executives as they generally enjoy a
greater degree of economic independence because of enhanced income security
provisions and greater personal wealth. They also may have less reason to be loyal
to an organisation because of their enhanced external mobility and control over
their own career due to the high demand for executives12. Therefore, it could be
argued that attachment to the work (job satisfaction) rather than the company
(organizational commitment) is a better predictor for turnover. Thus, not only
should companies be concerned about low levels of job satisfaction and
organizational commitment in general, they should be concerned about the
differences in these two measures between levels in the company. An implication of
this study is that companies should tailor policies that boost organisational
commitment towards lower level employees and policies that boost job satisfaction
towards employees at executive level for maximum effectiveness. It is also
important to note that trends in job mobility must also be considered. For example,
there has been a decline in people pursuing long-term careers in one company13.
This would imply that there is less reason for loyalty to an organisation and that
companies should focus more on job satisfaction in the future.
It can be argued that whilst negative job attitudes are correlated with undesirable
job behaviours, managers need not take great concern with trying to increase low
levels of job satisfaction and organisational commitment as both are extremely
difficult to change. Attitudes, especially ones that are strong, are relatively stable
over time and resistant to persuasion14. Visser and Krosnick documented changes in
attitude strength over the life cycle and found that flexibility and readiness to
change ones attitude declines from early to middle adulthood, which is the primary
period of employment15. This may be due to confirmation bias, which is the human
tendency to search for, interpret, or prioritize information in a way that confirms

Performance. Ithaca, NY: Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies, Cornell U,
2000. Print.
11 Hom, Peter W., and Rodger W. Griffeth. Employee Turnover. Cincinnati, OH: SouthWestern College Pub., 1994. Print.
12 Moynihan, Lisa M., Wendy Robyn. Boswell, and John W. Boudreau. The Influence of
Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment on Executive Withdrawal and
Performance. Ithaca, NY: Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies, Cornell U,
2000. Print.
13 Sims, R. R. "Human Resource Managment's Role in Clarifying the New
Psychological Contract." Human Resource Management 33.3 (1994): 372-82. Web.
14 Ajzen, I. (2001) Nature and operations of attitudes. Annual Review of Psychology.
vol. 52 27-58
15 Visser, Penny S., and Jon A. Krosnick. "Development of Attitude Strength over the
Life Cycle: Surge and Decline." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 75.6
(1998): 1389-410. Web.

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one's beliefs16. This can lead to employees ignoring new information from changes
in the company that seek to increase their job attitudes. Kelly analysed the effects of
job redesign on job attitudes of manual workers and found that in the case of job
enlargement, productivity per man per hour increased by 20% 17. But this increase
in productivity was not due to increased job satisfaction but because of logistics that
removed delay as a result of improved work methods. In the case of job enrichment,
it also did not improve job attitudes. They found that any increases in productivity
were due to bargains of more pay for doing more work as opposed to a higher
satisfaction in their work. In addition, several studies have shown that a persons
disposition influences job satisfaction. Studies have found that a persons job
satisfaction scores have stability over time, even when he or she changes jobs or
companies18. Childhood temperament has also been found to have significant
correlation to adult job satisfaction up to 40 years later. Twin studies support the
notion that job attitudes are somewhat held constant by dispositional and genetic
factors as they show that genetically identical twins share similar levels of job
satisfaction19. These studies suggest that job attitudes are out of the companys
control as they are influenced by personality or genetically predetermined. Given
this, the company should not be concerned with low levels of satisfaction and
organisational commitment, as they are unchangeable facts.
In conclusion, the analysis of the relationship between negative job behaviours and
low job satisfaction and organisational commitment has shown that there is indeed
a reason for managers to be concerned with negative job attitudes as they are
associated with undesirable job behaviours. Managers also need to pay attention to
discrepancies between levels of job satisfaction and organisational commitment at
different levels of the company, as different facets of job attitude are stronger
predictors of turnover according to job level. On the other hand, there is little that
managers can do to help improve job attitudes, as they tend to be difficult to change.
Works Cited
Ajzen, I. (2001) Nature and operations of attitudes. Annual Review of Psychology.
vol. 52 27-58
Festinger, Leon. A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1962.
Print.
Harrison, David A., Daniel A. Newman, and Philip L. Roth. "How Important Are Job
Attitudes? Meta-Analytic Comparisons Of Integrative Behavioral Outcomes And
Time Sequences." Academy of Management Journal 49.2 (2006): 305-25. Web.
Wason, P. C. "On the Failure to Eliminate Hypotheses in a Conceptual Task."
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 12.3 (1960): 129-40. Web.
17 Kelly, John E. Scientific Management, Job Redesign, and Work Performance.
London: Academic, 1982. Print.
18 Staw, Barry M., and Jerry Ross. "Stability in the Midst of Change: A Dispositional
Approach to Job Attitudes." Journal of Applied Psychology 70.3 (1985): 469-80. Web.
19 Avery et al, 1989 in Ibid.
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Hom, Peter W., and Rodger W. Griffeth. Employee Turnover. Cincinnati, OH: SouthWestern College Pub., 1994. Print.
Homans, George Caspar. Social Behavior as Exchange. Indianapolis, IN: BobbsMerrill, College Division, n.d. Print.
Hulin, Charles. "Adaptation, Persistence, and Commitment in Organizations."
Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. By Marvin D. Dunnette and
Leaetta M. Hough. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists, 1991. 445-505. Print.
Kelly, John E. Scientific Management, Job Redesign, and Work Performance. London:
Academic, 1982. Print.
Locke, John. "The Nature and Causes of Job Satisfaction." Handbook of Industrial and
Organizational Psychology. By Marvin D. Dunnette. Chicago: Rand McNally College
Pub., 1976. 1297-349. Print.
Meyer, John P., and Natalie J. Allen. "A Three-component Conceptualization of
Organizational Commitment." Human Resource Management Review 1.1 (1991): 6189. Web.
Moynihan, Lisa M., Wendy Robyn. Boswell, and John W. Boudreau. The Influence of
Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment on Executive Withdrawal and
Performance. Ithaca, NY: Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies, Cornell U,
2000. Print.
Saari, Lise M., and Timothy A. Judge. "Employee Attitudes and Job Satisfaction."
Human Resource Management 43.4 (2004): 395-407. Web.
Sims, R. R. "Human Resource Mana Gement's Role in Clarifying the New
Psychological Contract." Human Resource Management 33.3 (1994): 372-82. Web.
Staw, Barry M., and Jerry Ross. "Stability in the Midst of Change: A Dispositional
Approach to Job Attitudes." Journal of Applied Psychology 70.3 (1985): 469-80. Web.
Visser, Penny S., and Jon A. Krosnick. "Development of Attitude Strength over the
Life Cycle: Surge and Decline." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 75.6
(1998): 1389-410. Web.
Wason, P. C. "On the Failure to Eliminate Hypotheses in a Conceptual Task."
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 12.3 (1960): 129-40. Web.