Attitudes

and
Job Satisfaction
 Chapter Learning
Objectives
• After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
– 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 four employee responses to dissatisfaction.
– Show whether job satisfaction is a relevant concept in
countries other than the United States.
 Attitudes
A learned predisposition to behave in a consistently
favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given
object, peoples, events.
A Simple Representation of the
Tricomponent Attitude Model

Behavior

Cognition Affect
 The ABC Model of Attitudes
Affect
One’s emotions or feelings
about a particular object person
or event.

Behavior
An individual will undertake a
specific action or behave in a Components of an
particular way with regard to the Attitude
attitude object.

Cognition
The knowledge and perceptions that
are acquired by direct experience with
the attitude object and related
information from various sources.
 Attitudes (cont’d)
 Viewing attitudes as made up of three components –
cognition, affect, and behavior – is helpful in
understanding their complexity and the potential
relationship between attitudes and behaviors.

 For clarity sake, keep in mind that the term attitude

essentially refers to the affect part of the three
components.

 Attitudes are important because they affect job

behavior.

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 Does Behavior Always
Follow from Attitudes?
 Leon Festinger – No, the reverse is sometimes true!
 People seek consistency:-
 among their attitudes and
 between their attitudes and behavior.

 Individuals seek to reconcile divergent attitudes and align

their attitudes and behavior so they appear rational and
consistent.

 In case of inconsistency, equilibrium state is achieved

 by altering either attitudes or
 By altering the behavior or
 by developing a rationalization for the discrepancy.

3–7
Theory of Cognitive Dissonance
 In the late 1950s, Leon Festinger proposed the theory of cognitive
dissonance.

 This theory sought to explain the linkage between attitudes and behavior.

 Any incompatibility between two or more attitudes or between behavior

and attitudes.

 Dissonance means an inconsistency. No individual can completely avoid

dissonance. While dissonance exists, it can be rationalized and justified.

 The desire to reduce dissonance would be determined by:

 the importance of the elements creating the dissonance,
 the degree of influence the individual believes he or she has over the
elements and
 the rewards that may be involved in dissonance; high rewards
accompanying high dissonance tend to reduce the tension.

3–8
 The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive Dissonance
Any incompatibility between two or more attitudes or
between behavior and attitudes.

Festinger proposed
desire to reduce dissonance depends on
Importance of elements creating dissonance
Degree of individual influence over elements
Rewards involved in dissonance

The moderating variables – importance, choice, and reward.

 The Theory of Cognitive
Dissonance (cont’d)
the individual will not be under great tension to
reduce the dissonance.
If the issues underlying the dissonance are of
minimal importance
if an individual perceives that the dissonance is
externally imposed and is not substantially
controlled by him or her
 or if rewards are significant enough to offset the
dissonance,

3–10
Work-Related 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.
Psychological Empowerment
Employee belief in degree to which they influence their work environment their
competence, the meaningfulness of their job and their perceived autonomy in
their work

Organizational Commitment
Identifying with a particular organization and its goals, and wishing to
maintain membership in the organization.

3–11
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
 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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Work-Related Attitudes (cont’d)
 The term job satisfaction refers to an individual’s general
attitude towards job.

 High job involvement means identifying with one’s specific job,

while high organizational commitment means identifying with
one’s employing organization.

 All of these have negative relationships with absenteeism and

turnover.

 The unwritten loyalty contract that existed 20 years ago in

employee-employer relationship has been seriously damaged.

 As a result, organizational commitment is probably less

important as a work-related attitude. In its place, occupational
commitment appears to have become a more relevant variable.
3–13
 Job Satisfaction
Measuring Job Satisfaction
 Single global rating
 Summation score
How Satisfied Are People in Their Jobs?
 Job satisfaction declined to 50.7% in 2000
 Decline attributed to:
 Pressures to increase productivity
 Less control over work
The Effect of Job Satisfaction
on Employee Performance
Satisfaction and Productivity
 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 cultivate high
performers and to weed out lower performers.
 What Causes
Job Satisfaction?
 The Work Itself – the strongest correlation with
overall satisfaction
 Social Component – there is a strong
correlation with how people view the social
context of their work
 Pay – not correlated after
individual reaches a level of
comfortable living
 Advancement
 Supervision
 Coworkers

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 The Consequences
of Dissatisfaction
Destructive to Constructive

Exit Voice
Passive to Active

Neglect Loyalty
3-17
Responses to Job
Dissatisfaction
How Employees Can Express
Dissatisfaction
Job Satisfaction and OCB
 Satisfaction and Organizational Citizenship
Behavior (OCB)
 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.