Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

Definition

Job Attitudes

Attitudes and Behaviour

Outcomes of Job Satisfaction

Job Satisfaction

Causes of Job Satisfaction

Impact of Job Dissatisfaction

Components

Affective

Behavioural

Cognitive

Job Involvement

Organisational Commitment

Job Satisfaction

Perceived Organisational Support (POS)

Employee Engagement

Measuring

How satisfied are people with their jobs?

Personality

Pay

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Job Conditions

Job Performance

Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB)

Customer Satisfaction

Life Satisfaction

Responses

Voice

Loyalty

Exit

Neglect

Counterproductive Workplace Behaviour (CWB)

Absensteeism

Turnover

Managers?

evaluative statements or judgements concerning objects, people or events

the opinion or belief segment of an attitude
e.g 'my pay is low'

the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude
e.g 'I'm angry over how little I'm paid'

an intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something
e.g 'I'm going to look for another job that pays better'

cognitive dissonance - any incompatibility between two or more attitudes or between behaviour and attitudes

When there is a dissonance, people will alter either
the attitudes or the behavior, or they will develop a rationalization for the discrepancy

attitudes predict future behaviour

Desire to reduce dissonance

3 factors

influence

rewards

importance

importance of the elements creating dissonance

the degree of influence we believe we have over the elements

the rewards of dissonance

powerful moderators of the attitudes relationship

importance of the attitude

its correspondence to the behaviour

its accessibility

the presence of social pressures

whether a person has direct experience with the attitude

a positive attitude about ones job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics

the degree to which a person identifies with a job, actively participates in it, and considers performance important to self worth

the degree to which an employee identifies with a particular organisation and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organisation

the degree to which employees believe an organisation values their contribution and cares about their well being

an individual's involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the work they do

psychological empowerment - employees belief in the degree to which they affect their work environment, their competence, the meaningfulness of their job, and their perceived autonomy in their work

POS important in countries where power distance is lower

higher levels of customer satisfaction, more productive, brought in higher profits, and experience lower levels of turnover and accidents

Reasons

having a good manager they enjoy working for

feeling appreciated by their supervisor

a positive attitude about ones job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics

Single Global Rating

Summation of Job Facets

single question - “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your job?”

circle a number from 1-5, 'highly satisfied' - 'highly dissatisfied'

identifies key job elements

type of work

skills needed

supervision

present pay

culture

promotion opportunities

relationship with coworkers

respondents rate these on standardised scale, and responses formed into overall job satisfaction score

between 45-70%

varies with culture and economic situation

variety

independence

training

control

managers

intrinsic nature of work itself

social interactions

supervision

Core Self Evaluation (CSE) - believing in one's inner worth and basic competence

positive CSEs - more satisfied

correlated up until a standard level of comfortable living

is a motivator, but does not necessarily make us happy

an organisations self regulated actions to benefit society or the environment beyond what is required by law

e.g environmental sustainability initiatives, nonprofit work, and charitable giving

CSR efforts must be well governed and sustainable for long term job satisfaction benefits

not all projects equally meaningful for job satisfaction

some organisations require employees to contribute in a prescribed manner
e.g soup kitchen

CSR measures can seem disconnected from the employee’s actual work

happy workers are more likely to be productive

people talking positively about their
organizations, helping others, and going beyond the normal expectations of thei jobs

Satisfied employees appear to increase customer
satisfaction and loyalty

attitudes and experiences in life spill over into your job approaches and experiences

more satisfied with their jobs are more likely to engage in citizenship behaviour

overall happiness linked to happiness at work
e.g unemployment

dissatisfaction expressed through behaviour directed toward leaving the organisation

dissatisfaction expressed through active and constructive attempts to improve conditions

dissatisfaction expressed through passively waiting for conditions to improve
e.g defending from criticism

dissatisfaction expressed through allowing conditions to worsen
e.g lateness, reduced effort

individual terminations and collective turnover

destructive and active

constructive and active

constructive and passive

destructive and passive

actions that actively damage the organisation, including stealing, behaving aggressively towards coworkers or being late or absent

follow from negative and sometimes longstanding attitudes

low satisfaction results in frustration and leads to CWB

influenced towards CWB by group norms

workers who don't like their job 'get even' in certain ways - they do this in different ways - managers need to counteract the source rather than limit the result

Mitigating CWB

poll employee attitudes

create strong teams

integration of supervisors with teams

moderate to weak negative relationship between job satisfaction and absenteeism

strong relationship to job dissatisfaction

climate within an employee’s immediate workplace
is one of low job satisfaction leading to turnover, there will be a contagion effect

turnover more likely when job opportunities are plentiful - lots of alternatives

some are unconcerned about satisfaction

some overestimate job satisfaction