ATTITUDE AND ATTITUDE AND JOB SATISFACTIONJOB SATISFACTION

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It is not the colour of the balloon, it is what is inside that makes it go

upThe same thing applies to our lives. It is what is inside that

counts.The things that go up is our

attitude

Attitude and Job Satisfaction

• We have to answer six questions about attitude to understand them

• What are the main components of attitudes?

• How consistent are attitudes?• Does behaviour always follow from

attitudes?• What are the major job attitudes?• How are employee attitudes measured?• What is the importance of attitudes to

workplace diversity?• Job satisfaction –Measuring job

satisfaction• How satisfied are people in their jobs• What causes job satisfaction• The impact of Dissatisfied and satisfied

employee on the workplaceAttitude and Job Satisfaction

What is Attitude ?Attitudes represent beliefs feelings and action tendencies towards objects –ideas or peopleThis simple meaning has important

implication for managers• Attitudes are learned

• Attitudes refer to feelings and beliefs of an individual or groups of people

• The term attitude is in general terms the positive or negative orientation of a person

Attitude and Job Satisfaction

• The term attitude is being used quite frequently nowadays in describing people’s behaviour

• There are two main senses in which it is used

• One in general terms meaning the positive or negative orientation of a person

Attitude and Job Satisfaction For example when it is said that Mala

has a positive attitude or that Geeta has a negative attitude

- What is probably meant is that Mala’s general attitude orientation towards most things is positive

-Whereas Geeta’s general orientation is negative

-However this is not a correct usage of the term attitude

• Attitude always has a referent –an object towards which positive or negative orientation is implied

Attitude and Job Satisfaction• The term attitude is frequently used in

describing people and explaining their behaviour. More precisely, an attitude can be defined as a persistent tendency to feel and behave in a particular way towards some object. For example, George does not like working in the night shift. He has negative attitude towards his work assignment.

Attitude and Job SatisfactionSources of Attitudes• Attitudes are basically learned • People are not born with specific

attitudes rather they acquire them through a process of learning –especially from the following:

1.Experience:Previous work experience can account for the individual differences in attitudes such as loyalty/commitment and performance

2. Association: People are highly influenced by the major groups or associations to which they belong

- Our geographic region, religion, educational background, race ,age and income /class –all strongly influence our attitudesAttitude and Job Satisfaction

3. Family : Family exerts influence on the initial core of attitudes held by an individual

-individuals develop certain attitudes from their family members-parents,brothers,sisters etc

-The family characteristics influence the individual’s attitude patterns to which he is initially exposed

-Family is primary to the group which an individual belongs to

4.Peer group:As people approach their adulthood they increasingly rely on their peer groups for approval/attitude

-How others judge an individual largely determines his self image and approval-seeking behaviour

-We often seek out others who share attitudes similar to our own,or else we change our attitudes to conform to the attitudes of those in the group whose approval is importantAttitude and Job Satisfaction

5.Society;Social class and religious affiliation also play a vital role in forming attitudes of an individual

-The culture,language,and structure of society all provide an individual with the boundaries of his initial attitudes

6.Personality factors: Personality differences between individuals play a major role in the formation of attitudes.

-This particular area has been the subject matter of great interest and it carries a great deal of weight in organisational behaviour

Attitude and Job Satisfaction• To understand attitudes we need to

consider their fundamental properties• We will answer six question about

attitudes that will help us understand them better

• 1.What are the main components of attitudes?

• 2.How consistent are attitudes?• 3.Does behavior always follow from

attitudes?• 4.What are the major job attitudes?• 5.How are employee attitudes

measured?• 6.What is the importance of attitudes to

workplace diversity?

AttitudesWork Related Components of

Attitude(ABC Model)

Attitude and Job Satisfaction• In organizations attitudes are important

because of their behavioral component

• If workers believe for example-that supervisors –auditors-bosses are all in conspiracy to make employees work harder for same or less money

• We have to understand how these attitudes were formed-their relationship to actual job behavior-and how they might be changed

Attitude and Job SatisfactionHow consistent are attitudes?• Did you ever notice how people change

what they say so it doesn’t contradict what they do ?-Indian cars isn’t up to that of the import brands –but changes when dad buys Scorpio Mahindra

• Research has generally concluded that people seek consistency among their attitudes and between their attitudes and their behavior

• This means that individuals seek to reconcile divergent attitudes and align their attitudes and behavior so they appear rational and consistent

• Alter either attitude and behavior or develop rationalization for the discrepancyAttitude and Job Satisfaction

How consistent are attitudes?Cognitive Dissonance Theory• Festinger’s theory of cognitive

dissonance is one of the best known and most researched frameworks pertaining to attitude change

• According to this theory attitude change is caused by conflict among beliefs

The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

Contd• Dissonance normally occurs when a

person perceives a logical inconsistency among his or her cognitions. This happens when one idea implies the opposite of another.

- For example, a belief in animal rights could be interpreted as inconsistent with eating meat or wearing fur. Noticing the contradiction would lead to dissonance, which could be experienced as anxiety, guilt, shame, anger, embarrassment, stress, and other negative emotional states. When people's ideas are consistent with each other, they are in a state of harmony, or consonance.

- If cognitions are unrelated, they are categorized as irrelevant to each other and do not lead to dissonance.

Contd• Examples• The classical version of this idea is

expressed in the Aesop fable, The Fox and the Grapes, in which a fox sees some high-hanging grapes and wishes to eat them.

• However, unable to think of a way to reach them, he surmises that the grapes are probably not worth eating anyway (that they are not yet ripe or that they are too sour). In the story, the dissonance of the desire for something unattainable (the desire versus the un fulfillment) is reduced by irrationally deciding that which is desired must be flawed (Sour Grapes).

Contd

• Smoking is often postulated as an example of cognitive dissonance because it is widely accepted that cigarettes cause lung cancer, yet virtually everyone wants to live a long and healthy life.

- In terms of the theory, the desire to live a long life is dissonant with the activity of doing something that will most likely shorten one's life. The tension produced by these contradictory ideas can be reduced by quitting smoking, denying the evidence of lung cancer, or justifying one's smoking.

Contd• For example, smokers could rationalize

their behavior by concluding that only a few smokers become ill, that it only happens to very heavy smokers, or that if smoking does not kill them, something else will.

Attitudes and job satisfactionDoes Behavior always follow attitudes?• Early research on attitudes assumed that

attitudes were related to behavior-attitudes that people hold determine what they do

• Common sense too suggests a relationship

- Logical that people watch television programs that thy say they like

- employees try to avoid assignments they find distasteful

Measuring the A-B Relationship• Recent research indicates that

attitudes (A) significantly predict behaviors (B) when moderating variables are taken into account.

Self-Perception TheorySelf-Perception Theory

Self-perception theory is an account of attitude change developed by psychologist, Daryl Bem. It asserts that we develop our attitudes by observing our own behavior and concluding what attitudes must have caused them

• Self-Perception Theory provides an alternative explanation for cognitive dissonance effects. For example Festinger and Carlsmith's experiment where people were paid $1 or $20 to lie. Cognitive dissonance says that people felt bad about lying for $1 because they could not justify the act.

• Self-perception takes an 'observer's view, concluding that those who were paid $1 must have really enjoyed it (because $1 does not justify the act) whilst those who were paid $20 were just doing it for the money.

Contd-Self perception

• When your attitudes have been established for a while and are well defined those attitudes are likely to guide behavior

Attitude and Job SatisfactionWork Attitudes

• In relation to organisations the general meaning of attitude is applied to work

• Work attitudes are reflected in job satisfaction and in organisational commitment

Job satisfaction• Job satisfaction includes various

aspects- the nature of the job itself ,the

compensation a person gets by working on the ,growth opportunities,opportunities for career advancement,the organisational climate,the behaviour of the superior and co-workers and so onAttitude and Job Satisfaction

• Job satisfaction leads to improved performance and retention of personnel in the organisation

• Recruitment policies,placement practices ,development schemes etc contribute to job satisfaction

Job Attitudes• A person can have thousands of

attitudes but OB focuses on a very limited number of work related attitudes

• These work related attitudes tap positive or negative evaluation that employees hold about aspects of their work environment

• Most of the research in OB has been concerned with three attitudes

• Job Satisfaction• Job involvement• Organizational commitment

Types of AttitudesOther Job Attitudes

An Application: Attitude Surveys

Sample Attitude SurveyAttitudes and

Workforce Diversity• Training activities that can

reshape employee attitudes concerning diversity:– Participating in diversity training

that provides for self-evaluation

and group discussions.– Volunteer work in community

and social serve centers with individuals of diverse backgrounds.

– Exploring print and visual media that recount and portray diversity issues.

Job Satisfaction• Measuring Job Satisfaction

– Single global rating-1-5 scale– Summation score-key elements

in job/pay promotion, opportunities, relations with co worker

• How Satisfied Are People in Their Jobs?– Job satisfaction declined to

50.4% in 2002

– Decline attributed to:• Pressures to increase productivity

and meet tighter deadlines• Less control over work

How Employees Can Express Dissatisfaction

Responses to Job Dissatisfaction

The Effect of Job Satisfaction on

Employee Performance• Satisfaction and Productivity

– Satisfied workers aren’t necessarily more productive.

– 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 retain high performers and to weed out lower performers.

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.

Job Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction

• Satisfied employees increase customer satisfaction because:– They are more friendly, upbeat,

and responsive.– They are less likely to turnover

which helps build long-term customer relationships.

• Dissatisfied customers increase employee job dissatisfaction.

• Leads to unionization ,stealing - Undue socializing