MGMT1002 Lecture 3: MGMT1002- Week 3 – Attitudes and Job Satisfaction
Week 3 – Attitudes and Job Satisfaction
Why study attitudes?
1. Research shows that attitudes are proximal drivers of outcomes ie. Productivity, efficiency etc.
Attitudes and behaviors are influenced by one’s social setting at work -> we must learn to manage
how people feel so that we can modify them in order to enhance performance. Job satisfaction
results in high performance -> overriding aim of organizational behaviour.
2. Moral obligation (HR movement) -> when employees come into the workplace the employer has a
duty of care to the employee and a part of that is ensuring that they have positive attitudes/
wellbeing in the workplace. Research shows that job satisfaction is associated with important
outcomes outside the workforce -> 0.44 correlation between positive job satisfaction and general
life satisfaction (moderately strong relationship).
‘Your healthiest employees are 2-3 times more productive than your least healthy.’
• Job satisfaction has been declining over the past 2 decades in American employees (1987 to
2007) – growing among all aspects of the job – wages, potential for growth, environment ->
this hurts innovation, productivity and competitiveness. Video was taken at the height of the
GFC proving that broader economic conditions affect satisfaction, immense changes in
relation to job security, casualisation etc. (Feelings of less security leads to lower
commitment)
• Changing expectations – workers want more engagement, participation etc. and when
employers can meet these expectations, job satisfaction will be affected.
Attitudes and its components (ABC Model)
Attitudes are the tendency to positively or negatively evaluate an object, person or event. They have
3 components:
• Cognitive component – the opinion or belief segment of an attitude. Eg. ‘My pay is poor.’ –
this can be measured through attitude survey questions.
• Affective component – the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude. Eg. ‘I am angry over
how little I am paid’ –this can be measured through physiological indicators such as blood
pressure, galvanic skin response to certain statements.
• Behavioural component – an intention to behave in a certain way towards someone or
something. Eg. ‘I am going to find another job that pays better and quit.’ – this can be
measured through direct observation.
Research shows that individuals seek consistency among their attitudes and between their attitudes
and behaviour. Ambivalent attitudes are when an individual is in a state of conflicting beliefs or
feelings towards some object. Cognitive dissonance is any incompatibility between two or more
attitudes or between behaviour and attitudes. Generally any form of inconsistency is uncomfortable
and people will attempt to reduce it eg. Saying you don’t want to study business because of … but
then studying it because you don’t get the mark for law and telling people how you are suddenly
glad you are studying it.
Attitudes compared to traits, moods and values.
• Traits are relatively stable characteristics of people from mid 20’s onwards throughout their
lifecycle. Attitudes are much less stable -> subject to change over time. (Positive for OB).
• Moods are temporary feelings that are not associated with a specific event eg. How you feel
when you wake up. Whereas, attitudes are always in response to a specific event/object
(targeted).
• Values are broad attitudes that are associated with a belief that they are right or morally correct.
In contrast attitudes don’t have the moral component eg. Honesty is a value -> if honesty is an
important to someone they may perceive dishonest people in a negative fashion.
Most recent data on Australian employee satisfaction, Roy Morgan survey 2012-2013 -> 75.4% of
Australian’s are satisfied. Unusually high possibly due to the differing time period of the American
video.
The Major Attitudes
1. Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction is a positive emotional response towards ones job, resulting from an evaluation of its
characteristics. It can be measured by either a global or facet approach:
• Global rating approach is to ask individuals to combine their information regarding their job
into an overall response relating to their job satisfaction ie. “Overall, how satisfied are you
with your job?” eg. Faces Scale - one of the most valid measures of job satisfaction. First
developed because “attitude surveys change one man’s feelings into another man’s words” -
> distortion. Research shows that it is the most balanced measure of job satisfaction
because it directly taps into the emotional component of job satisfaction not just a
statement based on one’s beliefs.
• However, facets approach -> pay, tasks, workload, colleagues, supervisors and flexibility etc.
Individuals are asked to rate each on a standardized scale and researchers add the ratings to
create an overall job satisfaction score. Eg. Job Descriptive Index -> most widely validates
• Benefits of global: simply and easy to understand, timely. Costs: likely to hide important
differences between the facets and no in-depth detailed information.
• Managers are more often to use facet approach because it allows them to identify problems
and deal with them more quickly/accurately.
• Research shows that both the approaches have a weak to moderate relationship, however
they will provide a slightly different result depending on the method you use. Research
suggests that with global satisfaction people make complex cognitive judgments such as
does my work interfere with my family and also draws upon life satisfaction.
The consequences of dissatisfaction:
The active options are exit and voice. The passive options are neglect and loyalty.
➢ Exit – directs behaviour towards leaving the organisation ie. Quitting and
looking for a new position.
➢ Voice – includes actively and constructively attempting to improve conditions
in the organisation including suggesting improvements, discussing problems
with superiors and undertaking some forms of union activity.
➢ Loyalty – optimistically waiting for conditions to improve and staying loyal to the company.
➢ Neglect – allowing conditions to worsen without trying to change anything and includes reduced
effort, increased effort rate and chronic absenteeism or lateness.
Antecedents/ Causes of Job Satisfaction
• Environmental Factors -> majority of research focuses on environmental factors including
- Mentally challenging work (research shows people want to be stimulated/kept busy
however too much can be a source of stress
- Equitable rewards (Procedural justice -> processes/procedures in place so that people can
challenge/query if they feel that inequity exists in the workplace)
- Physical working conditions
- Relationships at work – colleagues, supervisors etc.
Document Summary
Why study attitudes: research shows that attitudes are proximal drivers of outcomes ie. productivity, efficiency etc. Attitudes and behaviors are influenced by one"s social setting at work -> we must learn to manage how people feel so that we can modify them in order to enhance performance. Research shows that job satisfaction is associated with important outcomes outside the workforce -> 0. 44 correlation between positive job satisfaction and general life satisfaction (moderately strong relationship). Your healthiest employees are 2-3 times more productive than your least healthy. ". Job satisfaction has been declining over the past 2 decades in american employees (1987 to: growing among all aspects of the job wages, potential for growth, environment -> this hurts innovation, productivity and competitiveness. Video was taken at the height of the. Attitudes are the tendency to positively or negatively evaluate an object, person or event. 3 components: cognitive component the opinion or belief segment of an attitude.
