MCom I Semester Values Attitudes job Satisfaction Study Material Notes
Table of Contents
MCom I Semester Values Attitudes job Satisfaction Study Material Notes: Values Importance of values loyalty and ethical Behavior Values Across Cultures attitudes Types of Attitudes Measuring the A B Relationship Cognitive Dissonance Theory Attitudes and Consistency An Application Attitude Surveys Attitudes and Workforce Diversity Job Satisfaction Measuring job Satisfaction How Satisfied are People in heir Jobs Most Important Notes for MCom :
BBA I Semester Managerial Economics Pricing Under Perfect Competition Study Material Notes
Values
Is capital punishment right or wrong? If a person likes power, is that good or bad? The answers to these questions are value-laden. Some might argue, for example, that capital punishment is right because it is an appropriate retribution for crimes like murder and treason. However , others might argue, just as strongly, that no government has the right to take anyone’s life.
Values represent basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence.” They contain a judgmental element in that they carry an individual’s ideas as to what is right, good, or desirable. Values have both content and intensity attributes. The content attribute says that a mode of conduct or end-state of existence is important. The intensity attribute specifies how important it is. When we rank an individual’s values in terms of their intensity, we obtain that per son’s value system. All of us have a hierarchy of values that forms our value system. This system is identified by the relative importance we assign to values such as freedom, pleasure, self-respect, honesty, obedience, and equality.
Are values fluid and flexible? Generally speaking, No. Values tend to be relatively stable and enduring. A significant portion of the values we hold is established in our early years from parents, teachers, friends, and others. As children, we are told that certain behaviors or outcomes are always desirable or always undesirable. There were few gray areas. You were told, for example, that you should be honest and responsible. You were never taught to be just a little bit honest or a little bit responsible. It is this absolute or “black-or-white” learning of values that more or less ensures! their stability and endurance. The process of questioning our values, of course, may result in a change. More often, our questioning merely acts to reinforce the values we hold.
Values Attitudes job Satisfaction
Importance of Values
Values are important to the study of organizational behavior because they lay the foundation for the understanding of attitudes and motivation and because they influence our perceptions. Individuals enter an organization with preconceived notions of what ought” and what “ought not to be. Of course, these notions are not value-free. On the contrary, they contain interpretations of right and wrong. Furthermore, they imply that certain behaviors or outcomes are preferred over others’ results, values cloud objectivity and rationality. Values generally influence attitudes and behavior. Suppose that you enter an organization with the view that allocating pay on the basis of performance is right while allocating pay on the basis of seniority is wrong. How are you going to react if you find that the organic Values cloud objectivity and rationality? the nation you have just joined rewards seniority and not performance? You’re likely to be disappointed and this can lead to job dissatisfaction and the decision not to exert a high level of effort since “it’s probably not going to lead to more money, anyway.” Would your attitudes and behavior be different if your values aligned with the organization’s pay policies? Most likely.
Values Attitudes job Satisfaction
Types of Values
Can we classify values? The answer is Yes. In this section, we review two approaches to developing value typologies
Rokeach Value Survey Milton Rokeach created the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS). The RVS consists of two sets of values, with each set containing 18 individual value items. One set, called terminal values, refers to desirable end-states. These are the goals that a person would like to achieve during his or her lifetime. The other set, called instrumental values, refers to preferable modes of behavior, or means of achieving the terminal values, Exhibit 3-1 gives common examples for each of these sets.
Several studies confirm that the RVS values vary among groups. People in the same occupations or categories (e.g.. corporate managers, union members, parents, students) tend to hold similar values. For instance, one study compared corporate executives, members of the steelworkers’ union, and members of a community activist group. Although a good deal of overlap was found among the three groups, there were also some very significant differences (see Exhibit 3-2). The activists had value preferences that were quite different from those of the other two groups. They ranked equality” as their most important terminal value; executives and union members ranked this value 12 and 13, respectively. Activists ranked “helpful” as their second-highest instrumental value. The other two groups both ranked it 14. These differences are important, because executives, union members, and activists all have a vested interest in what corporations do. These differences make it difficult when these groups have to negotiate with each other and can create serious conflicts when they contend with each other over the organization’s economic and social policies.
Values Attitudes job Satisfaction
Values, Loyalty, and Ethical Behavior
Has there been a decline in business ethics? Recent corporate scandals involving accounting manipulations, cover-ups, and conflicts of interest certainly suggest such a decline. But is this a recent phenomenon?
Although the issue is debatable, a lot of people think ethical standards began to erode in late 1970 After all, managers consistently report that the action of their bosses is the most important factor influencing ethical and unethical behavior in their organizations. Given this fact, the values of those in middle and upper management should have a significant bearing on the entire ethical climate within an organization.
Values Attitudes job Satisfaction
Values Across Cultures
In Chapter 1, we described the new global village and said “managers have to become capable of working with people from different cultures. Because values differ across cultures, an understanding of these differences should be helpful in explaining and predicting the behavior of employees from different countries.
Hofstede’s Framework for Assessing Cultures One of the most widely referenced approaches for analyzing variations among cultures was done in the late 1970s by Geert Hofstede. He surveyed more than 116.000 IBM employees in 40 countries about their work-related values. He found that managers and employees vary on five value dimensions of national culture. They are listed and defined as follows:
Power distance. The degree to which people in a country accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally. Ranges from relatively equal (low power distance) to extremely unequal (high power distance)
Individualism versus collectivism. Individualism is the degree to which people in a country prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of groups. Collectivism is the equivalent of low individualism.
Achievement versus nurturing. Achievement is the degree to which value. ues such as assertiveness, the acquisition of money and material goods, and competition prevail. Nurturing is the degree to which people value relationships, and show sensitivity and concern for the welfare of others
Uncertainty avoidance. The degree to which people in a country prefer structured over unstructured situations. In countries that score high on uncertainty avoidance, people have an increased level of anxiety, which manifests itself in greater nervousness, stress, and aggressiveness.
Long-term versus short-term orientation. People in cultures with long. term orientations look to the future and value thrill and persistence. A short-term orientation values the past and present and emphasizes respect for tradition and fulfilling social obligations.
What did Hofstede’s research conclude? Here are a few highlights. China and West Africa scored high on power distance, the United States and the Netherlands scored low. Most Asian countries were more collectivist than individualistic; the United States ranked highest among all countries on individualism, Germany and Hong Kong rated high on achievement: Russia and the Netherlands rated low, On uncertainty avoidance, France and Russia were high: Hong Kong and the United States were low. And China and Hong Kong had a long-term orientation, whereas France and the United States had a short-term orientation
The GLOBE Framework for Assessing Cultures Hofstede’s cultural dimensions has become the basic framework for differentiating among national cultures. This is in spite of the fact that the data on which it’s based come from a single company and is nearly 30 years old. Since these data were originally gathered, a lot has happened on the world scene. Some of the most obvious include the fall of the Soviet Union, the merging of East and West Germany, the end of apartheid in South Africa, and the rise of China as a global power. All this suggests the need for an updated assessment of cultural dimensions. The GLOBE project provides such an update.
Begun in 1993, the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE research program is an ongoing cross-cultural investigation of leadership and national culture. Using data from 825 organizations in 62 countries, the GLOBE team identified nine dimensions on which national cultures differ (see Exhibit 3-3 for examples of country ratings on each of the dimensions).
Assertiveness. The extent to which a society encourages people to be tough, confrontational, assertive, and competitive versus modest and tender. This is essentially equivalent to Hofstede’s achievement dimension
Future orientation. The extent to which a society encourages and rewards future-oriented behaviors such as planning, investing in the future, and delaying gratification. This is essentially equivalent to Hofstede’s long-term/short-term orientation.
Gender differentiation. The extent to which a society maximizes gender role differences, Uncertainty avoidance. As identified by Hofstede, the GLOBE team defined this term ety’s reliance on social norms and procedures to alleviate the unpredictability of future events. Power distance. As did Hofstede, the GLOBE team defined this as the degree to which members of a society expect power to be unequally shared. Individualism/collectivism. Again, this term was defined, as was Hofstede’s, as the degree to which individuals are encouraged by societal institutions to be integrated into groups within organizations and society. In-group collectivism. In contrast to focusing on societal institutions, this dimension encom passes the extent to which members of a society take pride in membership in small groups, such as their family and circle of close friends, and the organizations in which they are employed Performance orientation. This refers to the degree to which a society encourages and rewards group members for performance improvement and excellence. Humane orientation. This is defined as the degree to which a society encourages and rewards individuals for being fair, altruistic, generous, caring, and kind to others. This closely approximates Hofstede’s nurturing dimension.
A comparison of the GLOBE dimensions against those identified by Hofstede suggests that the former has extended Hofstede’s work rather than replaced it. The GLOBE project confirms that Hofstede’s five dimensions are still valid. However, it has added some additional dimensions and provides us with an updated measure of where countries rate or reach dimension. For instance, while the United States led the world in individualism in the 1970s, today it scores in the mid-ranks of countries. We can expect future cross-cultural studies of human behavior and organizational practices to increasingly use the GLOBE dimensions to assess differences between countries.
Values Attitudes job Satisfaction
Ethical Issues at Work The liberalization of the Indian economy has created opportunities for increased collaboration between Indian managers and those from collaborating countries. In this context, the importance of professional ethics of managers, engineers, and everyone involved in global transactions has increased. Managers of different countries work together, but if they differ in their preferences on ethical issues there might be frictions. The ethical stances have an impact on the quality of an organization’s corporate citizenship.
Managerial Ethics in India and the West The literature on business values in India in comparison to the west may show different preferences in various ethical stances viz. ethical puzzle, convention, awareness, neutrality, problem, dilemma, cynicism and negotiation. Indian managers experience a clash between the values acquired from their education and professional training and those drawn from Indian culture and society. 16,17,15 Values drawn by Indian managers from their training mirror emphasize on western instrumental rationality and rule-following whereas the values drawn from family and community emphasize affiliation and social obligation.
In terms of ethical stances, Indian social values might lead to a preference for ethical awareness and ethical convention stances. If this was so, then a clash between the corporate preference for the ethical puzzle and a neutrality stance could lead Indian managers to adopt the ethical problem and dilemma stance. This implies a struggle to balance conflicting values.
Western management assumes a preference for the ethical puzzle stance. Accountants, for example, have been trained to work in a rule governed manner. 19 The pragmatic western management culture can encourage managers to take ethical neutrality or puzzle stances on issues that others might see as raising moral questions.
If Indian managers experience a conflict between western business values and Indian social values, then different dynamics may emerge in response to the difference. One possibility is that, within their job roles, Indian managers may express Indian social values. Another study showed that most Indian managers were relaxed about uncertainty? (although a significant minority were not), and placed high importance on loyalty and a sense of belonging. This conclusion was based on Indian managers’ scores on Hofstede’s (1980) four cultural dimensions (power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and masculinity). These scores, in contrast to Hofstede’s results for U.K., Canada, and U.S., showed Indian managers expressing different values from their western counterparts.
It should be noted that Hofstede’s samples included non managerial groups and so are not strictly comparable with this study. The differences between Indian and Uk rms were consistent with differences in socio-economic conditions employees’ cultural traits in the two countries Dependence on the family and networks, heuristic and intuitive approach to decision making were necessary strategic responses to the uncertainty that Indian corporate sector faced in the Asian arena. There is a possibility that Indian managers may deal with the clash of cultures by expressina Indian-based values, rather than western corporate ones, in their jobs. If this is so, a low preference for an ethical puzzle stance amongst Indian managers might be anticipated.
In some contexts, Indian managers adopt western corporate values. The scores on Hofstede’s dimensions of Indian managers in internationally owned firms were comparable to the scores of Hofstede’s western samples. This finding raises the possibility that Indian managers may have to sup press some of their values in certain work situations. 71 percent of Indian and 69 percent of UK companies made no specific budgetary provision for social responsibility activities. This position contrasts with the conventional Indian emphasis on philanthropy and may be an example of Indian managers favoring western corporate values by ethically bracketing their personal values. This dynamism might encourage Indian managers to express a preference for the ethical neutrality and puzzle stances
Also, there is a possibility that managers may exhibit stress in dealing with the clash of values within their managerial roles. Some empirical evidence of such tensions has been found. Middle managers who perceived that successful managers behaved unethically experienced reduced levels of job satisfaction and they claimed that such an inconsistency between ethical behavior and success violates the cultural mores. The tension also used a negative effect on managers’ morale. Conflicts such as this may be accommodated by a division between espoused values and values-in-use.
If Indian managers experience this tension in their work, then it might be anticipated that they would espouse different ethical stances than those they would express when having to make difficult business decisions
Values Attitudes job Satisfaction
The value conflicts that Indian managers experience can be illustrated by the issues of redundancy and downsizing, which are the subjects of research instrument Managers in the west often see these issues from an ethical puzzle stance as a matter of consequential ethics. The question asked is not whether downsizing is moral but whether it increases profitability and shareholder value. Downsizing is a deliberate attempt to improve organizational performance by reducing the size of the workforce. Redundancy is the most common, but not the only method of achieving this reduction. The scenario described in the research instrument involving an attempt to downsize has been from within this consequentialist perspective. Whether downsizing leads to better financial performance, was questioned. Critics have also pointed out that the damage done to the survivors of redundancy can lead, in certain circumstances, to putting in less effort into their work. This, in turn, can lead to worsening of organizational performance. These arguments are based on the belief that, as long as suitable efforts are made to ensure procedural justice and minimize the impact of redundancy on individuals, the matter is not one of principle but of utility
As the Indian economy becomes more integrated with the western economy, it might be anticipated that the tensions between personal values, espoused values, and those required of their managers by companies operating in a global context would increase.
The findings of the research show that Indian managers in comparison to U.K. managers, take the ethical puzzle stance less frequently when responding to ethical issues at work. Also, Indian managers experience tension between their private ethical beliefs and those they are required to apply at work. They regard family and social connections as an important aspect of conventional ethical thinking
Both U.K. and Indian managers would look for evidence of procedural justice when making staff redundant. This is important because the work performance and commitment of staff who survive layoffs depends partly on their perception of the fairness of the process. They would deal with ethi cal issues by following rules set within a single value perspective. The initial preference of Indian and U.K managers for neutral ethical stances implies that in everyday affairs there would be little conflict over ethical questions. However, the priority given to family and friends in the Indian ethical convention may be an area of contrast between managers in the countries. There are differences in the conventions that Indian and U.K. managers believed should apply to redundancy INC but their joint preference in difficult cases for the ethical puzzle stance would ease agreement on prag matic responses
If managers adopt an ethical puzzle stance, then the ethical narrowing and foreshortening that this brings about makes it difficult for them to recognize and respond to the ethical wrongs in busi ness and society. It implies a defensive and rule following approach to ethical problems. If good corporate citizenship is to be achieved, managers need to question their pragmatic responses and see business practices from a wider and more critical perspective. Also, Indian managers experience a conflict between their espoused values and their values in practice, suggesting that there is a lever age point that management educators could use in their task. The quality of corporate citizenship could be improved by encouraging Indian managers to draw up their espoused values in conduct of their jobs. 32
Implications for OB Twenty years ago, it would have been fair to say that organizational behavior had a strong American bias. Most of the concepts had been developed by Americans using American subjects within domestic contexts. For instance, a comprehensive study published in the early 1980s covering more than 11,000 articles published in 24 management and organizational behavior our nals over a 10-year period found that approximately 80 percent of the studies were done in the United States and had been conducted by Americans. But times have changed. Although the majority of published findings still focus on Americans, recent research has significantly expanded OB’s domain to include European, South American, African, and Asian subjects. In addition, there has been a marked increase in cross-cultural research by teams of researchers from different countries,5
OB has become a global discipline and, as such, its concepts need to reflect the different cultural values of people in different countries. Fortunately, a wealth of research has been published in recent years that allows us to specify where OB concepts are universally applicable across cultures and where they’re not in future chapters, we’ll regularly stop to consider the generalizability of OB findings and how they might need to be modified in different countries.
Values Attitudes job Satisfaction
Attitudes
Attitudes are evaluative statements-either favorable or unfavorable-concerning objects, people, or events. They reflect how one feels about something. When I say “I like my job,” I am expressing my attitude about work.
Attitudes are not the same as values, but the two are interrelated. You can see this by looking at the three components of an attitude: cognition, affect, and behavior.
The belief that “discrimination is wrong” is a value statement such an opinion is the cognitive component of an attitude. It sets the stage for the more critical part of an attitude-its affective com ponent Affect is the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude and is reflected in the state don’t like Jon because he discriminates against minorities. Finally, and we’ll discuss this issue at con siderable length later in this section, affect can lead to behavioral outcomes. The behavioral compo nent of an attitude refers to an intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something. So, to continue our example, I might choose to avoid Jon because of my feeling about him.
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 behavior. But for clarity’s sake, keep in mind that the term attitude as it is generally used essentially refers to the effect part of the three components
Also keep in mind that, in contrast to values, your attitudes are less stable. Advertising messages. for example, attempt to alter your attitudes toward a certain product or service: If the people at Ford Motor Co. can get you to hold a favorable feeling toward their cars, that attitude may lead to desirable behavior (for them)- your purchase of a Ford product.
In organizations, attitudes are important because they affect job behavior. If workers believe, for example, that supervisors, auditors, bosses, and time-and-motion engineers are all in a conspiracy to make employees work harder for the same or less money, then it makes sense to try to understand how these attitudes were formed, their relationship to actual job behavior, and how they might be changed.
Values Attitudes job Satisfaction
Types of Attitudes
A person can have thousands of attitudes, but OB focuses our attention on a very limited number of work-related attitudes. These work-related attitudes tap positive or negative evaluations 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, and organizational commitment.
Job Satisfaction The term job satisfaction refers to a collection of feelings that an individual holds toward his or her job. A person with a high level of job satisfaction holds positive feelings about the job, while a person who is dissatisfied with his or her job holds negative feelings about the job. When people speak of employee attitudes, more often than not they mean job satisfaction. In fact, the two are frequently used interchangeably. Because of the high importance, OB researchers have given to job satisfaction, we’ll review this attitude in considerable detail later in this chapter.
Job Involvement The term job involvement is a more recent addition to the OB literature. Although there isn’t complete agreement over what the term means, a workable definition states that job involvement measures the degree to which a person identifies psychologically with his or her job and considers his or her perceived performance level important to self-worth. Employees with a high level of job involvement strongly identify with and really care about the kind of work they do.
A high level of job involvement is positively related to organizational citizenship and job perform mance. In addition, high job involvement has been found to be related to fewer absences and lower resignation rates. However, it seems to more consistently predict turnover than absenteeism, accounting for as much as 16 percent of the variance in the former.
Values Attitudes job Satisfaction
Job Satisfaction and Job Involvement A study carried out in the Indian automobile industry, which is undergoing a radical transformation, showed positive correlation between the job involvement of managers with their job satisfaction. Out of the six dimensions (achievement, affiliation, expert influence, control, extension, dependency) two have been found to have significant correlations with job involvement. The motivational climate of achievement has a positive correlation and that of control has a negative correlation with the manager’s job involvement. A manager’s job involvement is an important factor for an organization’s effectiveness and therefore, in the emerging competitive environment, it has achieved considerable significance,
Organizational Commitment The third job attitude we will discuss is organizational commitment, which is defined as a state in which an emplovee identifies with a particular organization and its goals, and wishes to maintain membership in the organization. So, high job involvement means identifying with one’s specific job, while high organizational commitment means identifying with one’s employing organization
There appears to be a positive relationship between organizational commitment and job productivity, but the relationship is modest. And, as with job involvement, the research evidence demonstrates negative relationships between organizational commitment and both absenteeism and turnover. 46 In fact, studies demonstrate that an individual’s level of organizational commitment is a better indicator of turnover than the far more frequently used job satisfaction predictor, explaining as much as 34 percent of the variance, 17 Organizational commitment is probably a better predictor because it is a more global and enduring response to the organization as a whole than is job satisfaction. 48 An employee may be dissatisfied with his or her particular job and consider it a temporary condition, yet not be dissatisfied with the organization as a whole. But when dissatisfaction spreads to the organization itself, individuals are more likely to consider resigning.
A major problem with the previous evidence is that most of it is nearly three decades old, therefore, needs to be qualified to reflect the changing employee-employer relationship. The unwritten loyalty contract that existed 30 years ago between employees and employers has been Seriously damaged; and the notion of an employee staying with a single organization for most of his or her career has become increasingly obsolete. As such, “measures of employee-firm attachment such as commitment, are problematic for new employment relations. This suggests that organizational commitment is probably less important as a work-related attitude than it once was in its place we might expect something akin to occupational commitment to become a more relevant variable because it better reflects today’s fluid workforce.
Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment A study examining the relationship of poche logical climatic dimensions (autonomy, cohesion, trust, pressure, support, recognition, fairnes innovation) with job satisfaction and organizational commitment clearly demonstrates that psycho logical climate as a perceptual multi-dimensional phenomenon can render towards better under standing of a persons’ evaluating reaction and functioning in an organization.
Values Attitudes job Satisfaction
Attitudes and Consistency
Did you ever notice how people change what they say so it doesn’t contradict what they do? Perhaps a friend of yours has consistently argued id you ever notice how people change what that the quality of American cars isn’t up to that of the import brands they say so it doesn’t contradict what they do? and that he’d never own anything but a Japanese or German car. But his dad gives him a late model Ford Mustang, and suddenly American cars Or, when going through sorority rush, a new freshman believes that sororities are good and that pledging a sorority is important. If she fails to make a sorer. ity, however, she may say, “I realized that sorority life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, anyway.”
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. When there is an icon sentiency, forces are initiated to return the individual to an equilibrium state in which attitudes and behavior are again consistent. This can be done by altering either the attitudes or the behavior, or by developing a rationalization for the discrepancy. Tobacco executives provide an example. How, you might wonder, do these people cope with the ongoing barrage of data linking cigarette smoking and negative health outcomes? They can deny that any clear causation between smoking and cancer, for instance, has been established. They can brainwash themselves by continually articulating the benefits of tobacco, They can acknowledge the negative consequences of smoking but rationalize that people are going to smoke and that tobacco companies merely promote freedom of choice. They can accept the research evidence and begin actively working to make more healthy cigarettes or at least reduce their availability to more vulnerable groups, such as teenagers. Or they can quit their job because the inconsistency is too great.
Values Attitudes job Satisfaction
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Can we also assume from this consistency principle that an individual’s behavior can always be pre ducted if we know his or her attitude on a subject? If Mr. Jones views the company’s pay level as too low, will a substantial increase in his pay change his behavior, that is, make him work harder? The answer to this question is, unfortunately, more complex than merely a “Yes” or “No.
In the late 1950s, Leon Fastener proposed the theory of cognitive dissonance. This theory sought to explain the linkage between attitudes and behavior. Dissonance means an inconsistency Cognitive dissonance refers to any incompatibility that an individual might perceive between two of more of his or her attitudes, or between his or her behavior and attitudes. Festinger argued that any form of inconsistency is uncomfortable and that individuals will attempt to reduce the dissonance and hence, the discomfort. Therefore, individuals will seek a stable state, in which there is a mi mum of dissonance.
No individual, of course, can completely avoid dissonance. You know that cheating on your income tax is wrong, but you “fudge the numbers a bit every year, and hope you’re not audited. Or you tell your children to floss their teeth every day, but you don’t. So how do people coper Festinger would propose that the desire to reduce dissonance would be determined by the importance of the ele ments creating the dissonance, the degree of influence the individual believes he or she has over the elements, and the murds that may be involved in dissonance.
If the elements creating the dissonance are relatively unimportant, the pressure to correct this imbal ance will be low. However, say that a corporate manager-Meera Banerjee-believes strongly that no company should pollute the air or water. Unfortunately, Meera, because of the requirements or is placed in the position of having to make decisions that would trade off her company’s profitability against her attitudes on pollution. She knows that dumping the company’s sewage into the local river ssume is legal) is in the best economic interest of her firm. What will she do? Clearly, Meera is experiencing a high degree of cognitive dissonance. Because of the importance of the elements in this example, we cannot expect Meera to ignore the inconsistency. There are several paths she can fol low to deal with her dilemma. She can change her behavior (stop polluting the river). Or she can reduce dissonance by concluding that the dissonant behavior is not so important after all (“I’ve got to make a liv ing, and in my role as a corporate decision maker, I often have to place the good of my company above that of the environment or society.”). A third alternative would be for Meera to change her attitude (“There is nothing wrong with polluting the river”). Still another choice would be to seek out more consonant elements to outweigh the dissonantones (“The benefits to society from manufacturing our products more than offset the cost to society of the resulting water pollution.”).
The degree of influence that individuals believe they have over the elements will have an impact on how they will react to the dissonance. If they perceive the dissonance to be due to something over which they have no choice, they are less likely to be receptive to attitude change. If, for example, the dissonance producing behavior is required as a result of the boss’s directive, the pressure to reduce dissonance would be less than if the behavior was performed voluntarily. Although dissonance exists. it can be rationalized and justified.
Rewards also influence the degree to which individuals are motivated to reduce dissonance. High rewards accompanying high dissonance tend to reduce the tension inherent in the dissonance. The rewards act to reduce dissonance by increasing the consistency side of the individual’s balance sheet.
These moderating factors suggest that just because individuals experience dissonance they will not necessarily move directly toward reducing it. If the issues underlying the dissonance are of minimal importance, if an individual perceives that the dissonance is externally imposed and is substantially uncontrollable by him or her, or if rewards are significant enough to offset the dissonance, the individual will not be under great tension to reduce the dissonance.
What are the organizational implications of the theory of cognitive dissonance? It can help to predict the propensity to engage in attitude and behavioral change. For example, if individuals are required by the demands of their job to say or do things that contradict their personal attitude, they will tend to modify their attitude in order to make it compatible with the cognition of what they have said or done. In addition, the greater the dissonance after it has been moderated by importance, choice. and reward factors–the greater the pressures to reduce it.
Measuring the A-B Relationship
We have maintained throughout this chapter that attitudes affect behavior. Early research on attitudes assumed that they were causally related to behavior; that is, the attitudes that people hold determine what they do. Common sense, too, suggests a relationship. Isn’t it logical that people watch television programs that they say they like or that employees try to avoid assignments they find distasteful?
However, in the late 1960s, this assumed relationship between attitudes and behavior (1-5) was challenged by a review of the research. Based on an evaluation of a number of studies that invest gated the A-B relationship, the reviewer concluded that attitudes were unrelated to behavior or at best, only slightly related. More recent research has demonstrated that attitudes significantly predict future behavior and confirmed Festinger’s original belief that the relationship can be enhanced by taking moderating variables into account.
Moderating Variables The most powerful moderators have been found to be the importance of the attitude, its specificity, its accessibility, whether there exist social presGRILLsures, and whether a person has direct experience with the attitude,
Important attitudes are ones that reflect fundamental values, self-interest. On identification with individuals or groups that a person values. Attitudes that individuals consider important tend to show a strong relationship to behavior.
The more specific the attitude and the more specific the behavior, the stronger the link between the two. For instance, asking someone specifically about her intention to stay with the organization for the next six months is likely to better pre dict turnover for that person than if you asked her how satisfied she was with her pay,
Attitudes that are easily remembered are more likely to predict behavior than attitudes that are not accessible in memory. Interestingly, you’re more likely to GRADERS remember attitudes that are frequently expressed. So the more you talk about your attitude on a subject, the more you’re likely to remember it, and the more likely it is to shape your behavior.
Discrepancies between attitudes and behavior are more likely to occur when social pressures to behave in certain ways hold exceptional power. This tends to characterize behavior in organizations. This may explain why an employee who holds strong anti-union attitudes attends pro-union organizing meetings: or why Jam and Jelly maker J.M. Smacker tobacco executives, who are not smokers themselves and who tend to believe the wants its employees to take research linking smoking and cancer, don’t actively discourage others from a smock active role in the community. For their offices. instance, the company encourages
Finally, the attitude-behavior relationship is likely to be much stronger if an attaints employees to contribute to the community by offering them the refers to something with which the individual has direct personal experience. unlimited paid time off for Asking college students with no significant work experience how they would volunteer work. Brenda Dempsey responds to working for an authoritarian supervisor is far less likely to predict actual (pictured above), Smucker’s director behavior than asking that same question of employees who have actually worked for of corporate communications,
Self-Perception Theory Although most A-B studies yield positive results, ethics, problem-solving, and researchers have achieved still higher correlations by pursuing another direction decision-making classes at a local looking at whether or not behavior influences attitudes. This view, called self-perception theory, has generated some encouraging findings. Let’s briefly review the
theory.” When asked about an attitude toward some object, individuals often recall their behavior relevant to that object and then infer their attitude from their past behavior. So if an employee was asked about her feelings about being a training specialist at Marriott, she would likely think. “I’ve had this same job with Marriott as a trainer for 10 years. Nobody forced me to stay on this job. So I must like it!” Self-perception theory, therefore, argues that attitudes are used, after the fact, to make sense out of an action that has already occurred rather than as devices that precede and guide action. And contrary to cognitive dissonance theory, attitudes are just casual verbal statements When people are asked about their attitudes, and they don’t have strong convictions or feelings. self-perception theory says they tend to create plausible answers.
Self-perception theory has been well supported. Although the traditional attitude-behavior relationship is generally positive, the behavior-attitude relationship is stronger. This is particularly when attitudes are vague and ambiguous. When you have had few experiences regarding an attitude issue or given little previous thought to it, you’ll tend to infer your attitudes from your behavior. However, when your attitudes have been established for a while and are well defined, those attitudes are likely to guide your behavior
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An Application: Attitude Surveys
The preceding review indicates that a knowledge of employee attitudes can be helpful to managers in attempting to predict employee behavior. But how does management get information about employee attitudes? As suggested by the chapter-opening example at VSP, the most popular method is through the use of attitude surveys.61
The typical attitude survey presents the employee with a set of statements or questions with a rat ing scale indicating the degree of agreement. Some examples might include: This organization’s wage rates are competitive with those of other organizations, my job makes the best use of my abili ties, and I know what my boss expects of me. Ideally the items should be tailored to obtain the spe cific information that management desires. An individual’s attitude score is achieved by summing up responses to his or her questionnaire items. These scores can then be averaged for work groups teams, departments, divisions, or the organization as a whole.
Results from attitude surveys can frequently surprise management. For instance, managers at the Heavy Duty Division of Springfield Remanufac. esults from attitude surveys can frequently turing thought everything was great. Because employees were actively surprised by management involved in division decisions and profitability was the highest within the entire company, management assumed morale was high. To confirm their beliefs, they conducted a short attitude survey. Employees were asked if they agreed or disagreed with the following statements: (1) At work, your opinions count: (2) those of you who want to be a leader in this company have the opportunity to become one; and (3) in the past 6 months, someone has talked to you about your personal development. In the survey, 15 percent disagreed with the first statement, 48 percent with the second, and 62 percent with the third. Manage ment was astounded. How could this be? The division had been holding shop floor meetings to review the numbers every week for more than 12 years. And most of the managers had come up through the ranks. Management responded by creating a committee made up of representatives from every department in the division and all three shifts. The committee quickly found that there were lots of little things the division was doing that was alienating employees. Out of this committee came a large number of suggestions that after implementation, significantly improved employees’ perception of their decision-making influence and their career opportunities in the division.
Using attitude surveys on a regular basis provides managers with valuable feedback on how employees perceive their working conditions. Policies and practices that management views as objec tive and fair may be seen as inequitable by employees in general or by certain groups of employees. If distorted perceptions lead to negative attitudes about the job and organization, it’s important for management to know about it. Why? Because, as we’ll elaborate on in Chapter 5, employee behaviors are based on perceptions, not reality. The use of regular attitude surveys can alert management to potential problems and employees’ intentions early so that action can be taken to prevent repercussions
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Attitudes and Workforce Diversity
Managers are increasingly concerned with changing employee attitudes to reflect shifting perspectives on racial, gender, and other diversity issues. A comment to a coworker of the opposite sex, which 20 years ago might have been taken as a compliment–for instance, a male telling a female colleague that he thinks her shoes are sexy-aan today become a career-limiting episode. As such, organizations are investing in training to help reshape the attitudes of employees
The majority of large U.S. employers and a substantial proportion of medium-sized and smaller ones sponsor some sort of diversity training. Some examples: Police officers in Escondido, Califor nia, receive 36 hours of diversity training each year. The Federal Aviation Administration sponsorsa mandatory eight-hour diversity seminar for employees of its Western Pacific region. Denny’s restau rants puts all its managers through two days of intensive diversity training, with each day lasting seven to nine hours.
What do these diversity programs look like and how do they address attitude change They almost all include a self-evaluation phase. People are pressed to examine themselves and to confront ethnic and cultural stereotypes they might hold. Then participants typically take part in group dis. cessions or panels with representatives from diverse groups. So, for instance, a Hmong man might describe his family’s life in Southeast Asia, and explain why they resettled in California; or a lesbian might describe how she discovered her sexual identity, and the reaction of her friends and family when she came out.
Additional activities designed to change attitudes include arranging for people to do volunteer service centers in order to meet face to face with individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds and using exercises that let participants feel what it’s like to be different. For example, when participants see the film Eye of the Beholder, in which people are segregated and stereotyped according to their eye color, participants see what it’s like to be judged by something over which they have no control. And following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, many organizations have added diversity exercises that focus on relationships with coworkers from Middle Eastern backgrounds and followers of the Islamic faith.
Job Satisfaction
We have already discussed job satisfaction briefly-earlier in this chapter as well as in Chapter 1. In this section, we want to dissect the concept more carefully. How do we measure job satisfaction? How satisfied are employees in their jobs? What’s the effect of job satisfaction on employee productivity absenteeism, turnover rates, employee citizenship, and customer satisfaction
Measuring Job Satisfaction
We have previously defined job satisfaction as a collection of feelings that an individual holds toward his or her job. This definition is clearly a very broad one. Yet this is inherent in the concept. Remember, a person’s job is more than just the obvious activities of shuffling papers, writing programming code waiting on customers, or driving truck lobs require interaction with coworkers and bosses, following organizational rules and policies, meeting performance standards, living with working conditions that are often less than ideal, and the like 07 This means that an employee’s assessment of how satisfied or dissatisfied he or she is with his or her job is a complex summation of a number of discrete job elements. How, th employee’s assessment of how satisfied or
The two most widely used approaches are a single global rating and a dissatisfied he or she is with his or her job is a summation score made up of a number of job facets. The single global rating complex summation of a number of discrete method is nothing more than asking individuals to respond to one question such as “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your job?” Respon Job elements. dents then reply by circling a number from one to five that corresponds to answers from “highly satisfied” to “highly dissatisfied.” The other approach summation of job facets is more sophisticated. It identifies key elements in a job and asks for the employee’s feelings about each. Typical factors that would be included are the nature of the work, supervision, present pay, promotion opportunities, and relations with coworkers. These factors are rated on a standardized scale and then added up to create an overall job satisfaction score.
Is one of the foregoing approaches superior to the other? Intuitively, it would seem that summing up responses to a number of job factors would achieve a more accurate evaluation of job satisfaction. The research, however, doesn’t support this intuition. This is one of those rare instances in which simplicity seems to work as well as complexity. Comparisons of one question global ratings with the more lengthy summation-of-job-factors method indicate that the former is essentially as valid as the latter. The best explanation for this outcome is that the concept of job satisfaction is inherently so broad that the single question captures its essence.
How Satisfied Are People in Their Jobs?
Are most people satisfied with their jobs? The answer seems to be a qualified “yes” in the United States and in most developed countries. Independent studies, conducted among U.S. workers over the past 30 years, generally indicate that the majority of workers are satisfied with their jobs. Although the percentage range is pretty wide-from the low 50s to the high 70s—more people report that they’re satisfied than not. Moreover, these results are generally applicable to other developed countries. For instance, comparable studies among workers in Canada, Mexico, and Europe indicate more positive than negative results.”
In spite of the generally positive results, recent trends are not encouraging. The evidence indicates a marked decline in job satisfaction since the early 1990s. A Conference Board study found that 58.6 percent of Americans were satistied with their jobs in 1995. By 2002. that percentage was down to 50.12 The sharpest declines in satisfaction has occurred among workers in the 35-to-14ace group. In 1995, 61 percent of these workers said they were satisfied. By 2002, it had dropped to only 47 percent.
What factors might explain this recent drop in job satisfaction Experts suggest it might be due to employers’ efforts at trying to increase productivity through heavier employee workloads and tighter deadlines. Another contributing factor may be a feeling, increasingly reported by workers. that they have less control over their work.73
The Effect of Job Satisfaction on Employee Performance
Managers’ interest in job satisfaction tends to center on its effect on employee performance Researchers have recognized this interest, so we find a large number of studies that have been designed to assess the impact of job satisfaction on employee productivity, absenteeism, turnover, and citizenship behaviors. Let’s look at the current state of our knowledge.
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Interestingly, if we move from the individual level to that of the organization, there is renewed support for the original satisfaction-performance relationship. When satisfaction and productivity data are gathered for the organization as a whole, rather than at the individual level, we find that organizations with more satisfied employees tend to be more effective than organizations with fewer satisfied employees. It may well be that the reason we haven’t gotten strong support for the satisfaction-causes productivity thesis is that studies have focused on individuals rather than on the organization and that individual-level measures of productivity don’t take into consideration all the interactions and complexities in the work process. So although we might not be able to say that a happy worker is more productive, it might be true that happy organizations are more productive.
Job Satisfaction and Performance A study of the Indian situation confirmed the positive interrelationship between job satisfaction, job performance and job motivation
The review of 31 studies also indicates a systematic, positive relationship between satisfaction and performance 75
Job Satisfaction and Accident Research bears witness to the fact that satisfied workers are less likely to face accidents as compared to dissatisfied ones. It was concluded that accidents are closely linked to job satisfaction of workers and organizations with a low accident toll are likely to have a satisfied workforce 76
Another study reveals that highly satisfied workers have a higher efficiency rating as well. Being well adjusted on the job, the satisfied worker is sure to perform better. In other words, a worker with better job satisfaction tends to be better adjusted on the job, in his home and in social and emotional areans. On the other hand, discontentment with working life is likely to affect the worker’s job adjustment and also in social, emotional and domestic life. Satisfaction and Absenteeism We find a consistent negative relationship between satisfaction and absenteeism, but the correlation is moderate-usually less than +0.40 and probably closer to +0.20,78 Although it certainly makes sense that dissatisfied employees are more likely to miss work other factors have an impact on the relationship and reduce the correlation coefficient. For exam ple, remember our discussion of sick pay versus well pay in Chapter 22 Organizations that provide
liberal sick leave benefits are encouraging all their employees-including those who are highly sat isfied-to take days off. Assuming that you have a reasonable number of varied interests, you can find work satisfying and yet still take off work to enjoy a three-day weekend or tan yourself on a warm summer day if those days come free with no penalties.
An excellent illustration of how satisfaction leads directly to attendance, when there is a minimum impact from other factors, is a study done at Sears, Roebuck.8% Satisfaction data were available on employees at Sears’s two headquarters in Chicago and New York. In addition, it is important to note that Sears’s policy was not to permit employees to be absent from work for avoidable reasons without penalty. The occurrence of a freak April 2 snowstorm in Chicago created the opportunity to compare employee attendance at the Chicago office with attendance in New York, where the weather was quite nice. The interesting dimension in this study is that the snowstorm gave the Chicago employees a built-in excuse not to come to work. The storm crippled the city’s transportation, and individuals knew they could miss work this day with no penalty. This natural experiment permitted the comparison of attendance records for satisfied and dissatisfied employees at two locations-one where you were expected to be at work (with normal pressures for attendance) and the other where you were free to choose with no penalty involved. If satisfaction leads to attendance, when there is an absence of outside factors, the more satisfied employees should have come to work in Chicago, while dissatis fied employees should have stayed home. The study found that on this particular April 2, absenteeismn rates in New York were just as high for satisfied groups of workers as for dissatisfied groups. But in Chicago, the workers with high satisfaction scores had much higher attendance than did those with lower satisfaction levels. These findings are exactly what we would have expected if satisfaction is negatively correlated with absenteeism.
Job Satisfaction and Absenteeism Results of a study showed that the rate of absenteeism increased down the ladder of hierarchy, with managers having the lowest absence rate, technical workers have the highest absence rate and supervisors occupying the intermediate position. Managers were the most satisfied employees with their jobs, followed by the supervisors, and technical staff. Absenteeism was positively correlated to job satisfaction and to the feeling of insecurity. Also, absenteeism was negatively correlated with achievement motivation.85
A satisfied worker has a positive attitude towards his work and will try to avoid being absent from work. This does not mean that workers who are highly satisfied with their jobs would almost never be absent. However, absenteeism would be less among those who are satisfied than those who are dissatisfied with their jobs.
Different research studies have also noticed the relationship between job satisfaction and absen theism on the basis of gender and white or blue collared workers. The finding showed a significant relationship with respect to both males and females and also among both white collared and blue collared workers. However, the relationship is slightly affected by the marital status of working women who sometimes remain absent or attend work late due to unavoidable domestic engagements,
Satisfaction and Turnover Satisfaction is also negatively related to turnover, but the correlation is stronger than what we found for absenteeism. Yet, agam, other factors such as labor market conditions, expectations about alternative job opportunities, and length of tenure with the organization are important constraints on the actual decision to leave one’s current job.
Evidence indicates that an important moderator of the satisfaction-turnover relationship is the employee’s level of performance. Specifically, level of satisfaction is less important in predicting turnover for superior performers. Why? The organization typically makes considerable efforts to keep these people. They get pay raises, praise, recognition, increased promotional opportunities, and so forth. Just the opposite tends to apply to poor performers. Few attempts are made by the organization to retain them. There may even be subtle pressures to encourage them to quit. We would expect, therefore, that job satisfaction is more important in influencing poor performers to stay than superior performers. Regardless of level of satisfaction, the latter are more likely to remain with the organization because the receipt of recognition, praise, and other rewards gives them more reasons for staying,
Job Satisfaction and OCB
It seems logical to assume that job satisfaction should be a major determinant of an employee’s organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) Satisfied employees would seem more likely to talk positively about the organization, help others, and go beyond the normal expectations in their job. Moreover, satisfied employees might be more prone to go beyond the call of duty because they want to reciprocate their positive experiences. Consistent with this thinking, early discussions of OCB assumed that it was closely linked with satisfaction. More recent evidence, however, suggests that satisfaction influences OCB, but through perceptions of fairness.
There is a modest overall relationship between job satisfaction and OCB.90 But satisfaction is unrelated to OCB when fairness is controlled for.” What does this mean? Basically, job satisfaction comes down to conceptions of fair outcomes, treatment, and procedures. If you don’t feel as though your supervisor, the organization’s procedures, or pay policies are fair, your job satisfaction is likely to suffer significantly. However, when you perceive organizational processes and outcomes to be fair, trust is developed. And when you trust your employer, you’re more willing to voluntarily engage in behaviors that go beyond your formal job requirements.
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Job Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction
As we noted in Chapter 1, employees in service jobs often interact with customers. Because the management of service organizations should be concerned with pleasing those customers, it is reasonable to ask: Is employee satisfaction related to positive customer outcomes? For frontline employees who have regular contact with customers, the answer is “Yes.”
The evidence indicates that satisfied employees increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.” Why? In service organizations, customer retention and defection are highly dependent on how frontline employees deal with customers. Satisfied employees are more likely to be friendly, upbeat and responsive-which customers appreciate. And because satisfied employees are less prone to turnover, customers are more likely to encounter familiar faces and receive experienced service These qualities build customer satisfaction and loyalty. In addition, the relationship seems to apply in reverse: Dissatisfied customers can increase an employee’s job dissatisfaction. Employees who have regular contact with customers report that rude, thoughtless, or unreasonably demanding customers adversely affect the employees’ job satisfaction.
A number of companies are acting on this evidence. Service-oriented businesses such as Fede Southwest Airlines, Four Seasons Hotels, American Express, and Office Depot obsess about pleasing their customers. Toward that end, they also focus on building employee satisfaction-recognizing that employee satisfaction will go a long way toward contributing to their goal of having happy customers. These firms seek to hire upbeat and friendly employees they train employees in the importance of customer service, they reward customer service, they provide positive employee work climates, and they regularly track employee satisfaction through attitude surveys.
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What About Employee Dissatisfaction?
What happens when employees are dissatisfied with their jobs? They can express this dissatisfaction in a number of ways. For example, rather than quit, employees can complain, be insubordinate, steal organizational property, or shirk a part of their work responsibilities. Exhibit 3-5 offers four responses that differ from one another along two dimensions constructive/destructive and active/passive. They are defined as follows:
Exit. Behavior directed toward leaving the organization, including looking for a new position as well as resigning,
Voice. Actively and constructively attempting to improve conditions, including suggesting improvements, discussing problems with superiors, and some forms of union activity.
Loyalty. Passively but optimistically waiting for conditions to improve, including speaking up for the organization in the face of external criticism and trusting the organization and its management to do the right thing.’
Neglect. Passively allowing conditions to worsen, including chronic absenteeism or lateness, reduced effort, and increased error rate.
Exit and neglect behaviors encompass our performance variables-productivity absenteeism and turnover. But this model expands employee response to include voice and loyalty constructive behaviors that allow individuals to tolerate ant situations or to revive satisfactory working conditions. It helps us to understand situations as those sometimes found among unionized workers, for whom low job satisfaction is could low turnover Union members often express dissatisfaction through the grievance procedure through formal contract negotiations. These voice mechanisms allow union members to continue their jobs while convincing themselves that they are acting to improve the situation.
Summary and Implications for Managers
Why is it important to know an individual’s values? Although they don’t have a direct impact on behar jor, values strongly influence a person’s attitudes. So knowledge of an individual’s value system can pro vide insight into his or her attitudes.
Given that people’s values differ, managers can use the Rokeach Value Survey to assess potential employees and determine if their values align with the dominant values of the organization. An employee’s performance and satisfaction are likely to be higher if his or her values fit well with the organization. For instance, the person who places high importance on imagination, independence. and freedom is likely to be poorly matched with an organization that seeks conformity from its employees. Managers are more likely to appreciate, evaluate positively, and allocate rewards to employees who “lit in, and employees are more likely to be satisfied if they perceive that they do fit in. This argues for management to strive during the selection of new employees to find job candidates who not only have the ability, experience, and motivation to perform, but also a value system that is compatible with the organization’s
Managers should be interested in their employees’ attitudes because attitudes give warnings of problems and because they influence behavior. Satisfied and committed employees, for instance, have lower rates of turnover and absenteeism. Given that managers want to keep resigna tions and absences down-especially among their more productive employees–they will want to do the things that will generate positive job attitudes.
Managers should also be aware that employees will try to reduce cognitive dissonance. More important, dissonance can be managed. If employees are required to engage in activities that appear inconsistent to them or that are at odds with their attitudes, the pressures to reduce the resulting dissonance are lessened when the employee perceives that the dissonance is externally imposed and is beyond his or her control or if the rewards are significant enough to offset the dissonance.
