Module 4

Values, Attitudes, and Job Satisfaction

Learning Objectives:
 Explain job satisfaction and the various concerns that make it happen,
such as values and attitudes.

A company which advertises that its milk products come from contented
cows implies that the products are of good quality. It is easy to understand
the logic behind it. In the same light, when someone says “workers who are
satisfied with their jobs tend to produce quality outputs,” it is also easy to
understand why it is so.

This chapter is an attempt to explain job satisfaction and the various

concerns that make it happen, such as values and attitudes.

Values
Values refer to the importance a person attaches to things or ideas that
serves as guide to action. Values are enduring beliefs that one’s mode of
conduct is better than the opposite mode of conduct. An example of a belief
is the importance placed by a person on academic titles or degrees and the
doubt casted on the ability of a person without sufficient academic
qualifications.

How People Learn Values

Values are not inborn, they are learned. As they grow, people learn values
through any or all of the following:

1. Modeling – parents, teachers, friends, and other people oftentimes

become models to persons who would later exhibit good behavior in the
workplace. For instance, a person who worked as a mechanic for many years
in his own yard was a stickler for cleanliness and getting up early to work. He
saw to it that his customers were happy with the service he provided, and he
never charged them with unreasonable service fees. His son saw him in
action almost everyday. The son did not notice that he was slowly imitating
the good work ethic of his father. It is no wonder that he behaves much like
his father when he is doing hid work as a mechanic in a large automotive
sales and service firm.

2. Communication of Attitudes –one of the ways in which values are

learned is through communication of attitudes. When a person often hears
form acquaintances the risk of buying products imported from a certain
country, the person may develop negative values about that country.
3. Unstated but Implied Attitudes – values may also be affected by
attitudes that are not stated but are implied by way of action. For instance, if
a person sees joy and happiness in every member of his family whenever
another member graduates from college, the person will develop the same
values impliedly exhibited.

4. Religion – values are also learned through religion. For example, the just
and fair treatment of people is a value that is taught by priests and ministers
of various religious acts. Persons who are exposed to the teachings develop
values that support such beliefs.

Types of Values
Values may be classified in various ways. A classification that is most
relevant to the workplace indicates that values are of the following types:

1. Achievement – this is a value that pertains to getting things done and

working hard to accomplish goals
2. Helping and concern for others – this value refers to the person’s
concern with other people and providing assistance to those who need help.
3. Honesty – this is a value that indicates the person’s concern for telling
the truth and doing what he thinks is right
4. Fairness – this is a value that indicates the person’s concern for
impartiality and fairness for all concerned.

Instrumental and Terminal Values

Terminal values represent the goals that a person would like to achieve in
his or her lifetime. Examples of terminal values are happiness, love,
pleasure, self-respect, and freedom.

Instrumental values refer to preferable modes of behavior or means of

achieving the terminal values. Example of instrumental values are ambition,
honesty, self-sufficiency, and courageousness.

Attitudes
Attitudes are important in the study of human behavior. This is so because
they are linked with perception, learning, emotions, and motivation. Attitudes
also form the basis for job satisfaction in the workplace. Attitudes are
feelings and beliefs that largely determine how employees will perceive their
environment, commit themselves to intended actions, and ultimately
behave. Attitudes reflect how one feels about something.

The Main Components of Attitudes

The cognitive component of an attitude refers to the opinion or belief
segment of an attitude. An example is the opinion indicated in the statement
“my boss is fickle-minded; he cannot stick to his decision.”

The affective component of an attitude refers to the emotional or feeling

segment. The bad feeling insinuated in the statement “I hate my boss” is an
example.

The behavioral component of an attitude refers to the intention to behave

in a certain way toward someone or something. An example is the action
indicated in the statement “I have requested a transfer to another
department from my superiors.”

How Attitudes are Formed

Attitudes are forms through learning. The two methods that mostly influence
formation are direct experience and indirect means of social learning. Among
the information stored in the human mind, those that were gathered through
direct experience are the most accessible. So if one had an unpleasant
experience with another person, his attitude regarding that person would be
negative regardless of any other information obtained from indirect means.
Although indirect mean affect the formation of attitudes, their influence is
not as strong as direct experience.

Attitudes that are formed in an indirect way are the result of social
interactions with the family, peer groups, religious organizations, and culture.
For instance, if parents behave in a manner showing disdain towards
smokers, the children will have a strong tendency to adapt an attitude of
indifference towards smokers.

Effects of Employee Attitudes

Positive job attitudes indicate satisfaction and are useful in predicting
constructive behaviors like serving customers beyond official working hours,
and performing excellently in all aspects of their jobs. An example of a
positive attitude is “I enjoy wearing my office uniform.”

Negative job attitudes are also useful in predicting undesirable behavior.

Negative job attitudes include those concerning job dissatisfaction, lack of
job involvement, low commitment to the organization, and strong negative
words like “the office assigned to me does not speak well of my position.”

Job Satisfaction
The attitude people have about their job is called job satisfaction. In a strict
sense, however, job satisfaction refers to the positive feeling about one’s job
resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics. When the feeling about
one’s job is not positive, the appropriate term is job dissatisfaction.
When people are satisfied with their jobs, the following benefits become
possible:
1. High productivity
2. A stronger tendency to achieve customer loyalty
3. Loyalty to the company
4. Low absenteeism and turnover
5. Less job stress and burnout
6. Better safety performance
7. Better life satisfaction

Factors Associated with Job Satisfaction

1. Salary – adequacy of salary and perceived equity compared with
others
2. Work itself – the extent to which job tasks are considered interesting
and provide opportunities for learning and accepting responsibility
3. Promotion opportunity – chances for further advancement
4. Quality of supervision – the technical competence and the
interpersonal skills of one’s immediate superior
5. Relationship with co-workers – the extent to which co-workers are
friendly, competent, and supportive
6. Working conditions - the extent to which the physical work
environment is comfortable and supportive of productivity
7. Job security – the beliefs that one’s position is relatively secure and
continued employment with the organization is a reasonable
expectation.

Job Involvement
Job involvement is another positive employee attitude. It refers to the degree
to which a person identifies with the job, actively participates in it, and
considers performance important to self-worth. People who are really
“involved” in their jobs view work as a central part of their overall lives.

Categories of Organizational Commitment

1. Affective commitment refers to the employee’s emotional

attachment to the organization and belief in its values. For example, an
employee may be affectively committed to his company because of its
employment policy of hiring people regardless of their educational
attainment.
2. Continuance commitment refers to the employee’s tendency to
remain in an organization because he cannot afford to leave. In fact,
many employees continue to be committed to the firm because they
 feel they could not get better employment elsewhere. The reasons why
employees choose to continue employment with the firm may be
classified as either (1) economic or (2) non-economic. Economic
factors refer to salary, allowances, and retirement pension. Non-
economic benefits include participation in decision making, job
security, and certain job characteristics such as autonomy,
responsibility, and interesting work.
3. Normative commitment refers to an obligation to remain with the
company for moral or ethical reason. For example, an employee
working in a zoo may remain with his employer because he feels most
of the animals under his care would respond only to him and it would
be hard to find a suitable replacement for him. He thinks that the
existence of the zoo would be in jeopardy if he leaves.
Reference/s:
Human Behavior in Organization by: Roberto G. Medina, Ph.D