Ziara Mae L.

Bausa

BSREM 2-1

CHAPTER 4: VALUES, ATTITUDES, AND JOB SATISFACTION

1. VALUES

It “the 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”. (Robbins, S. 2005). While in
Organizational Behavior, values is defined as the collective conceptions of
what is considered good, desirable, and proper or bad, undesirable, and
improper in a culture. Values influence a persons behavior and attitude, his
conceptions of what are good, bad, proper and improper serves as broad
guidelines in all situations. How one act and behave in situations is affected
by his values.

• How People Learn Values

Values are learned throughout the life cycle. In early childhood value
learning is influenced by a process of interpersonal identification with the
parents. We first learn different values from what we see from our parents,
their values, and what they teach us as kids. And while growi ng up, we learn
it from everyday interaction with other people, through society, school, laws,
and the community, what we see, experience, what is taught to us by
different people and situations. Ours and the what the culture of the
environment we live in have and life experiences also affect what values we
acquire.

• Types of Values

Rokeach distinguishes between two types of values: Instrumental and

Terminal.

Instrumental values reflect the means to achieve goals; that is, they
represent the acceptable behaviour to be used in achieving some end state.
Terminal values, in contrast, represent the goals to be achieved, or the end
states of existence. Rokeach identified happiness, love, pleasure, self -
respect, and freedom among the terminal values.
• Individual vs. Organizational Values

Individual or personal values represent an important force in organizational

behavior. It is that values serve as standards of behavior for determining a
correct course of action, values serve as guidelines for decision-making and
conflict resolution and values serve as an influence on employee motivation.
A person’s values affects how he make decisions, how he act on various
situations, in assessing things, what should be done and not to be done,
right or wrong. Personal values are closely related to motivation and thus
help explain behavior (Cieciuch, 2017). People are motivated to behave in
accordance with their values because they look for a sense of consistency
between their beliefs and actions (Rokeach, 1973 ). Personal values, being
guiding principles in life, can also affect people’s creativity and innovative
behavior (Anderson et al., 2014).

However, Organizational values describe the core ethics or principles which

the company will abide by, no matter what . Similar with individual values,
organizations also have their own, that guides their actions through out
performing activities and working towards achieving their goal.
Organizational values can be defined as beliefs about socially or personally
desirable end states or actions that are explicitly or implicitly shared by
members of an organization (e.g., Schwartz, 1992). Employees actions are
aligned to the values of the organization they belong with. It inspire
employees’ best efforts and also constrain their actions. Organizational
values guide your organization’s thinking and actions.

Instrumental and Terminal Values

Instrumental values deal with views on acceptable modes of conductor

means of achieving the terminal values. By its name itself, instrumen tal,
values that are instrument to go to terminal values. Instrumental values can
be defined as specific methods of behavior. It is said to be not an end goal,
but rather provide the means by which an end goal is accomplished. And the
end goal is the terminal values. Terminal values include being honest,
sincere, ethical, and being ambitious. These values are more focused on
personality traits and character.

Terminal values are values that we think are most important or most
desirable. These are the goals that we strive to achieve (by means of
instrumental values) and are most important to us are known as terminal
values, these are the overall goals that we hope to achieve in our lifetime.
Terminal values include inner harmony, social recognition, and a worl d of
beauty, happiness, self-respect, recognition, leading a prosperous life, and
professional excellence.

2. ATTITUDES

An attitude refers to our opinions, beliefs, and feelings about aspects of our
environment. An “attitude” may be defined as the mental state of an
individual, which prepares him to react or make him behave in a particular
pre-determined way.

• Main Components of Attitudes

o Cognitive

Cognitive component of attitude is associated with the value statement. It

consists of values, belief, ideas and other information that a person may
have faith in.

o Behavioral

Behavioral component of attitude is associated with the impact of various

condition or situations that lead to person behavior based on cognitive and
affective components.

o Affective

Affective component of attitude is associated with individual feelings about

another person, which may be positive, neutral or negative.

• Differences in Personal Disposition

Personal disposition is a person’s true character, attitude and outlook. It is a

person’s tendency or habit to act in a certain way or perform an undertaking.
A personal disposition can also be described as a habitual inclination. A
disposition differs from a skill. A personal disposition is an inborn trait,
unlike skill – that can is learned over time –, it is sometimes inherited from
one’s parents. For example, a person may be skilled at reading fluently but
not inclined to do so. Some examples of positive personal dispositions are
being trustworthy, loving and open-minded. And negative personal
dispositions can include being cowardly, imprudent, biased and ill -
tempered.
• How Attitudes are Formed

Attitudes are formed over the years caused by various factors. These are
the inherited and learned characteristics of a person that affects the
formation of their attitudes.

Experiences

Our personal experiences with people and situations develop our atti tude
towards such persons and situations. Through job experience, people
develop attitudes towards working conditions, salaries, supervision, group
dynamics and so on.

Perceptual biases

Perception is the result of a complex interaction of various senses su ch as

feelings, seeing, hearing and so on and plays an important part in our
attitude and behavioral formation. For example, if a manager perceives a
subordinate’s ability as limited, he will give him limited responsibility.

Observation of another person attitude

When we like someone, we try to emulate that person’s attitude. For

example, when we are impressed by someone keeping calm under stressful
circumstances and we appreciate such calmness, we might try to do the
same. Or when you see a commendable ac t of honesty shown by some
people in the news, you might want to act the same in similar or different
situations.

Association

Our association with the group we belong to strongly influences our attitude.
Our close association with a group would encourage u s to be consistent with
the attitude of the group. Who we interact with most of the time and their
attitudes can influence the formation of the same attitude for us.

Personality

Personality is a set of traits and characteristics, habit patterns and

conditioned responses to certain stimuli that formulate the impression that a
person makes upon others and this impression is a function of a person’s
attitude.
• Positive and Negative Attitudes

Individuals who have a positive attitude will pay attention to the g ood, rather
than bad in people, situations, events. It is an optimistic approach for a
person to achieve good results. It is a very beneficial attitude that may also
relieve us from over thinking and stress.

However, people with a negative attitude ignore the good and pay attention
to the bad in people, situations, events, etc. It is a pessimistic mindset of a
person who is not capable of handling critical issues. Those unfortunate
times that we meet people that radiates their negativity, they don’t cause
any good nor should be emulated.

• Making Positive Attitudes Work for the Organization

Having a good, positive attitude, along with positive thinking, at work will
reflect on what you do and make you a more productive employee. If you
display a good attitude, you may increase your chances for a promotion or a
raise if you are a positive role model for others within your department at
work. If you display a good attitude, your co-workers will as well, making it
easier to communicate and get along in the workp lace. When you begin to
display a positive attitude at work, you can expect to see benefits. If you
have to make a presentation or share a project speech with others in your
department, keep your attitude upbeat and hopeful for a positive outcome.
In all of these shows that a positive attitude produce positive results and
lots of benefits not just to the self but when you positive attitude, you are
likely to infect many people and spread positivity.

3. JOB SATISFACTION

Job satisfaction refers to the feelings people have toward their job. It
indicates the extent of employees’ positive or negative feelings towards their
jobs and organizational behavior tried to improve it. A person will hold a
positive attitude if had a high level of satisfaction, while dissat isfied people
will generally display a negative attitude towards life. While some people
when not satisfied at work under various factors, may just opt to leave the
work, or become unproductive. It is very important that you enjoy what you
do, who you are with, the environment, the workplace, the benefits etc. It is
hard to work thus it should be a satisfying job at least.
• Factors Associated with Job Satisfaction

According to Kreitner & Kinicki (1998), there are five predominant models of
job satisfaction which specify its causes.

o Need fulfillment

Is determined by the extent to which the characteristics of a job allow an

employee to fulfil his or her needs.

o Discrepancies

The satisfaction is a result of met expectations.

o Value attainment

“It is the extent to which a job allows fulfillment of one’s work values”

o Equity

The level of job satisfaction experienced by individuals is related to how

fairly they perceive that they are being treated in comparison to others.

o Trait/Genetic components

Explain why certain co-workers appear to be satisfied across a variety of job

circumstances and why others always seem dissatisfied.

• Ways of Measuring Job Satisfaction

Surveys

One of the best ways to track employee satisfaction and the culture
developed in your office. Surveying your employees about specific issues
and asking for their input is a great way to find the best possible solution.
Not to mention, it makes everyone feel heard since you ’re asking them to
somehow voice out their opinions or thoughts.

Review Employee Performance

The important thing is to look at employee performance reviews as

beneficial to both your organization and employees. The goal should be
figuring out how to help each employee become more productive and reach
their full potential at your company.
Have 1-on-1 meetings

Employees can vote on ideas and share thoughts. And leaders have a
means for listening to their workers and gaining valuable insights they can
act on. A conversation between leaders and their workers asking them and
listening to their cries if there’s any, and making an action to solve their
queries.

Install an employee suggestion box

Installing an employee suggestion box in your office is a great way t o

encourage employees to voice their opinions and concerns without fearing
that they’ll get punished for it in one way or another. Doing this, you will
know if any problems are present ir how to improve poor works in the
organization.

Bringing It All Together

Understanding the importance of employee satisfaction and using the

platforms available to gather that data is only half the battle. It won’t provide
value unless your organization acts on the findings. After using one or more
of those methods, gather everything you have collected, make and analysis
and then provide the best course of action.

4. JOB INVOLVEMENT

Job involvement refers to the degree to which a person identifies himself

(psychologically) with his job, actively participates and considers hi s
perceived performance level important to self-worth (Robbins). Higher job
satisfaction leads to low absenteeism & employee turnover and indicates
that the individual cares for his job. It produces a productive employees,
who actively perform their jobs and participate in any activities, and any
accomplishment or achievement is not merely an accomplished task but it
makes them happy and fulfilled.

5. ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT

Organizational commitment refers to a degree to which an employee

identifies himself with the organizational goals and wishes to maintain
membership in the organization. It is the emotional attachment people have
toward the company they work for. A highly committed employee is one who
accepts and believes in the company’s values, is wi lling to put out effort to
meet the company’s goals, and has a strong desire to remain with the
company. They love their job, their colleagues maybe, their workplace,
everything about their work that makes them satisfied and committed.

Job Satisfaction
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