BHMH2005

Organizational Behavior

Chapter 1 & 3

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 Learning Objectives

 Define organizational behavior (OB).

 Contrast the three components of an
attitude.
 Summarize the relationship between
attitudes and behavior.
 Compare the major job attitudes.
 Identify outcomes of job satisfaction.
 Identify the impact of job dissatisfaction.

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 Chapter

What is Organisational Behaviour

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 Organizational Behavior (OB)

• Organisational Behaviour is a field of study that 
investigates the impact that individuals, groups, 
and structure have on behavior within 
organizations for the purpose of applying such 
knowledge toward improving an organization’s 
effectiveness. 

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education 1‐4

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 Chapter

Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

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Components of an Attitude

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 Components of an Attitude
• Attitudes
– Evaluative statements – either favorable or
unfavorable – about objects, people, or events.
– They reflect how we feel about something.

– Cognitive component
 The opinion or belief segment of an attitude.
– Affective component
 The emotional or feeling segment of an attitude.
– Behavioural component
 An intention to behave in a certain way toward
someone or something.
 Relationship
Between Attitudes and Behavior
• Attitudes predict behaviour
– Some researchers agreed that attitudes predict
future behaviour (i.e. the attitudes people hold
determine what they do).
• Attitudes follows behaviour
– Festinger argued that sometimes attitudes
follows behaviour
– The phenomenon of cognitive dissonance.

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 Cognitive Dissonance
• Cognitive dissonance is the incompatibility
an individual might perceive between two or
more attitudes or between their attitudes and
their behavior.
• Any form of inconsistency is uncomfortable,
and individual will attempt to reduce it.
• People therefore seek more consistency by :
– Alter the behavior
– Alter the attitudes
– Develop a rationalization for the discrepancy

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 Cognitive Dissonance

• Festinger proposed that the desire to reduce

cognitive dissonance depends on three
factors :
– Importance of elements creating cognitive
dissonance
– Degree of influence over the elements
– Rewards of cognitive dissonance

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Moderators / Moderating Variables 
 The most powerful moderators or moderating
variables of the attitude-behavior relationship are:
– Importance of the attitude
• Important attitudes have a strong relationship to behavior.
• Fundamental values, self-interest, identification with
individuals/groups we value.
– Accessibility of the attitude
• Repeated expression of the attitude enhances the likelihood
that the attitude will be activated from memory
• Easily accessible attitudes from memory are more likely to
predict our behaviour

Attitudes Predict Behavior

Moderators 3‐12
Moderators / Moderating Variables 

– Direct experience
• If an attitude refers to something with which we have direct
experience, the relationship between attitude and behaviour is
likely to be stronger.
• It makes the attitude more accessible.
– Social pressures
• When the social pressures to behave in ways against the attitude
hold exceptional power, discrepancies between attitudes and
behaviour tend to occur

Attitudes Predict Behavior

Moderators 3‐13
 Major Job Attitudes

• Job Satisfaction
– A positive feeling about the job resulting from an
evaluation of its characteristics
• Job Involvement
– The degree to which a person identifies with a
job, actively participates in it and considers
performance important to self-worth
• Psychological Empowerment
– Belief in the degree of influence over the work
environment, their competence, job
meaningfulness, and their autonomy in the work 3‐14
 Major Job Attitudes
• Organizational Commitment
– The degree to which an employee identifies
with a particular organization and its goals,
and wishes to maintain membership in the
organization.

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 Major Job Attitudes
• Perceived Organizational Support (POS)
– Degree to which employees believe the organization
values their contribution and cares about their well-
being.
– Higher when rewards are fair, employees have a
voice in decisions, and supervisors are seen as
supportive.

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 Major Job Attitudes

• Are these job attitudes really distinct?

– No: these attitudes are highly related
– While there is some distinction, there is also a
lot of overlap that may cause confusion

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 Outcomes of Job Satisfaction
• Task Performance / Job Performance
– The combination of effectiveness and efficiency
at doing your core job tasks. (Chapter 1, p.59)
– Happy workers are more likely to be productive
workers.
• Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)
– The discretionary behavior that is not part of an
employee’s formal job requirements, and that
contributes to the psychological and social
environment of the workplace, is called
organizational citizenship behavior. (Chapter 1, p.59)
– People who are more satisfied with their jobs
are more likely to engage in OCB.
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Outcomes of Job Satisfaction
• Customer Satisfaction
– Satisfied employees increase customer
satisfaction and loyalty
• Life Satisfaction
– Our overall happiness depends on our job
satisfaction

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Impact of Job Dissatisfaction

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 Impact of Job Dissatisfaction
• EVLN model
– Exit response
• Behaviour directed toward leaving the organisation
– Voice response
• Actively and constructively attempting to improve the
conditions
– Loyalty response
• Passively but optimistically waiting for conditions to
improve
– Neglect response
• Passively allowing conditions to worsen
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 Impact of Job Dissatisfaction
• Counterproductive Work Behaviour (CWB)
– Also termed withdrawal behaviour (Ch.1: OB Model)
– Also termed deviant workplace behaviour (Ch.9)
– Actions that actively damage the organization,
including stealing, behaving aggressively towards
coworkers, or being late or absent, etc.
– Absenteeism
• Lowered job satisfaction predicts absenteeism.
– Turnover
• A pattern of lowered job satisfaction is a predictor of
possible intent to leave.
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 Revision (Q1)

Any incompatibility between two or more attitudes 
or between attitudes and behavior results in 
________.

a) organizational dissonance
b) cognitive dissonance
c) attitudinal clarification
d) values clarification

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 Revision (Q2)

Job dissatisfaction is more likely to translate into 
________ when employees feel or perceive they 
have many available job alternatives.

a) neglect
b) engagement
c) lateness
d) turnover

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 Source & Reading
Textbook
• Robbins, Stephen P. and Judge, Timothy A. (2019), Organizational Behavior,
Pearson (18th Ed.)
Chapter 1 – Introduction
– pp. 41-42, 59-60
Chapter 3 – Attitudes
– pp. 106-114, 120-126

Other reference
• Robbins, S. P. & Judge, T. A. (2013). Organizational Behavior (pp. 25, 71).
Boston: Pearson.
Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Narendra_Chaudhary9/post/Influence_of_l
eadership_on_trust_organizational_performance/attachment/59d62af079197b8
077989550/AS%3A341225224851456%401458365841566/download/organizati
onal-behavior-15e-stephen-p-robbins-timothy-a-judge-pdf-qwerty.pdf

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Prepared by: Doreen Tse