MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION

Week 3: Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

Shawkat Tanveer Rahman

Senior Lecturer, School of Business
University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh
Learning Objectives

❑ Contrast the three components of an attitude.

❑ Summarize the relationship between attitudes and
behavior.
❑ Compare and contrast the major job attitudes.
❑ Define job satisfaction and show how it can be measured.
❑ Summarize the main causes of job satisfaction.
❑ Identify four employee responses to dissatisfaction.
❑ Show whether job satisfaction is a relevant concept in
countries other than the United States
Attitudes

❑ Evaluative statements or judgments (either favorable or

unfavorable) — concerning objects, people, or events

Three components of an attitude:

❑ Cognitive – The opinion or belief segment of an attitude

❑ Affective – The emotional or feeling segment of an attitude

❑ Behavioral – An intention to behave in a certain way toward

someone or something
Attitudes and Behavior
Job Attitudes

❑ Job Satisfaction
-A positive feeling about the job resulting from an
evaluation of its characteristics.

❑ Job Involvement
-Degree of psychological identification with the job where
perceived performance is important to self-worth.

❑ Psychological Empowerment
- Belief in the degree of influence over the job, competence,
job meaningfulness, and autonomy.
Job Attitudes

❑ Organizational Commitment
Identifying with a particular organization and its goals, while
wishing to maintain membership in the organization.

❑ 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 are involved in
decision-making, and supervisors are seen as
supportive.
• High POS is related to higher OCBs and performance.
Job Attitudes

❑ Employee Engagement
• The degree of involvement, satisfaction with, and
enthusiasm for the job.
• Engaged employees are passionate about their work and
company.
Job Satisfaction
One of the primary job attitudes measured.
• Broad term involving a complex individual summation of a
number of discrete job elements.

How to measure?
• Single global rating (one question/one answer) - Best
• Summation score (many questions/one average) - OK

Are people satisfied in their jobs?

• In the U. S., yes, but the level appears to be dropping.
• Results depend on how job satisfaction is measured.
• Pay and promotion are the most problematic elements.
Job Satisfaction
One of the primary job attitudes measured.
• Broad term involving a complex individual summation of a
number of discrete job elements.

How to measure?
• Single global rating (one question/one answer) - Best
• Summation score (many questions/one average) - OK

Are people satisfied in their jobs?

• In the U. S., yes, but the level appears to be dropping.
• Results depend on how job satisfaction is measured.
• Pay and promotion are the most problematic elements.
Job Satisfaction (Few Facts)
Causes of Job Satisfaction
1. Job Conditions

❑ Interesting jobs that provide training, variety, independence, and

control satisfy most employees
❑ Interdependence, feedback, social support, and interaction with
coworkers outside the workplace are also strongly related to job
satisfaction
❑ Employees who feel empowered by their leaders experience higher
job satisfaction.
❑ Research in Israel suggested that a manager’s attentiveness,
responsiveness, and support increase the employee’s job
satisfaction.
❑ Job conditions—especially the intrinsic nature of the work itself, social
interactions, and supervision—are important predictors of job
satisfaction
Causes of Job Satisfaction
2. Personality

❑ People who have positive core self-evaluations (CSEs)—who believe in their

inner worth and basic competence—are more satisfied with their jobs than
people with negative.

❑ CSE influences job satisfaction as people with high levels of both CSE and
career commitment may realize particularly high job satisfaction.
3. Pay

Pay does correlate with job satisfaction

and overall happiness for many people,
but the effect can be smaller once an
individual reaches a standard level of
comfortable living.
Causes of Job Satisfaction

3. Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Firms self-regulated actions to benefit
society or the environment beyond what is
required by law, increasingly affects
employee job satisfaction.

The relationship between CSR and job

satisfaction is particularly strong for
Millennials (who were born between early
1980s-1990s).

The next generation of employees is

seeking out employers that are focused on
the triple bottom line (TBL): people, planet,
and profit
Outcome of Job Satisfaction

Job Performance
• Satisfied workers are more productive and more productive
workers are more satisfied!
• The causality may run both ways.
Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCB)
• Satisfaction influences OCB through perceptions of fairness.
Customer Satisfaction
• Satisfied frontline employees increase customer satisfaction
and loyalty.
Life satisfaction
For most individuals, work is an important part of life.
The Impact of Job Dissatisfaction

Exit
Behavior directed toward leaving the
organization
Voice
Active and constructive attempts to
improve conditions
Neglect
Allowing conditions to worsen
Loyalty
Passively waiting for conditions to
improve
Summary

Managers should watch employee attitudes

• They give warnings of potential problems
• They influence behavior
Managers should try to increase job satisfaction and
generate positive job attitudes
• Reduces costs by lowering turnover, absenteeism,
tardiness, and theft, and increasing OCB
Focus on the intrinsic parts of the job: make work
challenging and interesting
• Pay is not enough