chapter

3
THE EXPERIENCE OF WORK:
VALUES, ATTITUDES,
AND MOODS
2 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

Work Values
• A worker’s personal convictions about what
outcomes one should expect from work and
how one should behave at work.
• The most general and long-lasting feelings
and beliefs people have that contribute to
how they experience work.
• Values can be intrinsic (i.e., related to the
nature of work itself) or extrinsic (i.e.,
related to the consequences of work).

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3 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Work Values

(Table 3.1)

Intrinsic Values Extrinsic Values

• Interesting work • High pay
• Challenging work • Job security
• Learning new things • Job benefits
• Making important • Status in wider
contributions community
• Responsibility and • Social contacts
autonomy • Time with family
• Being creative • Time for hobbies
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4 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

Work Attitudes
• Collections of feelings, beliefs, and thoughts about
how to behave that people currently hold about
their jobs and organizations.
• Compared to values, attitudes are
– More specific
– Not as long lasting
• Specific work attitudes:
– Job satisfaction is the collection of feelings and beliefs
that people have about their current jobs.
– Organizational commitment is the collection of feelings
and beliefs that people have about their organizations as
a whole.
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5 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

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6 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

Work Moods
• How people feel at the time they actually
perform their jobs.
• More transitory than values and attitudes.
• Can generally be categorized as positive or
negative.
• Determining factors:
– Personality
– Work situation
– Circumstances outside of work
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7 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

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8 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

Advice to Managers
• Do not assume that most workers have
strong intrinsic work values just because you
do.
• Realize that any attempt you make to
improve attitudes, motivation, or
performance will be most effective when the
change you implement is consistent with
workers’ values.
• Make the work environment pleasant and
attractive to help promote positive moods.

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9 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

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10 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

Theories of Job Satisfaction

• Each theory of job satisfaction takes into account
one or more of the four main determinants of job
satisfaction and specifies, in more detail, what
causes one worker to be satisfied with a job and
another to be dissatisfied.
• Influential theories of job satisfaction include
– The Facet Model
– Herzberg’s Motivator-Hygiene Theory
– The Discrepancy Model
– The Steady-State Theory
• These different theoretical approaches should be
viewed as complementary.
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11 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

The Facet Model

• Focuses primarily on work situation factors by
breaking a job into its component elements, or job
facets, and looking at how satisfied workers are with
each.
• A worker’s overall job satisfaction is determined by
summing his or her satisfaction with each facet of
the job.
• Sample job facets (see Table 3.2):
– Ability utilization: the extent to which the job allows one
to use one’s abilities.
– Activity: being able to keep busy on the job.
– Human relations supervision: the interpersonal skills of
one’s boss.
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12 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

Herzberg’s Motivator-Hygiene Theory

• Every worker has two sets of needs or
requirements: motivator needs and hygiene
needs.
• Motivator needs are associated with the actual
work itself and how challenging it is.
– Facets: interesting work, autonomy, responsibility
• Hygiene needs are associated with the physical
and psychological context in which the work is
performed.
– Facets: physical working conditions, pay, security
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13 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

Herzberg’s Motivator-Hygiene Theory

• Hypothesized relationships between
motivator needs, hygiene needs, and job
satisfaction:
– When motivator needs are met, workers will be
satisfied; when these needs are not met,
workers will not be satisfied.
– When hygiene needs are met, workers will not
be dissatisfied; when these needs are not met,
workers will be dissatisfied.

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14 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

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15 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

The Discrepancy Model

• To determine how satisfied they are with
their jobs, workers compare their job to
some “ideal job.” This “ideal job” could be
– What one thinks the job should be like
– What one expected the job to be like
– What one wants from a job
– What one’s former job was like
• Can be used in combination with the Facet
Model.
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16 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

The Steady-State Theory

• Each worker has a typical or
characteristic level of job satisfaction,
called the steady state or equilibrium
level.
• Different situational factors or events at
work may move a worker temporarily
from this steady state, but the worker
will eventually return to his or her
equilibrium level.
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17 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

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18 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

Advice to Managers
• Realize that some workers are going to be more satisfied than others with
the same job simply because they have different personalities and work
values. Also realize that you can take steps to increase levels of job
satisfaction because it is determined not only by personality but also by
the work situation.
• Try to place newcomers in work groups whose members are satisfied
with their jobs.
• Ask workers what facets of their jobs are important to them, and do what
you can to ensure that they are satisfied with these facets.
• Because job satisfaction has the potential to impact workers’ behaviors in
organizations and their well-being, use existing measurement scales to
periodically survey your subordinates’ levels of job satisfaction. When
levels of job satisfaction are low, follow the advice in the preceding step.
• Recognize that workers’ evaluations of job facets, not what you think
about them, determine how satisfied workers are and that changing some
facets may have longer-lasting effects on job satisfaction than changing
others.
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19 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

Potential Consequences
of Job Satisfaction
• Performance:
Performance Satisfied workers are only slightly
more likely to perform at a higher level than
dissatisfied workers.
– Satisfaction is most likely to affect work behaviors
when workers are free to vary their behaviors and when
a worker’s attitude is relevant to the behavior in
question.
• Absenteeism:
Absenteeism Satisfied workers are only slightly
less likely to be absent than dissatisfied workers.
• Turnover:
Turnover Satisfied workers are less likely to
leave the organization than dissatisfied workers.
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20 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

Determinants of Absence from Work

(Table 3.3)

Motivation Ability
to Attend Work to Attend Work
is Affected by is Affected by
• Job satisfaction • Illness and accidents
• Organization’s • Transportation
absence policy problems
• Other factors • Family responsibilities

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21 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

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22 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

Potential Consequences
of Job Satisfaction
• Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB):
Satisfied workers are more likely to engage in this
behavior than dissatisfied workers.
– OCB: Behavior that is above and beyond the call of
duty but is nonetheless necessary for organizational
survival and effectiveness
• Helping coworkers, spreading goodwill
• Worker well-being:
well-being Satisfied workers are more
likely to have strong well-being than dissatisfied
workers.
– Worker well-being: How happy, healthy, and
prosperous workers are
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23 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

Advice to Managers
• Do not assume that poor performers are dissatisfied with their jobs or that
good performers are satisfied with their jobs.
• Do not assume that workers who are absent are dissatisfied or that they
were not motivated to come to work. Absence is also a function of ability
to attend.
• Manage absenteeism. Don’t try to eliminate it, and keep in mind that a
certain level of absence is often functional for workers and organizations.
• Realize that turnover has both costs and benefits for an organization and
that you need to evaluate both. In particular, before becoming concerned
about worker turnover, examine the performance levels of those who quit.
• If workers do only what they are told and rarely, if ever, exhibit
organizational citizenship behavior, measure their levels of job
satisfaction, identify the job facets they are dissatisfied with, and make
changes where possible.
• Even if job satisfaction does not seem to have an effect on important
behaviors in your organization, keep in mind that it is an important factor
in worker well-being.
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24 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

Organizational Commitment
• Affective commitment exists when workers are
happy to be members of an organization,
believe in and feel good about the organization
and what it stands for, are attached to the
organization, and intend to do what is good for
the organization.
• Continuance commitment exists when workers
are committed not so much because they want
to be but because they have to be; the costs of
leaving the organization are too great.

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25 CHAPTER 3 The Experience of Work: Values, Attitudes, and Moods

Advice to Managers
• Adopt socially responsible policies and programs
such as supporting protection of the environment
and helping out the community in which your
organization is located.
• Be committed to your employees by, for example,
showing concern for their well-being, helping
them when they have hard times, and soliciting
their input on decisions that will affect them.

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