attitudes at work Flashcards
what is an attitude?
“Mental states, developed through experience, which
are always ready to exert an active influence on an
individual’s response to any conditions or
circumstances to which the person has been directed”
Allport (1935)
“A predisposition to feel, think and act towards some
object, person or event in a more or less favourable or
unfavourable way” Richardson (1977)
explain what attitudes concern
Can concern anything that we like or dislike e.g.
work, objects, and people
* Attitudes differ in valence (+ or -) and strength
* Represent the “truth” as we see it
* May not be consistent with behaviour, e.g. I may hate my
job but gain status from it and thus I do not leave… or may
need the income
* Assessing attitudes is very common in work organisations
(Schneider et al., 1996), universities, from customers
Components of Attitudes (Breckler, 1984)
Affective component
How a person feels about a target/object/concept, e.g. job
Cognitive component
What a person thinks about a
target/object/concept, e.g. job
Behavioural component
How a person is predisposed to
acttowards a target/object/
concept, e.g. job
name some Influences on Attitude Formation
Personality: Consistent ways of feeling, thinking & behaving
Values: Intrinsic work values, Extrinsic work values
Social influence: Co-workers, Groups, Culture
Work situation: The work itself, Co-workers,
supervisors and subordinates, Physical working conditions, Working hours, pay
and job security
Why Do Work Attitudes Matter?
Because they may affect:
* Whether a person seeks a new job
* How co-operative they are with others at work
* Whether they present a positive image
* How they react to change
* How hard they work (motivation)
* Their psychological or physical health
how do you Measure Attitudes?
Almost always self-report
* Likert scale – from agreement to disagreement
* A range of items, some reverse coded
* Potential problem – socially desirable responding,
e.g. sensitive topics, power dynamics
Define Job Satisfaction
“A pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences”
(Locke, 1976)
Components of job satisfaction
Components: pay and benefits, co-workers,
supervision, the work itself, career opportunities, job security, working conditions.
what is the assumption if happy employees?
Happy employees are productive employees
Factors Influencing Job Satisfaction
Distributive/ Procedural Justice
Personality & Individual Differences
Job Characteristics
Leadership
what us distributive justice?
“…distributive justice refers to the perceived fairness of the amounts of compensation employees receive; procedural justice refers to the perceived fairness of the means used
to determine those amounts” (Folger & Konovsky, 1989).
Hackman and Oldham’s Job Characteristics Model
the model believes that the nature of the task is what effect employee motivation
what are the 5 characteristics that can predict job satisfaction from Hackman and Oldham
skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, feedback
Skill variety in Hackman and Oldham
it is how many different skills and talents the job requires eg is it repetitive or different
The more skill variety a job has the greater job satisfaction will be and thus motivation
Job Feedback in Hackman and Oldham
is when the employee is told when doing well or not and there is constructive criticism
