chapter 3 - job attitudes Flashcards
attitudes
are judgements or evaluative statements (favorable or unfavorable) about objects, people or events.
Reflect how we are feeling about something
three components of attitudes
- Cognition
- Affect
- Behavior
cognitive component of attitudes (on exam)
the opinion or belief segment of an attitude
it is an evaluation
Sets the stage for affective component
EX: my pay is low
affective component of attitudes (on exam)
is the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude
it is a feeling
Affect can lead to behavioral outcomes
EX: i am angry over how little I’m paid
behavioral component of attitudes (on exam)
of an attitude describes an intention to behave a certain way toward someone or something
it is an action
EX: I’m going to look for another job that pays better
why do we view attitudes in three different components
Helps us understand their complexity and the potential relationship between attitudes and behavior.
Cognition and affect are intertwined
- Affect
- Behavior
- Cognition
Several powerful characteristics change the nature of the attitudes-behavior relationship:
the importance of the attitude, its correspondence to behavior, its accessibility, the presence of social pressures and whether a person has direct experience with the attitude.
The attitude-behavior relationship (on exam)
is also much stronger if an attitude refers to something we have directly experienced.
You are more likely to remember attitudes you frequently express and attitudes that our memories can easily access are more likely to predict our behavior.
Sometimes behavior might predict future attitudes.
cognitive dissonance
is any incompatibility between two or more attitudes or between behavior and attitudes
Where there is dissonance, people alter their attitudes or behavior to minimize the dissonance or develop a rationalization for the discrepancy.
the desire to reduce dissonance depends on three factors:
The importance of the elements creating dissonance
The degree of influence we believe we have over those elements
The rewards of dissonance
organizational identification - major job attitude (on exam)
is the extent to which employees define themselves by the same characteristics that define their organization, forming a basis for which attitudes and behaviors are engendered.
three job attitudes + 2 others (on exam)
job satisfaction
job involvement
organizational commitment
perceived organizational support (pos)
employee engagement
organizational commitment - job attitude (on exam)
an employee with a strong organizational commitment identifies with their organization and its goals and wishes to remain a member.
emotional attachment to an organization and belief in its values are the gold standard for employee commitment
job satisfaction - job attitude (on exam)
is employee attitudes. A positive feeling about a job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics.
A person with high job satisfaction holds positive feelings about the work.
A person with low satisfaction holds negative feelings.
Job satisfaction is one of the most important attitudes
job involvement - job attitude (on exam)
which is the degree to which people psychologically identify with their jobs and consider their perceived performance levels important to their self-worth.
perceived organizational support (pos) - job attitude (on exam)
is the degree to which employees believe that the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being.
people perceive their organizations as supportive when they are treated fairly by other organization members.
power distance
the degree to which people in a country accept that power in institutions and organizations, is distributed unequally, is lower.
Low-power distance countries like the US people are more likely to view work as an exchange than a moral obligation.
High-power-distance countries like China have employee POS perceptions that are not as deeply based on demonstrations of fairness, support and encouragement.
employee engagement - job attitude (on exam)
is the degree of enthusiasm an employee feels for the job.
Represents a combination of attitudes (like satisfaction and commitment) but exceeds these, meaning something like devotion or giving your heart and soul to your work.
Highly engaged employees have a passion for their work and feel a deep connection to their companies.
how to improve employee engagement
Employee-focused interventions that focused on increasing employees’ autonomy and resilience, reduced job demands or made them easier to cope with or contributed to employees’ development.
Enhancing organizational practices like training, work attributes like clarity in roles and autonomy and supervisor support.
how to measure job satisfaction
- survey: How satisfied are you with your Job? (circle a number between 1 and 5 on a scale of highly satisfied to highly dissatisfied).
- Summation of job facts. It identifies key elements in a job such as the type of work, skills needed, supervision, present pay, promotion, opportunities, culture and relationships with coworkers. Respondents rate each of these on a standardized scale and then these ratings are added to create an overall job satisfaction score
cause of job satisfaction: job conditions (on exam)
- 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, even after accounting for the work’s characteristics.
- Managers also play a big role in employees’ job satisfaction
- Fitting in
job condition
especially the intrinsic nature of the work itself, social interactions and supervision – are important predictors of job satisfaction.
Managers should make sure job conditions are satisfying enough to make employees happy.
positive core-self evaluations (CSEs)
hich are people who believe in their inner worth and basic competence – are more satisfied with their jobs than people with negative CSEs.
effect of pay on job satisfaction
The effect (of both pay level and discrepancies with others) can be smaller once an individual reaches a standard level of comfortable living
job performance
there is a correlation between job satisfaction and job performance.
Individuals with higher job satisfaction perform better and organizations with more satisfied employees tend to be more effective than those with fewer.
people who are satisfied with their jobs
are more likely to engage in citizenship behavior.
can lead to positive customer outcomes
exit (for employee responses to job dissatisfaction) (on exam)
the exit response directs behavior toward leaving the organization, including looking for a new position or resigning.
voice (for employee responses to job dissatisfaction) (on exam)
The voice response includes actively and constructively attempting to improve conditions, including suggesting improvements, discussing problems with superiors and undertaking union activity.
loyalty (for employee responses to job dissatisfaction) (on exam)
the loyalty response means passively but optimistically waiting for conditions to improve, including speaking up for the organization in the face of external criticism and trusting the organization and its management to “do the right thing.”
neglect (for employee responses to job dissatisfaction) (on exam)
the neglect response passively allows conditions to worsen and includes chronic absenteeism or lateness, reduced effort and an increased error rate.
Exit and neglect behaviors are linked to performance variables such as productivity, absenteeism and turnover.
counterproductive work behavior (cwb)
Substance abuse, stealing at work, endless scrolling on social media, gossip, absenteeism and tardiness are examples of destructive behaviors to organizations.
the exit-voice-loyalty-neglect framework
helps us understand the consequences of dissatisfaction. What happens when employees dislike their jobs?
