E: Job Attitudes Flashcards
[Week 5: Finding happiness at work]
- What are job attitudes?
Job attitudes refer to a person’s evaluative thoughts and feelings about their job. These attitudes encompass various dimensions such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and engagement. Job attitudes are critical because they influence an individual’s work behavior, including their performance, turnover intentions, and overall contribution to the organization.
- What are moods and emotions, and how can they be distinguished from each other?
Emotions are intense feelings that are typically caused by specific events and are short-lived, lasting for seconds or minutes. They are usually accompanied by distinct facial expressions and can lead to immediate action. Examples include anger, sadness, and happiness.
Moods are less intense and more general than emotions, often lacking a clear cause. They last longer, from hours to days, and are not usually accompanied by distinct expressions. Moods can influence thought processes and behavior over a more extended period
- Discuss the major findings in job satisfaction research. Provide an example of how each factor could be used to improve employee satisfaction in some way.
Major Findings in Job Satisfaction Research:
Job Characteristics: Job satisfaction is influenced by the nature of the job itself, including factors like task variety, task identity, and autonomy.
Improvement Example: Increasing employees’ autonomy and providing opportunities for skill development can enhance job satisfaction by making the work more meaningful and engaging
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Social Environment: Supportive relationships with colleagues and supervisors significantly boost job satisfaction.
Improvement Example: Encouraging teamwork and open communication within the workplace can foster a supportive environment, leading to higher job satisfaction.
Leadership: The quality of leadership, particularly the consideration shown by leaders, is a powerful predictor of job satisfaction.
Improvement Example: Leaders can improve job satisfaction by showing genuine concern for employees’ well-being, offering support, and providing constructive feedback.
Fairness: Perceptions of fairness in terms of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice play a crucial role in job satisfaction.
Improvement Example: Ensuring transparent decision-making processes and treating all employees with respect can enhance feelings of fairness, thereby improving job satisfaction.
- What is affective events theory? Draw the diagram describing its major linkages.
Affective Events Theory (AET) suggests that workplace events cause emotional reactions, which then influence job performance and satisfaction. The theory highlights the role of both daily hassles and uplifts in shaping an employee’s emotional experiences and subsequent work behavior.
Work Environment: Characteristics of the job, job demands, and emotional labor requirements.
Work Events: Daily hassles and daily uplifts that trigger emotional reactions.
Emotional Reactions: Positive or negative emotions in response to events.
Personal Predispositions: Individual differences in personality and mood that influence emotional reactions.
Outcomes: Job satisfaction and job performance.
- What is positivity offset and how is it relevant to employee satisfaction survey research?
Positivity offset refers to the tendency for people to experience a mildly positive mood when nothing particularly good or bad is happening. This is relevant to employee satisfaction survey research because it suggests that, in the absence of negative events, employees are likely to report a baseline level of satisfaction. Understanding positivity offset helps in interpreting survey results, as it indicates that a certain level of positive mood may be present even in neutral or slightly negative work environments.
- What are masked or partial emotions, microexpressions, and display rules? Discuss how these factors may impede managers’ understanding of their subordinates’ emotions.
Masked or Partial Emotions: These are emotions that individuals try to hide or only partially express. For example, an employee may feel anger but only show mild irritation.
Microexpressions: Brief, involuntary facial expressions that reveal true emotions. These expressions are difficult to control and often occur when a person is trying to conceal their feelings.
Display Rules: Social or organizational norms that dictate which emotions should be expressed and how. For example, employees in customer service roles may be required to always appear cheerful, regardless of how they feel.
These factors can impede managers’ understanding of their subordinates’ emotions because they may not reflect the employees’ true feelings. Misinterpreting masked emotions or missing microexpressions can lead to incorrect assumptions about employee satisfaction, stress levels, or engagement, ultimately affecting how managers respond to their team.
- What is emotional intelligence? Who developed the scientific research behind it? Who wrote a popular book about it? Describe its relevance to job performance, in which jobs it matters most, and whether it improves prediction beyond use of cognitive ability and personality measures.
Emotional Intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to recognize, understand, and manage one’s own emotions and the emotions of others. The scientific research behind EI was developed by Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer. Daniel Goleman popularized the concept with his book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.
Relevance to Job Performance: EI is particularly important in jobs that require emotional labor, such as customer service, management, and healthcare, where understanding and managing emotions can significantly impact performance and interpersonal interactions.
Prediction Beyond Cognitive Ability and Personality: EI predicts job performance above and beyond cognitive ability and personality, especially in roles that require high emotional labor, strong interpersonal skills, and effective leadership.
- Are happy employees productive employees? Discuss.
The relationship between happiness and productivity is positive but not absolute. Research shows a moderate correlation (about .30) between job satisfaction and job performance, indicating that while happy employees tend to be more productive, this is not always the case. Various factors, such as the nature of the job, individual differences, and external circumstances, also play a role in determining productivity.
- What is the causal relationship between job attitudes and performance?
The causal relationship between job attitudes and performance is complex. Meta-analytic research suggests that job attitudes (like satisfaction and organizational commitment) do influence subsequent job performance, although the effect size is relatively small (β = .06). This means that while positive job attitudes can lead to better performance, the relationship is not strong, and other factors, such as skills, motivation, and external conditions, also significantly impact performance.
