Employee Satisfaction and Commitment

Question 1

_____—the attitude an employee has toward her job.

Answer 1

Job satisfaction

Question 2

_____—the extent to which an employee identifies with and is involved with an organization

Answer 2

Organizational commitment

Question 3

For employees who have strong, consistent beliefs about their level of job satisfaction (called _____ consistency), the relationship between job satisfaction and performance is much stronger than it is for employees whose job satisfaction attitudes are not so well developed

Answer 3

affective-cognitive

Question 4

It is thought that there are three motivational facets to _____:

1. Affective commitment
2. Continuance commitment
3. Normative commitment

Answer 4

organizational commitment

Question 5

_____ commitment is the extent to which an employee wants to remain with the organization, cares about the organization, and is willing to exert effort on its behalf.

Answer 5

Affective

Question 6

_____ commitment is the extent to which an employee believes she must remain with the organization due to the time, expense, and effort that she has already put into it or the difficulty she would have in finding another job.

Answer 6

Continuance

Question 7

_____ commitment is the extent to which an employee feels obligated to the organization and, as a result of this obligation, must remain with the organization.

Answer 7

Normative

Question 8

_____ theory postulates that some variability in job satisfaction is due to an individual’s personal tendency across situations to enjoy what she does. Thus, certain types of people will generally be satisfied and motivated regardless of the type of job they hold.

Answer 8

Individual difference

Question 9

An interesting and controversial set of studies suggests that job satisfaction not only may be fairly stable across jobs but also may be _____ determined.

On the basis of their three studies, Arvey and his colleagues found that approximately 30% of job satisfaction appears to be explainable by _____ factors. Such a finding does not of course mean that there is a “job satisfaction _____.” Instead, inherited personality traits such as negative affectivity (the tendency to have negative emotions such as fear, hostility, and anger) are related to our tendency to be satisfied with jobs

Answer 9

genetically

Question 10

Judge, Locke, and Durham have hypothesized that four personality variables are related to people’s _____ to be satisfied with life and with their jobs: emotional stability, self-esteem, self-efficacy (perceived ability to master their environment), and external locus of control (perceived ability to control their environment).

Answer 10

predisposition

Question 11

Social _____ theory, also called social learning theory, postulates that employees observe the levels of motivation and satisfaction of other employees and then model those levels.

Answer 11

information processing

Question 12

_____ theory is based on the premise that our levels of job satisfaction and motivation are related to how fairly we believe we are treated in comparison with others. If we believe we are treated unfairly, we attempt to change our beliefs or behaviors until the situation appears to be fair.

Answer 12

Equity

Question 13

_____ justice is the perceived fairness of the actual decisions made in an organization

Answer 13

Distributive

Question 14

_____ justice is the perceived fairness of the methods used to arrive at the decision

Answer 14

procedural

Question 15

_____ justice is the perceived fairness of the interpersonal treatment employees receive

Answer 15

interactional

Question 16

With _____, an employee is given more tasks to do at one time.

A job can be enlarged in two ways: knowledge used and tasks performed.

1. With knowledge enlargement, employees are allowed to make more complex decisions.
2. With task enlargement, they are given more tasks of the same difficulty level to perform.

Answer 16

job enlargement

Question 17

Perhaps an even better way to satisfy self-actualization needs is through _____. The main difference between job rotation and _____ is that with job rotation an employee performs different tasks, and with _____ the employee assumes more responsibility over the tasks.

Answer 17

job enrichment

Question 18

In their _____ that was discussed in Chapter 9, Hackman and Oldham theorized that enriched jobs are the most satisfying. Enriched jobs allow a variety of skills to be used, allow employees to complete an entire task (e.g., process a loan application from start to finish) rather than parts of a task, involve tasks that have meaning or importance, allow employees to make decisions, and provide feedback about performance.

Answer 18

job characteristics model

Question 19

The final method for increasing employees’ self-actualization needs that we will discuss here is the use of self-directed teams or _____. With _____, employees meet as a group to discuss and make recommendations about work issues.

Answer 19

quality circles

Question 20

Generally, _____ is measured in one of two ways: standard _____ inventories or custom designed satisfaction inventories. Commitment is usually measured through standard commitment inventories.

Answer 20

job satisfaction

Question 21

_____ Scale. One of the first methods for measuring job satisfaction was developed by Kunin and is called the _____ Scale. Although the scale is easy to use, it is no longer commonly administered partly because it lacks sufficient detail, lacks construct validity, and because some employees believe it is so simple that it is demeaning.

Answer 21

Faces

Question 22

_____. The most commonly used scale today is the _____. The _____ was developed by Smith, Kendall, and Hulin and consists of a series of job-related adjectives and statements that are rated by employees. The scales yield scores on five dimensions of job satisfaction: supervision, pay, promotional opportunities, coworkers, and the work itself

Answer 22

Job Descriptive Index (JDI)

Question 23

_____. A similar measure of job satisfaction is the _____. which was developed by Weiss, Dawis, England, and Lofquist. The _____ contains 100 items that yield scores on 20 scales.

Answer 23

Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ)

Question 24

_____ Scale. Because both the JDI and the MSQ measure specific aspects of job satisfaction, Ironson, Smith, Brannick, Gibson, and Paul developed the _____ Scale. The JIG is useful when an organization wants to measure the overall level of job satisfaction rather than specific aspects

Answer 24

Job in General (JIG)

Question 25

_____ Scale. Sally is a real social climber and thinks that salary is a measure of one’s status in life. Temea, however, has inherited plenty of money and works because she enjoys keeping busy. Although both Sally and Temea think their pay is low, _____ argues that only Sally would actually be dissatisfied. To understand these differences, _____ created the _____ Job Satisfaction Scale, which includes two questions per facet: one asking how important the facet is to the employee and the other asking how satisfied the employee is with the facet.

Answer 25

Nagy Job Satisfaction

Question 26

_____ Survey. Perhaps the most commonly used measure of organizational commitment is that developed by _____. The _____ survey has 24 items, eight each for the three factors of affective, continuance, and normative commitment

Answer 26

Allen and Meyer

Question 27

_____: A 15-item questionnaire developed by Mowday, Steers, and Porter to measure three commitment factors: acceptance of the organization’s values and goals, willingness to work to help the organization, and a desire to remain with the organization. Although the questions tap three factors, most people using the scale combine the factors to yield one overall commitment score.

Answer 27

Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ)

Question 28

_____: A nine-item survey developed by Balfour and Wechsler that measures three aspects of commitment: identification, exchange, and affiliation. Sample questions include, “I felt like a part of the family at this organization” and “What this organization stands for is important to me.”

Answer 28

Organizational Commitment Scale (OCS)

Question 29

The advantage to _____ inventories is that an organization can ask employees questions specific to their organization

Answer 29

custom-designed