364 Ch.3

Cognitive component of an attitude

"My pay is low" is a cognitive component of an attitude—a description of or belief in the way things are. It sets the stage for the more critical part of an attitude—its affective component

Job satisfaction

A positive feeling about a job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics.

Affective component

Affect is the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude reflected in the statement "I am angry over how little I'm paid." Affect can lead to behavioral outcomes.

Employee engagement

An individual's involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the work he or she does.

Attitudes

Are evaluative statements—either favorable or unfavorable—about objects, people, or events. They reflect how we feel about something. Attitudes are complex. Attitudes have three components: cognition, affect, and behavior.

Regular surveys

Can reduce gaps between what managers think employees feel and what they really feel. A gap in understanding can affect the bottom line in small franchise sites as well as in large companies.

Employees' job embeddedness

Connections to the job and community that result in an increased commitment to the organization

Cases of attitude following behavior illustrate the effects of cognitive dissonance

Contradictions individuals might perceive between their attitudes and their behavior

Behavioral component of an attitude

Describes an intention to behave a certain way toward someone or something—as in, "I'm going to look for another job that pays better."

Pay

Does correlate with job satisfaction and overall happiness for many people, but the effect can be smaller once an individual reaches a standard level of comfortable living. As a corollary, money does motivate people. But what motivates us is not necessarily the same as what makes us happy.

Psychological empowerment

Employees' beliefs regarding the degree to which they influence their work environment, their competencies, the meaningfulness of their job, and their perceived autonomy.

Absenteeism

Generally, when numerous alternative jobs are available, dissatisfied employees have high absence rates, but when there are few alternatives, dissatisfied employees have the same (low) rate of absence as satisfied employees. Organizations that provide liberal sick leave benefits are encouraging all their employees—including those who are highly satisfied—to take days off

Organizational commitment

Identifies with a particular organization and its goals and wishes to remain a member. Emotional attachment to an organization and belief in its values is the "gold standard" for employee commitment. Employees who are committed will be less likely to engage in work withdrawal even if they are dissatisfied because they have a sense of organizational loyalty or attachment

The most powerful moderators of the attitudes relationship are 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.

Important attitudes reflect our fundamental values, self-interest, or identification with individuals or groups we value. These attitudes tend to show a strong relationship to our behavior. However, discrepancies between attitudes and behaviors tend to occur when social pressures to behave in certain ways hold exceptional power, as in most organizations. The attitude-behavior relationship is also likely to be much stronger if an attitude refers to something with which we have direct personal experience.

Furthermore, when employees have high "human capital" (high education, high ability)

Job dissatisfaction is more likely to translate into turnover because they have, or perceive, many available alternatives.

Summary

Managers should be interested in their employees' attitudes because attitudes influence behavior and indicate potential problems. Creating a satisfied workforce is hardly a guarantee of successful organizational performance, but evidence strongly suggests managers' efforts to improve employee attitudes will likely result in positive outcomes, including greater organizational effectiveness, higher customer satisfaction, and increased profits.

Implications for Managers

Of the major job attitudes—job satisfaction, job involvement, organizational commitment, perceived organizational support (POS), and employee engagement—remember that an employee's job satisfaction level is the best single predictor of behavior. Pay attention to your employees' job satisfaction levels as determinants of their performance, turnover, absenteeism, and withdrawal behaviors. Measure employee job attitudes objectively and at regular intervals in order to determine how employees are reacting to their work. To raise employee satisfaction, evaluate the fit between the employee's work interests and the intrinsic parts of the job; then create work that is challenging and interesting to the individual. Consider the fact that high pay alone is unlikely to create a satisfying work environment.

Triple Bottom Line (TBL)

People, planet, and revenue.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Self-regulated actions to benefit society or the environment beyond what is required by law, increasingly affects employee job satisfaction. Organizations practice CSR through environmental sustainability initiatives, nonprofit work, charitable giving, and other globally attuned philanthropy. CSR allows workers to serve a higher purpose or contribute to a mission. CSR is a needed, positive trend of accountability and serving.

Counterproductive work behavior (CWB

Substance abuse, stealing at work, undue socializing, gossiping, absenteeism, and tardiness are examples of behaviors that are destructive to organizations. Deviant behavior in the workplace, or simply withdrawal behavior

Perceived organizational support (POS)

The degree to which employees believe the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being

Job involvement

The degree to which people identify psychologically with their jobs and consider their perceived performance levels important to their self-worth.

Power distance

The degree to which people in a country accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally—is lower. I n low power-distance countries like the United States, people are more likely to view work as an exchange than as a moral obligation, so employees look for reasons to feel supported by their organizations. In high power-distance countries like China, employee POS perceptions are not as deeply based on employer demonstrations of fairness, support, and encouragement. The difference is in the level of expectation by employees.

Exit

The exit response directs behavior toward leaving the organization, including looking for a new position or resigning. To measure the effects of this response to dissatisfaction, researchers study individual terminations and collective turnover—the total loss to the organization of employee knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics

Loyalty

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

The neglect response passively allows conditions to worsen and includes chronic absenteeism or lateness, reduced effort, and an increased error rate.

Turnover

The relationship between job satisfaction and turnover is stronger than between satisfaction and absenteeism.6 Overall, a pattern of lowered job satisfaction is the best predictor of intent to leave

One study by a management consulting firm separated large organizations into those with high morale (more than 70 percent of employees expressed overall job satisfaction) and medium or low morale (fewer than 70 percent).

The stock prices of companies in the high-morale group grew 19.4 percent, compared with 10 percent for the medium- or low-morale group.

Voice

The voice response includes actively and constructively attempting to improve conditions, including suggesting improvements, discussing problems with superiors, and undertaking union activity.

Positive core self-evaluations

Who believe in their inner worth and basic competence—are more satisfied with their jobs than people with negative CSEs.