MGMT-464: Chapter 2 - Values and Attitudes

Cognitive component

Of an attitude reflects our beliefs or ideas about an object or situation - "I believe."

Cognitive dissonance

Represents the psychological discomfort a person experiences when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting cognitions (ideas, beliefs, values, or emotions).

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)

"Individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization."

Onboarding programs

Help employees to integrate, assimilate, and transition to new jobs by making them familiar with corporate policies, procedures, culture, and politics and clarifying work-role expectations and responsibilities.

Job Satisfaction & Job Performance

Research tells us that job satisfaction and performance Are moderately related Indirectly influence each other Better to consider the relationship at the business unit level versus at the individual level

Telecommuting

Allows employees to do all or some of their work from home, using advanced telecommunications technology and Internet tools to send work electronically from home to the office, and vice versa.

Job Satisfaction Is...

An affective or emotional response toward various facets of one's job In other words, it is the extent to which an individual likes his or her job

Job satisfaction

An affective or emotional response toward various facets of your job.

Stressors

Environmental characteristics that cause stress.

OCB's are linked to many benefits

For the Individual: Improved job satisfaction Improved performance ratings Reduced intention to quit Lower absenteeism Lower turnover For the Organization: Higher productivity/efficiency Lower costs Improved customer satisfaction Higher unit-level satisfaction Lower turnover

Counterproductive work behavior (CWB)

Harms other employees, the organization as a whole, and/or organizational stakeholders such as customers and shareholders.

Employee Engagement

Increases in Employee Engagement has been linked to • Increased Customer Loyalty and Satisfaction • Increased Employee Performance • Increased Employee Well-being • Greater Financial Performance

Bullying

Occurs when an individual experiences a number of negative behaviors repeatedly over a period of time.

Affective component

Of an attitude contains our feelings or emotions about a given object or situation - "I feel."

Psychological contracts

Represent an individual's perception about the reciprocal exchange between him- or herself and another party.

Attitudes

Represent our feelings or opinions about people, places, and objects and range from positive to negative.

Met expectations

Represent the difference between what an individual expects to receive from a job, such as good pay and promotional opportunities, and what she or he actually receives.

Organizational Commitment (1 of 2)

The extent to which an employee identifies with an organization and is committed to its goals. And it leads to • Greater employee retention • Greater motivation in pursuit of organizational goals

What Is Employee Engagement?

The extent to which employees give it their all to their work roles. And includes the feeling of Urgency Being Focused Intensity Enthusiasm

Job Satisfaction & Turnover

Turnover is harmful when high-performing employees voluntarily leave the organization. To reduce voluntary turnover • Hire people who "fit" with the organization's culture. • Spend time fostering employee engagement. • Provide effective onboarding. • Recognize and reward high-performing employees.

Schwartz's Value Theory

Values are motivational & Represent broad goals over time Bipolar values are incongruent while adjacent values are complementary

Notes from Slide 27

Values are relatively stable across time and situations. Positive employee attitudes and motivation are greatest when the work environment is consistent with employee values. Values tend to vary across generations because they are influenced by events occurring during childhood (e.g., Vietnam War versus September 11).

What Contributes to Employee Engagement?

A mix of Organizational Level Factors, Person Factors, and Environmental Characteristics

Personal Values Are...

Abstract ideals that guide one's thinking and behavior across all situations

Employee engagement

As "the harnessing of organization members' selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performance."

Perceived Organizational Support

Associated with Increased organizational commitment Job satisfaction Organizational citizenship behavior Task performance Lower turnover

Notes from Slide 34

Committed individuals tend to display two outcomes: • Likely continuation of their employment with the organization. • Greater motivation toward pursuing organizational goals and decisions.

Perceived Organizational Support

It is the extent to which employees believe that the organization • Values their contributions • Genuinely cares about their well-being

Needs

Physiological or psychological deficiencies that arouse behavior.

Behavioral component

Refers to the way we intend or expect to act toward someone or something - "I intend."

Organizational commitment

Reflects the extent to which an individual identifies with an organization and commits to its goals.

Perceived Organizational Support (POS)

Reflects the extent to which employees believe their organization values their contributions and genuinely cares about their well-being.

Job involvement

Represents the extent to which an individual is personally engaged in his or her work role.

E

The organizing framework for understanding and applying OB is based upon • a systems approach. • using person and environmental factors as inputs. • processes including individual level, group/team level, and organizational level. • outcomes organized into individual level, group/team level, and organizational level. • The framework is based on all of these.

Values

Abstract ideals that guide our thinking and behavior across all situations.

Withdrawal cognitions

Capture this though process by representing an individual's overall thoughts and feelings about quitting.

B - Equity

David, an accountant with Brighter Future Corporation, is experiencing job dissatisfaction due to comparing how hard he works and how much he gets paid versus his perception of a coworker's effort and reward. David's dissatisfaction can be explained by ______ model. • disposition/genetic components • equity • need fulfillment • value attainment • met expectations

Organizational Commitment (2 of 2)

Increasing Employee Commitment • Hire those whose personal values most align with those of the organization. • Guard against managerial breaches of psychological contracts. • Build the level of trust.

Notes from Slide 48

OCBs have a moderately positive correlation with job satisfaction. OCBs are significantly related to both individual-level consequences and organizational-level outcomes. This is important for two reasons. • Exhibiting OCBs is likely to create positive impressions about you among your colleagues and manager. In turn, these impressions affect your ability to work with others, your manager's evaluation of your performance, and ultimately your promotability. • The aggregate amount of employees' OCBs affects important organizational outcomes. It therefore is important for managers to foster an environment that promotes OCBs.

Value attainment

Satisfaction results from the perception that a job allows for fulfillment of an individual's important values.

What Do We Know About Values?

A person's values are stable over time but personal values vary across generations and cultures. Attracting employees whose personal values align with those of the organization yields many benefits. • Lower employee turnover • Higher employee retention • Higher employee engagement • Increased customer satisfaction

Workplace attitudes

An outcome of various OB-related processes, including leadership.

Outcomes Linked with Job Satisfaction

Attitudes: Motivation Job Involvement Withdrawal Cognitions Perceived Stress Behaviors: Job Performance Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) Counterproductive Work Behavior (CWB) Turnover

Notes from Slide 36

Employee engagement is defined as "the harnessing of organization members' selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performance." The essence of this definition is the idea that engaged employees "give it their all" at work. Further study identified its components as four feelings: • Urgency • Being focused • Intensity • Enthusiasm

Personal Attitudes

Encompass our feelings or opinions about people, places, and objects Comprised of theses three components: • Affective — Feelings • Cognitive — Beliefs • Behavioral — Intentions

Notes from Slide 38

One way to increase employee engagement is to make sure that the inputs in the Organizing Framework are positively oriented. Organizations do this by measuring, tracking, and responding to surveys of employee engagement. Other ideas include the creation of career and developmental opportunities for employees, recognizing people for good work, effectively communicating and listening, effective use of performance management practices allowing people to exercise during the work day, creating a physically attractive and stimulating work environment, and giving people meaningful work to do.

Notes from Slide 37

Person Factors: Positive or optimistic personalities Proactive personality Conscientiousness Environmental Characteristics Job characteristics. These represent the motivating potential of the tasks we complete at work. For example, people are engaged when their work contains variety and when they receive timely feedback. Leadership. People are more engaged when their manager is charismatic and when a positive, trusting relationship exists between managers and employees. Stressors. Stressors are environmental characteristics that cause stress. Finally, engagement is higher when employees are not confronted with a lot of stressors. Organizational Level Factors Career opportunities Managing performance Organization reputation Communication Recognition

Notes from Slide 29

Personal values represent global beliefs that influence behavior across all situations, while personal attitudes relate only to behavior directed toward specific objects, persons, or situations. Personal attitudes affect behavior via intentions. Attitudes: our feelings or opinions about people, places, and objects, and range from positive to negative. Workplace attitudes: an outcome of various OB-related processes, such as leadership. Managers conduct attitude surveys to monitor workplace attitudes like job satisfaction and employee engagement, and to determine the causes of employee turnover.

D - As staff leave, ...

Sandra manages the marketing department for the Greener Grass Corporation. In an effort to increase employee engagement, Sandra could try all the following EXCEPT • Redesign jobs so that workers have variety and feedback. • Take a class to learn how to be a charismatic leader. • Try to limit the stressors in the workplace. • As staff leave, replace them with new hires who score high in pessimism on a personality test. • Provide recognition to employees who perform well.

Notes from Slide 40

We are more likely to reciprocate with hard work and dedication when our employer treats us favorably. The outcomes associated with POS include increased organizational commitment, job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior, and task performance. POS also is related to lower turnover. POS can be increased by treating employees fairly, by avoiding political behavior, by providing job security, by giving people more autonomy, by reducing stressors in the work environment, and by eliminating abusive supervision.

D - Values are not motivational in nature

Which of the following statements is NOT true about personal values? • In general, values are relatively stable across time and situations. • Values tend to vary across generations. • Schwartz's value theory can be generalized across cultures. • Values are not motivational in nature. • Not all values are compatible.

Implications of Schwartz's Value Theory

Workplace Application • Managers can better manage their employees when they understand an employees' values and motivation • Pursuit of incongruent goals may lead to conflicting employee actions and behaviors Personal Application • Employees will derive more meaning from work by pursuing goals that are consistent with their values

Flextime

A policy of giving employees flexible work hours so they can come and go at different times, as long as they work a set number of hours.

Notes from Slide 49

CWBs represent a particularly negative work-related outcome. In contrast to the helping nature of OCBs, counterproductive work behavior (CWB) represents behavior that harms other employees, the organization as a whole, or organizational stakeholders such as customers and shareholders. Examples of CWBs include bullying, theft, gossiping, backstabbing, drug and alcohol abuse, destroying organizational property, violence, purposely doing bad or incorrect work, surfing the Internet for personal use, excessive socializing, tardiness, sabotage, and sexual harassment.

E - OCB

Catherine is walking through the employee parking lot on her way to her office. She notices someone left an empty fast-food bag in the parking lot. Catherine goes out of her way to pick it up and dispose of it. What behavior is Catherine exhibiting? • psychological contract • green behavior • withdrawal cognitions • CWB • OCB

Notes from Slide 30

Cognitive dissonance represents the psychological discomfort a person experiences when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting cognitions (ideas, beliefs, values, or emotions). People are motivated to maintain consistency (and avoid dissonance) among their attitudes and beliefs, and how they resolve inconsistencies that drive cognitive dissonance. From observation, Festinger theorized that if you are experiencing cognitive dissonance, or psychological tension, you can reduce it in one of three ways: • Change your attitude or behavior or both. • Belittle the importance of the inconsistent behavior. • Find consonant elements that outweigh dissonant ones.

Job Satisfaction & Counterproductive Behavior

Counterproductive work behavior (CWB) are behaviors that harm other employees, the organization as a whole, or organizational stakeholders such as customers and shareholders.

Notes from Slide 42

Job satisfaction essentially reflects the extent to which an individual likes his or her job. Formally defined, job satisfaction is an affective or emotional response toward various facets of one's job. This definition implies job satisfaction is not a unitary concept. Rather, a person can be relatively satisfied with one aspect of her or his job and dissatisfied with one or more other aspects.

Job Satisfaction & Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) Represents discretionary individual behaviors that are: Typically not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system And can, in the aggregate, promote effective functioning of the organization

Notes from Slide 33

Savvy managers will track four key workplace attitudes: 1. Organizational commitment 2. Employee engagement 3. Perceived organizational support 4. Job satisfaction These attitudinal measures serve a dual purpose: First, they represent important outcomes that managers may be working to enhance directly. They link to other significant outcomes that managers will want to improve where possible. Organizational commitment reflects the extent to which an individual identifies with an organization and commits to its goals.

Key Workplace Attitudes

Some workplace attitudes are more potent than others. The following four are especially powerful: Organizational Commitment Employee Engagement Perceived Organizational Support Job Satisfaction

Notes from Slide 24

Values: abstract ideals that guide one's thinking and behavior across all situations. Values stem from our parents' values, our experiences in childhood and throughout life, and our religious or spiritual beliefs. Values are relatively stable and can influence behavior outside our awareness. Understanding values can help you to self-manage and help you be more effective at influencing others' attitudes and behaviors.

When Attitudes and Reality Collide

We experience Cognitive Dissonance We can reduce it by Changing an attitude or behavior or both Belittling the importance of the inconsistent behavior Finding consonant elements that outweigh dissonant ones

B - Jose is already volunteering at the animal shelter.

José is considering volunteering to help his company with its annual food drive. Which of the following is NOT an indicator of whether he will do so? • José thinks the food bank is a great way to help his community. • José is already volunteering at the animal shelter. • José's boss expects him to volunteer. • José's company gives employees a day off to volunteer. • The food bank is located close to José's home.

Notes from Slide 26

Managers can better supervise workers by using Schwartz's model to understand their values and motivation. For example, if a manager knows that an employee values universalism and benevolence, then it would be wise to assign this employee to projects or tasks that have social value. This model can help you determine if your values are consistent with your goals and whether you are spending your time in a meaningful way. In general, values are relatively stable across time and situations. This means that positive employee attitudes and motivation are greatest when the work environment is consistent with employee values. Values tend to vary across generations because they are influenced by events occurring during childhood.

Notes from Slide 39

Perceived organizational support (POS): the extent to which employees believe their organization values their contributions and genuinely cares about their well-being. Perceptions of support can either be positive or negative. People are willing to work hard and commit to their organizations when they believe that the company truly cares about their best interests. We are motivated by the norm of reciprocity, which obliges us to return the favorable treatment when someone treats us well. The outcomes associated with POS include employee engagement, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior, greater trust, innovation, and lower tendency to quit. Managers can foster POS by treating employees fairly, avoiding political behavior, providing job security, empowering employees, reducing stressors in the work environment, eliminating abusive supervision, and fulfilling the psychological contract.

Notes from Slide 45

People bring their abilities, goals, and experiences to each and every situation, which often changes the situation. Conversely, because situations have unique characteristics, such as opportunities and rewards, they change people. It also is true that the current job market and employer expectations differ from those at the height of the technology bubble in the late 1990s or at the depths of the Great Recession in 2007-2009. In the first scenario, you changed, and in the second the environment changed. Finally, your manager—an environmental characteristic—can change what you do, how you do it, and your effectiveness. You in turn can impact these same characteristics in your manager.

Models Job Satisfaction

• Need fulfillment: Understand and meet employees' needs • Met expectations: Meet expectations of employees about what they will receive from job • Value attainment: Structure the job and its rewards to match employee values • Equity: Monitor employee' perceptions of fairness and interact with them so they feel fairly treated • Disposition/genetic components: Hire employees with an appropriate disposition

Notes from Slide 47

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is defined as "individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization." This definition highlights two key points: OCBs are voluntary. OCBs help work groups and the organization to effectively achieve goals.

Notes from Slide 35

Organizational commitment exists to the degree that your personal values generally match the values that undergird a company's organizational culture. For example, if you value achievement and your employer rewards people for accomplishing goals, you are more likely to be committed to the company. Commitment depends on the quality of an employee's psychological contracts. Psychological contracts represent an individual's perception about the terms and conditions of a reciprocal exchange between him- or herself and another party. In a work environment, the psychological contract represents an employee's beliefs about what he or she is entitled to receive in return for what he or she provides to the organization. Research shows that an employer breach of the psychological contract is associated with lower organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and performance, and greater intentions to quit.

Notes from Slide 25

Shalom Schwartz categorized values into two opposing or bipolar dimensions. The first dimension ranges from concern for the welfare of others (i.e., self-transcendence) to pursuit of one's own interests (i.e., self-enhancement). The second dimension ranges from self-directed independence (i.e., openness to change) to conformity (i.e., conservation). Schwartz stressed that it is the relative importance we give to these two dimensions of opposing values that drives our behavior. As indicated in Figure 2.2, Schwartz proposed that 10 broad values guide behavior including: • Power: social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources. • Achievement: personal success through demonstrating competence according to social standards. • Hedonism: pleasure and sensuous gratification for oneself. • Stimulation: excitement, novelty, and challenge in life. • Self-direction: independent thought and action choosing, creating, exploring. • Universalism: understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and protection of the welfare of all people and of nature. • Benevolence: preservation and enhancement of the welfare of people with whom one is in frequent personal contact. • Tradition: respect, commitment, and acceptance of the customs and ideas that traditional culture or religion provides the self. • Conformity: restraint of actions, inclinations, and impulses likely to upset or harm others and violate social expectations or norms. • Security: safety, harmony, and stability of society, of relationships, and of self.

Notes from Slide 43

Need Fulfillment: proposes that satisfaction is determined by the extent to which the characteristics of a job allow an individual to fulfill her or his needs. Met expectations: the difference between what an individual expects to receive from a job, such as good pay and promotional opportunities, and what she or he actually receives. When expectations are greater than what is received, a person will be dissatisfied, while an individual will be satisfied when he or she attains outcomes above and beyond expectations. Research supports the conclusion that met expectations are significantly related to job satisfaction. Value Attainment: value attainment model proposes that job satisfaction is fostered when jobs and rewards are structured to match employee values. Equity: proposes that job satisfaction is a function of how "fairly" an individual is treated at work. Dispositional/Genetic Components: based on the belief that job satisfaction is partly a function of both personal traits and genetic factors.

Our Personal Attitudes Affect Behavior via Our Intentions

Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior Three key general motives predict or at least influence intention and behavior. 1. Attitude toward the behavior. The degree to which a person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation or appraisal of the behavior in question. 2. Subjective norm. A social factor representing the perceived social pressure for or against the behavior. 3. Perceived behavioral control. The perceived ease or difficulty of performing the behavior, assumed to reflect past experience and anticipated obstacles. According to the Ajzen model, someone's intention to engage in a given behavior is a strong predictor of that behavior. So if we want to change behavior we should look at intentions and how we might modify them by working on the three general motives shown in Figure 2.2. Managers may be able to influence behavioral change by doing or saying things that affect the three determinants of employees' intentions to exhibit a specific behavior: attitude toward the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. In the workplace, one of the simplest levers managers can use to change behavior is information. Management provides information to employees daily. Standard organizational information that can affect motivation includes: • Reports on the organization's culture • Announcements of new training programs • News on key managers • Updates to human resource programs and policies • Announcements of new rewards of working for the company All such messages reinforce certain beliefs, and managers may consciously use them to influence behavior.

Notes from Slide 50

Job satisfaction has a moderately strong, negative relationship with turnover. This finding suggests that managers are well served to reduce turnover by trying to enhance employees' job satisfaction. This recommendation is even more important for high performers. Practical steps employers can take to tackle a turnover problem. Managers can reduce voluntary turnover if they • Hire people who "fit" within the organization's culture. • Spend time fostering employee engagement. Engaged employees are less likely to quit. • Provide effective onboarding. Onboarding programs help employees to integrate, assimilate, and transition to new jobs by making them familiar with corporate policies, procedures, culture, and politics by clarifying work-role expectations and responsibilities. • Recognize and reward high performers because they are more likely to quit than average performers.

Notes from Slide 46

One of the biggest controversies within OB research centers on the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. This is more complicated than it might first appear, and OB experts have identified at least eight different ways in which these variables are related. The dominant theories are either that satisfaction causes performance or performance causes satisfaction. Two key research findings: • Job satisfaction and performance were moderately related, supporting the belief that employee job satisfaction is a key workplace attitude that managers should consider when attempting to increase employees' job performance. • The relationship is complex. It is not that one directly influences the other or vice versa. Rather, researchers now believe both variables indirectly influence each other through a host of person factors and environmental characteristics. Researchers now believe that incomplete measures of individual-level of performance understate the relationship between satisfaction and performance. To solve this problem, researchers examined the relationship between aggregate measures of job satisfaction and organizational performance. It thus appears managers indirectly or directly can positively affect a variety of important organizational-level outcomes such as job performance and customer satisfaction by increasing employee job satisfaction.