Chapter 2

Attitudes and Job

Satisfaction

SITI AZURA BINTI ABU HASSAN

COMMERCE DEPARTMENT , POLITEKNIK SULTAN SALAHUDDIN ABDUL AZIZ SHAH

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR sitiazura@psa.edu.my

S T E P H E N P. R O B B I N S
E L E V E N T H E D I T I O N
© 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. WWW.PRENHALL.COM/ROBBINS PowerPoint Presentation
All rights reserved. by Charlie Cook
 LEARNING OUTCOMES
2.1. Determine employee attitudes
2.1.1. Define employee attitude
2.1.2 Recognize the components of attitudes
2.1.3 Describe the relationship between attitudes and behaviour
a. Consistency in attitudes
b. Cognitive dissonance
2.1.4. Identify major job attitudes
a. Job satisfaction
b. Job involvement
c. Organizational commitment
2.2. Discuss the concept of job satisfaction
2.2.1. Define the concept of job satisfaction
2.2.2. Identify causes of job satisfaction
2.2.3. Describe the impact of satisfied and dissatisfied employee at workplace.
 What are attitudes?
• Attitude
– Predisposition to respond in a positive or negative
way to someone or something in one’s
environment.

– For instance, when we say we “like” something or

“dislike” something, we are in effect expressing an
attitude toward the person or object
 Employee attitude
• Attitudes are evaluative statements—either favorable or unfavorable—
about objects, people, or events. They reflect how we feel about
something.

• When I say “I like my job,” : I am expressing my attitude about work.

• Attitudes are complex. If you ask people about their attitude toward
religion, Lady Gaga, or the organization they work for, you may get a
simple response, but the reasons underlying it are probably complicated.
In order to fully understand attitudes, we must consider their fundamental
properties or components.
 Six questions that will help understand
attitude:

What are the main components of attitudes?

How consistent are attitudes?
Does behavior always follow after attitudes?
What are the major job attitudes?
How are employee attitudes measured?
 Components of an Attitude

The emotional or
Affective
feeling segment of
Cognitive an attitude

The opinion or Behavioral

belief segment of
an attitude
An intention to behave in
a certain way toward
someone or something
Attitude
 Components of an Attitude
Cognitive component
– Underlying beliefs, opinions, knowledge, or
information a person possesses.
Affective component
– Specific feeling regarding the personal impact of
the antecedents.
Behavioral component
– Intention to behave in a certain way based on
your specific feelings or attitudes.
the components of attitudes
Cognitive = evaluation
My superior gave a
promotion to a coworker
who deserved it less than
me. My supervisor is
unfair.

Affective = feeling Negative

I dislike my supervisor! attitude
toward
supervisor

Behavioral = action
I’m looking for other work;
I’ve complained about my
supervisor to anyone who
would listen.
The Relationship Between Attitudes And
Behavior

Consistency in attitudes…are they consistent at

all time ?
 The Relationship Between Attitudes And
Behavior
Consistency in attitudes
Does Behavior Always Follow from Attitudes?

• Early research on attitudes assumed they were causally

related to behaviour — that is, the attitudes people hold
determine what they do.
• Common sense, too, suggests a relationship. Isn’t it logical
that people watch television programs they like, or that
employees try to avoid assignments they find distasteful?
The Relationship Between Attitudes And
Behavior
• However, in the late 1960s, a review of the research challenged this assumed effect
of attitudes on behavior.
• One researcher—Leon Festinger—argued that attitudes follow behavior. Did you ever
notice how people change what they say so it doesn’t contradict what they do?
Perhaps a friend of yours has consistently argued that the quality of U.S. cars isn’t up
to that of imports and that he’d never own anything but a Japanese or German car.
But his dad gives him a late-model Ford Mustang, and suddenly he says U.S. cars
aren’t so bad.

Cognitive dissonance
• Festinger proposed that cases of attitude following behavior illustrate the effects of
cognitive dissonance , any incompatibility an individual might perceive between two
or more attitudes or between behavior and attitudes.

• Festinger argued that any form of inconsistency is uncomfortable and that individuals
will therefore attempt to reduce it. They will seek a stable state, which is a minimum
of dissonance.
The Relationship Between Attitudes And
Behavior
• Research has generally concluded that people do seek consistency among their
attitudes and between their attitudes and their behavior. They either alter the attitudes
or the behavior, or they develop a rationalization for the discrepancy.

• Tobacco executives provide an example. How, you might wonder, do these people
cope with the continuing revelations about the health dangers of smoking? They can
deny any clear causation between smoking and cancer. They can brainwash
themselves by continually articulating the benefits of tobacco. They can acknowledge
the negative consequences of smoking but rationalize that people are going to smoke
and that tobacco companies merely promote freedom of choice. They can accept the
evidence and make cigarettes less dangerous or reduce their availability to more
vulnerable groups, such as teenagers. Or they can quit their job because the
dissonance is too great.
The Relationship Between Attitudes And
Behavior

• Finally, the attitude–behavior relationship is likely to be much stronger if

an attitude refers to something with which we have direct personal
experience.

• Asking college students with no significant work experience how they

would respond to working for an authoritarian supervisor is far less likely
to predict actual behavior than asking that same question of employees
who have actually worked for such an individual.
Debate never ends…
Consistency In Attitudes
Summarize the Relationship Between Attitudes and Behavior

• The attitudes people hold determine what they do.

• Festinger proposed that cases of attitude following behavior

illustrate the effects of cognitive dissonance.
– Cognitive Dissonance is incompatibility an individual might
perceive between two or more attitudes or between
behavior and attitudes.

• Research has generally concluded that people seek

consistency among their attitudes and between their
attitudes and their behavior.
3-14
The Major Job Attitudes

a. Job satisfaction
b. Job involvement
c. Organizational commitment
 What are the major Job Attitudes
Job Attitudes

 Humans have thousands of attitudes.

 But, OB focus on a very limited number of work-
related attitudes.
 This includes positive or negative evaluations that
employee hold about aspects of their work
environment
 Types of Attitudes/
Major Job Attitudes
Job Satisfaction
A collection of positive and/or negative feelings that
an individual holds toward his or her job.

Job Involvement
Identifying with the job, actively participating in it,
and considering performance important to self-worth.

Organizational Commitment
Identifying with a particular organization and its
goals, and wishing to maintain membership in the
organization.
 3. Organizational commitment

 Three dimensions:
 Affective commitment – an emotional
attachment to the organization and a
belief in its values.
 Continuance commitment – the
perceived economic value of remaining
with an organization compared to
leaving it.
 Normative commitment – an obligation
to remain with the organization for
moral or ethical reasons.
 Job Satisfaction
2.2. Discuss the concept of job satisfaction
2.2.1. Define the concept of job satisfaction
2.2.2. Identify causes of job satisfaction
2.2.3. Describe the impact of satisfied and dissatisfied employee at workplace

SITI AZURA BINTI ABU HASSAN

COMMERCE DEPARTMENT , POLITEKNIK SULTAN SALAHUDDIN ABDUL AZIZ SHAH
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR sitiazura@psa.edu.my

S T E P H E N P. R O B B I N S
E L E V E N T H E D I T I O N
© 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. WWW.PRENHALL.COM/ROBBINS PowerPoint Presentation
All rights reserved. by Charlie Cook
 Job Satisfaction
 General definition
 A positive feeling about a job resulting from an
evaluation of its characteristics

 Schermerhorn
 The degree to which an individual feels positively
or negatively about his or her job.
 It is the emotional response to one’s task as well as physical
and social conditions of the workplace.
Main causes of job satisfaction

Pay

The work
Personality itself

Causes
Attitudes Growth &
towards upward
work mobility

Coworkers Supervision
 what causes job satisfaction?
the major job satisfaction (facets) :
work itself, pay, advancement opportunities,
supervision & coworkers.

enjoying the work itself is almost always the facet

most strongly correlated with high levels of
overall job satisfaction.
 how about pay?
people who are poor or who live in poor
countries, pay does correlate with job
satisfaction and with overall happiness. But
once an individual reaches a level of
comfortable living, the relationship virtually
disappears.

What motivates us is not necessarily the same as

what makes us happy.
how about personality?
personality plays a role. Research has shown
that people who have a negative personality are
usually less satisfied with their jobs.
 The Impact Of Dissatisfied And Satisfied
Employees On The Workplace
1. Exit.
The exit response directs behavior toward leaving the organization, including looking for
a new position as well as resigning.

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

3. 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.”

4. Neglect.
The neglect response passively allows conditions to worsen and includes chronic
absenteeism or lateness, reduced effort, and increased error rate.
 The Impact Of Dissatisfied And Satisfied
Employees On The Workplace
Exit and neglect behaviors encompass our
performance variables (productivity,
absenteeism, and turnover).

Voice and loyalty are constructive behaviors

that allow individuals to tolerate unpleasant
situations or to revive satisfactory working
conditions.
 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
S T E P H E N P. R O B B I N S
E L E V E N T H E D I T I O N
© 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. WWW.PRENHALL.COM/ROBBINS PowerPoint Presentation
All rights reserved. by Charlie Cook
 The Effect of Job Satisfaction on
Employee Performance
 Satisfaction and Productivity
◦ Satisfied workers are more productive AND more
productive workers are more satisfied!
◦ Worker productivity is higher in organizations with more
satisfied workers.
 Satisfaction and Absenteeism
◦ Satisfied employees have fewer avoidable absences.
 Satisfaction and Turnover
◦ Satisfied employees are less likely to quit.
◦ Organizations take actions to retain high performers and
to weed out lower performers.
 job satisfaction & job performance
When satisfaction and productivity data are gathered for
the organization as a whole, we find that organizations
with more satisfied employees tend to be more effective
than organizations with fewer satisfied employees.

job satisfaction & organizational citizenship

behavior (OCB)

Satisfied employees would seem more likely

to talk positively about the organization,
help others, and go beyond the normal
expectations in their job. More recent
evidence however, suggests that
satisfaction influences OCB, but through
perceptions of fairness.
 Job Satisfaction and Customer
Satisfaction
 Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction
◦ Satisfied workers provide better customer service
 Satisfied employees increase customer
satisfaction because:
◦ They are more friendly, upbeat, and responsive.
◦ They are less likely to turnover, which helps build long-
term customer relationships.
◦ They are experienced.
 Dissatisfied customers increase employee job
dissatisfaction.