BMGT 464 - Skills Assessment/Job Position
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OrganizationalBehavior-Chapter4.pdf
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Chapter 4 Individual Attitudes and Behaviors
L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S
After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following:
1. Identify the major work attitudes that affect work behaviors.
2. List the key set of behaviors that matter for organizational performance.
3. Understand the link between work attitudes and ethics.
4. Understand cross-cultural differences in job attitudes and behaviors at work.
People Come First at SAS Institute Who are your best customers? Which customers are bringing you the most
profits and which are the least profitable? Companies are increasingly relying
on complicated data mining software to answer these and other questions.
More than 90% of the top 100 companies on the Fortune Global 500 list are
using software developed by SAS Institute Inc. for their business intelligence
and analytics needs. The Cary, North Carolina, company is doing extremely
well by any measure. They are the biggest privately owned software company
in the world. They have over 10,000 employees worldwide, operate in over
100 countries, and reported $2.15 billion in revenue in 2007 (their 31st
consecutive year of growth and profitability). The company is quick to
attribute their success to the performance and loyalty of its workforce. This is
directly correlated with how they treat their employees.
SAS has perfected the art of employee management. It has been ranked
on Fortune Magazine’s best places to work list every year since the list was first
published. Employees seem to genuinely enjoy working at SAS and are
unusually attached to the company, resulting in a turnover rate that is less
than 5% in an industry where 20% is the norm. In fact, when Google designed
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its own legendary campus in California, they visited the SAS campus to get
ideas.
One thing SAS does well is giving its employees opportunities to work on
interesting and challenging projects. The software developers have the
opportunity to create cutting-edge software to be used around the world. The
company makes an effort to concentrate its business in the areas of analytics,
which add the most value and help organizations best analyze disparate data
for decision making, creating opportunities for SAS workers to be challenged.
Plus, the company removes obstacles for employees. Equipment, policies,
rules, and meetings that could impede productivity are eliminated.
The company has a reputation as a pioneer when it comes to the perks it offers
employees, but these perks are not given with a mentality of “offer everything
but the kitchen sink.” There is careful thinking and planning behind the choice
of perks the company offers. SAS conducts regular employee satisfaction
surveys, and any future benefits and perks offered are planned in response to
the results. The company wants to eliminate stressors and dissatisfiers from
people’s lives. To keep employees healthy and fit, there are athletic fields, a
full gym and swimming pool, and tennis, basketball, and racquetball courts on
campus. Plus, the company offers free onsite health care for employees and
covered dependents at their fully staffed primary medical care center, and
unlimited sick leave. The company understands that employees have a life and
encourages employees to work reasonable hours and then go home to their
families. In fact, a famous motto in the company is, “If you are working for
more than 8 hours, you are just adding bugs.” SAS is truly one of the industry
leaders in leveraging its treatment of people for continued business success.
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Sources: Based on information from Anonymous. (2007, December 1). Doing
well by being rather nice. Economist, 385(8557), 84; Cakebread, C. (2005,
July). SAS…not SOS. Benefits Canada, 29(7), 18; Florida, R., & Goodnight, J.
(2005, July–August). Managing for creativity. Harvard Business
Review, 83(7/8), 124–131; Karlgaard, R. (2006, October 16). Who wants to be
public? Forbes Asia, 2(17), 22.
4.1 Work Attitudes
L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S
1. Define “work attitudes”.
2. Describe the relationship between attitudes and behaviors.
3. Define and differentiate between job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
4. List the factors related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
5. Describe the consequences of job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
6. Identify the ways in which companies can track work attitudes in the workplace.
Our behavior at work often depends on how we feel about being there.
Therefore, making sense of how people behave depends on understanding
their work attitudes. An attitude refers to our opinions, beliefs, and feelings
about aspects of our environment. We have attitudes toward the food we eat,
people we interact with, courses we take, and various other things. At work,
two particular job attitudes have the greatest potential to influence how we
behave. These are job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
Job satisfaction refers to the feelings people have toward their job. If the
number of studies conducted on job satisfaction is an indicator, job
satisfaction is probably the most important job attitude. Institutions such as
Gallup Inc. or the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM)
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periodically conduct studies of job satisfaction to track how satisfied
employees are at work. According to a recent Gallup survey, 90% of the
employees surveyed said that they were at least somewhat satisfied with their
jobs. The recent SHRM study revealed 40% who were very satisfied. [1]
Organizational commitment is the emotional attachment people have toward
the company they work for. There is a high degree of overlap between job
satisfaction and organizational commitment, because things that make us
happy with our job often make us more committed to the company as well.
Companies believe that these attitudes are worth tracking because they are
often associated with important outcomes such as performance, helping
others, absenteeism, and turnover.
How strong is the attitude-behavior link? First of all, it depends on the
attitude in question. Your attitudes toward your colleagues may influence
whether you actually help them on a project, but they may not be a good
predictor of whether you will quit your job. Second, it is worth noting that
attitudes are more strongly related to intentions to behave in a certain way,
rather than actual behaviors. When you are dissatisfied with your job, you may
have the intention to leave. Whether you will actually leave is a different story!
Your leaving will depend on many factors, such as availability of alternative
jobs in the market, your employability in a different company, and sacrifices
you have to make while changing jobs. In other words, while attitudes give us
hints about how a person might behave, it is important to remember that
behavior is also strongly influenced by situational constraints.
OB Toolbox: How Can You Be Happier at Work? Have a positive attitude about it. Your personality is a big part of your
happiness. If you are always looking for the negative side of everything, you
will find it.
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A good fit with the job and company is important to your happiness. This
starts with knowing yourself: What do you want from the job? What do you
enjoy doing? Be honest with yourself and do a self-assessment.
Get accurate information about the job and the company. Ask detailed
questions about what life is like in this company. Do your research: Read
about the company, and use your social network to understand the company’s
culture.
Develop good relationships at work. Make friends. Try to get a mentor.
Approach a person you admire and attempt to build a relationship with this
person. An experienced mentor can be a great help in navigating life at a
company. Your social network can help you weather the bad days and provide
you emotional and instrumental support during your time at the company as
well as afterward.
Pay is important, but job characteristics matter more to your job
satisfaction. Don’t sacrifice the job itself for a little bit more money. When
choosing a job, look at the level of challenge, and the potential of the job to
make you engaged.
Be proactive in managing organizational life. If the job is stressful, cope with
it by effective time management and having a good social network, as well as
being proactive in getting to the source of stress. If you don’t have enough
direction, ask for it!
Know when to leave. If the job makes you unhappy over an extended period of
time and there is little hope of solving the problems, it may be time to look
elsewhere.
What Causes Positive Work Attitudes?
What makes you satisfied with your job and develop commitment to your
company? Research shows that people pay attention to several aspects of their
work environment, including how they are treated, the relationships they form
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with colleagues and managers, and the actual work they perform. We will now
summarize the factors that show consistent relations with job satisfaction and
organizational commitment.
Figure 4.2 Factors Contributing to Job Satisfaction and Organizational
Commitment
Personality
Can assessing the work environment fully explain how satisfied we are on the
job? Interestingly, some experts have shown that job satisfaction is not purely
environmental and is partially due to our personality. Some people have a
disposition to be happy in life and at work regardless of environmental factors.
It seems that people who have a positive affective disposition (those who have
a tendency to experience positive moods more often than negative moods)
tend to be more satisfied with their jobs and more committed to their
companies, while those who have a negative disposition tend to be less
satisfied and less committed. [2]
This is not surprising, as people who are
determined to see the glass as half full will notice the good things in their work
environment, while those with the opposite character will find more things to
complain about. In addition to our affective disposition, people who have a
neurotic personality (those who are moody, temperamental, critical of
themselves and others) are less satisfied with their job, while those who are
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emotionally more stable tend to be more satisfied. Other traits such as
conscientiousness, self-esteem, locus of control, and extraversion are also
related to positive work attitudes. [3]
Either these people are more successful in
finding jobs and companies that will make them happy and build better
relationships at work, which would increase their satisfaction and
commitment, or they simply see their environment as more positive—
whichever the case, it seems that personality is related to work attitudes.
Person–Environment Fit
The fit between what we bring to our work environment and the
environmental demands influences our work attitudes. Therefore, person–job
fit and person–organization fit are positively related to job satisfaction and
commitment. When our abilities match job demands and our values match
company values, we tend to be more satisfied with our job and more
committed to the company we work for. [4]
Job Characteristics
The presence of certain characteristics on the job seems to make employees
more satisfied and more committed. Using a variety of skills, having autonomy
at work, receiving feedback on the job, and performing a significant task are
some job characteristics that are related to satisfaction and commitment.
However, the presence of these factors is not important for everyone. Some
people have a high growth need. They expect their jobs to help them build new
skills and improve as an employee. These people tend to be more satisfied
when their jobs have these characteristics. [5]
Psychological Contract
After accepting a job, people come to work with a set of expectations. They
have an understanding of their responsibilities and rights. In other words,
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they have a psychological contract with the company. A psychological contract
is an unwritten understanding about what the employee will bring to the work
environment and what the company will provide in exchange. When people do
not get what they expect, they experience a psychological contract breach,
which leads to low job satisfaction and commitment. Imagine that you were
told before being hired that the company was family friendly and collegial.
However, after a while, you realize that they expect employees to work 70
hours a week, and employees are aggressive toward each other. You are likely
to experience a breach in your psychological contract and be dissatisfied. One
way of preventing such problems is for companies to provide realistic job
previews to their employees. [6]
Organizational Justice
A strong influence over our satisfaction level is how fairly we are treated.
People pay attention to the fairness of company policies and procedures,
treatment from supervisors, and pay and other rewards they receive from the
company. [7]
Relationships at Work
Two strong predictors of our happiness at work and commitment to the
company are our relationships with coworkers and managers. The people we
interact with, their degree of compassion, our level of social acceptance in our
work group, and whether we are treated with respect are all important factors
surrounding our happiness at work. Research also shows that our relationship
with our manager, how considerate the manager is, and whether we build a
trust-based relationship with our manager are critically important to our job
satisfaction and organizational commitment. [8]
When our manager and upper
management listen to us, care about us, and value our opinions, we tend to
feel good at work. Even small actions may show employees that the
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management cares about them. For example, Hotel Carlton in San Francisco
was recently taken over by a new management group. One of the small things
the new management did created dramatic results. In response to an employee
attitude survey, they replaced the old vacuum cleaners housekeepers were
using and established a policy of replacing them every year. This simple act of
listening to employee problems and taking action went a long way to making
employees feel that the management cares about them. [9]
Stress
Not surprisingly, the amount of stress present in our job is related to our
satisfaction and commitment. For example, experiencing role ambiguity
(vagueness in relation to what our responsibilities are), role conflict (facing
contradictory demands at work), and organizational politics, and worrying
about the security of our job are all stressors that make people dissatisfied. On
the other hand, not all stress is bad. Some stressors actually make us happier!
For example, working under time pressure and having a high degree of
responsibility are stressful, but they can also be perceived as challenges and
tend to be related to high levels of satisfaction. [10]
Work–Life Balance
In the 1950s, people’s work was all-consuming. Employees went to work,
worked long hours, and the rest of the family accepted that work came first. As
society changed, the concept of always putting work first became outdated. In
modern times, more employees expect to lead balanced lives, pursue hobbies,
and spend more time with their children while at the same time continuing to
succeed at work. The notion of work–family conflict is one cause of job
dissatisfaction. This conflict can be particularly strong for women because of
the time necessary for pregnancy and giving birth, but men struggle with it as
well. When work life interferes with family life, we are more stressed and
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unhappy with our jobs. Research shows that policies that help employees
achieve a balance between their work and personal lives, such as allowing
telecommuting, are related to higher job satisfaction. For example, the
medical resources group of the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca
International does not have fixed working hours, and employees can work any
hours they choose. Motorola’s technological acceleration group also has
flexible hours and can work from anywhere (home, office, or a coffee shop) at
anytime. [11]
Consequences of Positive Work Attitudes
Why do we care about the job satisfaction and organizational commitment of
employees? What behaviors would you expect to see from someone who has
more positive work attitudes?
If you say “higher performance,” you have stumbled upon one of the most
controversial subjects in organizational behavior. Many studies have been
devoted to understanding whether happy employees are more productive.
Some studies show weak correlations between satisfaction and performance
while others show higher correlations (what researchers would call “medium-
sized” correlations of 0.30). [12]
The correlation between commitment and
performance tends to be even weaker. [13]
Even with a correlation of 0.30
though, the relationship may be lower than you may have expected. Why is
this so?
It seems that happy workers have an inclination to be more engaged at work.
They may want to perform better. They may be more motivated. But there are
also exceptions. Think about this: Just because you want to perform, will you
actually be a higher performer? Chances are that your skill level in performing
the job will matter. There are also some jobs where performance depends on
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factors beyond an employee’s control, such as the pace of the machine they are
working on. Because of this reason, in professional jobs such as engineering
and research, we see a higher link between work attitudes and performance, as
opposed to manual jobs such as assembly line work. [14]
Also, think about the
alternative possibility: If you don’t like your job, does this mean that you will
reduce your performance? Maybe up to a certain point, but there will be
factors that prevent you from reducing your performance: the fear of getting
fired, the desire to get a promotion so that you can get out of the job that you
dislike so much, or your professional work ethic. As a result, we should not
expect a one-to-one relationship between satisfaction and performance. Still,
the observed correlation between work attitudes and performance is
important and has practical value.
Work attitudes are even more strongly related to organizational citizenship
behaviors (behaviors that are not part of our job but are valuable to the
organization, such as helping new employees or working voluntary overtime).
Satisfied and committed people are absent less frequently and for shorter
duration, are likely to stay with a company longer, and demonstrate less
aggression at work. Just as important, people who are happy at work are
happier with their lives overall. Given that we spend so much of our waking
hours at work, it is no surprise that our satisfaction with our job is a big part of
how satisfied we feel about life in general. [15]
Finally, a satisfied workforce
seems to be related to positive firm-level outcomes, such as customer
satisfaction and loyalty, profitability, and safety in the workplace. [16]
Assessing Work Attitudes in the Workplace
Given that work attitudes may give us clues as to who will leave or stay, who
will perform better, and who will be more engaged, tracking satisfaction and
commitment levels is a helpful step for companies. If there are companywide
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issues that make employees unhappy and disengaged, then these issues need
to be resolved. There are at least two systematic ways in which companies can
track work attitudes: through attitude surveys and exit interviews. Companies
such as KFC Corporation and Long John Silver’s Inc. restaurants, the SAS
Institute, Google, and others give periodic surveys to employees to track their
work attitudes. Companies can get more out of these surveys if responses are
held confidential. If employees become concerned that their individual
responses will be shared with their immediate manager, they are less likely to
respond honestly. Moreover, the success of these surveys depends on the
credibility of management in the eyes of employees. If management
periodically collects these surveys but no action comes out of them, employees
may adopt a more cynical attitude and start ignoring these surveys, hampering
the success of future efforts.
An exit interview involves a meeting with the departing employee. This
meeting is often conducted by a member of the human resource management
department. The departing employee’s manager is the worst person to conduct
the interview, because managers are often one of the primary reasons an
employee is leaving in the first place. If conducted well, this meeting may
reveal what makes employees dissatisfied at work and give management clues
about areas for improvement.
K E Y T A K E A W A Y
Work attitudes are the feelings we have toward different aspects of the work
environment. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment are two key attitudes
that are the most relevant to important outcomes. Attitudes create an intention to
behave in a certain way and may predict actual behavior under certain conditions.
People develop positive work attitudes as a result of their personality, fit with their
environment, stress levels they experience, relationships they develop, perceived
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fairness of their pay, company policies, interpersonal treatment, whether their
psychological contract is violated, and the presence of policies addressing work–life
conflict. When people have more positive work attitudes, they may have the
inclination to perform better, display citizenship behaviors, and be absent less often
and for shorter periods of time, and they are less likely to quit their jobs within a
short period of time. When workplace attitudes are more positive, companies
benefit in the form of higher safety and better customer service, as well as higher
company performance.
E X E R C I S E S
1. What is the difference between job satisfaction and organizational commitment?
Which do you think would be more strongly related to performance? Which would
be more strongly related to turnover?
2. Do you think making employees happier at work is a good way of motivating people?
When would high satisfaction not be related to high performance?
3. In your opinion, what are the three most important factors that make people
dissatisfied with their job? What are the three most important factors relating to
organizational commitment?
4. How important is pay in making people attached to a company and making
employees satisfied?
5. Do you think younger and older people are similar in what makes them happier at
work and committed to their companies? Do you think there are male–female
differences? Explain your answers.
4.2 Work Behaviors
L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S
1. Define job performance, organizational citizenship, absenteeism, and turnover.
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2. Explain factors associated with each type of work behavior.
One of the important objectives of the field of organizational behavior is to
understand why people behave the way they do. Which behaviors are we
referring to here? We will focus on four key work behaviors: job performance,
organizational citizenship behaviors, absenteeism, and turnover. These are not
the only behaviors OB is concerned about, but understanding what is meant
by these terms and understanding the major influences over each type of
behavior will give you more clarity about analyzing the behaviors of others in
the workplace. We summarize the major research findings about the causes of
each type of behavior in the following figure.
Figure 4.4
Summary of Factors That Have the Strongest Influence Over Work Behaviors. Note:
Negative relationships are indicated with (–).
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Job Performance
Job performance, or in-role performance, refers to the performance level on
factors included in the job description. For each job, the content of job
performance may differ. Measures of job performance include the quality and
quantity of work performed by the employee, the accuracy and speed with
which the job is performed, and the overall effectiveness of the person
performing the job. In many companies, job performance determines whether
a person is promoted, rewarded with pay raises, given additional
responsibilities, or fired from the job. Therefore, job performance is tracked
and observed in many organizations and is one of the main outcomes studied
in the field of organizational behavior.
What Are the Major Predictors of Job Performance?
Under which conditions do people perform well, and what are the
characteristics of high performers? These questions received a lot of research
attention. It seems that the most powerful influence over our job performance
is our general mental ability, or cognitive abilities. Our reasoning abilities,
verbal and numerical skills, analytical skills, and overall intelligence level
seems to be important across most situations. It seems that general mental
ability starts influencing us early in life; it is strongly correlated with measures
of academic success. [1]
As we grow and mature, cognitive ability is also
correlated with different measures of job performance. [2]
General mental
ability is important for job performance across different settings, but there is
also variation. In jobs with high complexity, it is much more critical to have
high general mental abilities. In jobs such as working in sales, management,
engineering, or other professional areas, this ability is much more important,
whereas for jobs involving manual labor or clerical work, the importance of
high mental abilities for high performance is weaker (yet still important). How
we are treated within an organization is another factor determining our
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performance level. When we feel that we are being treated fairly by a company,
have a good relationship with our manager, have a manager who is supportive
and rewards high performance, and we trust the people we work with, we tend
to perform better. Why? It seems that when we are treated well, we want to
reciprocate. Therefore, when we are treated well, we treat the company well by
performing our job more effectively. [3]
Following the quality of treatment, the stress we experience determines our
performance level. When we experience high levels of stress, our mental
energies are drained. Instead of focusing on the task at hand, we start
concentrating on the stressor and become distracted trying to cope with it.
Because our attention and energies are diverted to deal with stress, our
performance suffers. Having role ambiguity and experiencing conflicting role
demands are related to lower performance. [4]
Stress that prevents us from
doing our jobs does not have to be related to our experiences at work. For
example, according to a survey conducted by Workplace Options, 45% of the
respondents said that financial stress affects work performance. When people
are in debt, are constantly worrying about mortgage or tuition payments, or
are having trouble paying for essentials such as gas and food, their
performance will suffer. [5]
Our work attitudes, specifically job satisfaction, are moderate correlates of job
performance. When we are satisfied with the job, we may perform better. This
relationship seems to exist in jobs with greater levels of complexity and
weakens in simpler and less complicated jobs. It is possible that in less
complex jobs, our performance depends more on the machinery we work with
or organizational rules and regulations. In other words, people may have less
leeway to reduce performance in these jobs. Also, in some jobs people do not
reduce their performance even when dissatisfied. For example, among nurses
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there seems to be a weak correlation between satisfaction and performance.
Even when they are unhappy, nurses put substantial effort into their work,
likely because they feel a moral obligation to help their patients. [6]
Finally, job performance has a modest relationship with personality,
particularly conscientiousness. People who are organized, reliable,
dependable, and achievement-oriented seem to outperform others in various
contexts. [7]
Organizational Citizenship Behaviors
While job performance refers to the performance of duties listed in one’s job
description, organizational citizenship behaviors involve performing behaviors
that are more discretionary. Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) are
voluntary behaviors employees perform to help others and benefit the
organization. Helping a new coworker understand how things work in your
company, volunteering to organize the company picnic, and providing
suggestions to management about how to improve business processes are
some examples of citizenship behaviors. These behaviors contribute to the
smooth operation of business.
What are the major predictors of citizenship behaviors? Unlike performance,
citizenship behaviors do not depend so much on one’s abilities. Job
performance, to a large extent, depends on our general mental abilities. When
you add the education, skills, knowledge, and abilities that are needed to
perform well, the role of motivation in performance becomes more limited. As
a result, someone being motivated will not necessarily translate into a person
performing well. For citizenship behaviors, the motivation-behavior link is
clearer. We help others around us if we feel motivated to do so.
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Perhaps the most important factor explaining our citizenship behaviors is how
we are treated by the people around us. When we have a good relationship
with our manager and we are supported by management staff, when we are
treated fairly, when we are attached to our peers, and when we trust the
people around us, we are more likely to engage in citizenship behaviors. A
high-quality relationship with people we work with will mean that simply
doing our job will not be enough to maintain the relationship. In a high-
quality relationship, we feel the obligation to reciprocate and do extra things
to help those around us. [8]
Our personality is yet another explanation for why we perform citizenship
behaviors. Personality is a modest predictor of actual job performance but a
much better predictor of citizenship. People who are conscientious, agreeable,
and have positive affectivity tend to perform citizenship behaviors more often
than others. [9]
Job attitudes are also moderately related to citizenship behaviors. People who
are happier at work, those who are more committed to their companies, and
those who have overall positive attitudes toward their work situation tend to
perform citizenship behaviors more often than others. When people are
unhappy, they tend to be disengaged from their jobs and rarely go beyond the
minimum that is expected of them. [10]
Interestingly, age seems to be related to the frequency with which we
demonstrate citizenship behaviors. People who are older are better citizens. It
is possible that with age, we gain more experiences to share. It becomes easier
to help others because we have more accumulated company and life
experiences to draw from. [11]
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Absenteeism
Absenteeism refers to unscheduled absences from work. Absenteeism is costly
to companies because of its unpredictable nature. When an employee has an
unscheduled absence from work, companies struggle to find replacement
workers at the last minute. This may involve hiring contingent workers, having
other employees work overtime, or scrambling to cover for an absent
coworker. The cost of absenteeism to organizations is estimated at $74 billion.
According to a Mercer LLC human resource consulting study, 15% of the
money spent on payroll is related to absenteeism. [12]
What causes absenteeism? First we need to look at the type of absenteeism.
Some absenteeism is unavoidable and is related to health reasons. For
example, reasons such as lower back pain, migraines, accidents on or off the
job, or acute stress are important reasons for absenteeism. [13]
Health-related
absenteeism is costly, but dealing with such absenteeism by using
organizational policies penalizing absenteeism is both unreasonable and
unfair. A sick employee who shows up at work will infect coworkers and will
not be productive. Instead, companies are finding that programs aimed at
keeping workers healthy are effective in dealing with this type of absenteeism.
Companies using wellness programs that educate employees about proper
nutrition, help them exercise, and reward them for healthy habits are related
to reduced absenteeism. [14]
Work–life balance is another common reason for absences. Staying home to
care for a sick child or relative, attending the wedding of a friend or relative, or
skipping work to study for an exam are all common reasons for unscheduled
absences. Companies may deal with these by giving employees more flexibility
in work hours. If employees can manage their own time, they are less likely to
be absent. Organizations such as Lahey Clinic Foundation Inc. at Burlington,
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Massachusetts, find that instead of separating sick leave and paid time off,
merging them is effective in dealing with unscheduled absences. When a
company has “sick leave” but no other leave for social and family obligations,
employees may fake being sick and use their “sick leave.” Instead, having a
single paid time off policy would allow workers to balance work and life, and
allow companies to avoid unscheduled absences. Some companies such as
IBM Corporation got rid of sick leave altogether and instead allow employees
to take as much time as they need, as long as their work gets done. [15]
Sometimes, absenteeism is a form of work withdrawal and can lead to
resignation from the job. In other words, poor work attitudes lead to
absenteeism. When employees are dissatisfied with their work or have low
organizational commitment, they are likely to be absent more often. In other
words, absenteeism is caused by the desire to avoid an unpleasant work
environment in addition to related factors such as problems in job design, lack
of organizational justice, extreme levels of stress, and ineffective relations with
coworkers and supervisors. In this case, management may deal with
absenteeism by investigating the causes of dissatisfaction and dealing with
them. [16]
Are there personal factors contributing to absenteeism? Research does not
reveal a consistent link between personality and absenteeism. One
demographic criterion that predicts absenteeism is age. Interestingly, and
counter to the stereotype that increased age would bring more health
problems, research shows that age is negatively related to both frequency and
duration of absenteeism. Because of reasons including higher loyalty to their
company and a stronger work ethic, older employees are less likely be absent
from work. [17]
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OB Toolbox: Dealing with Late Coworkers Do you have team members that are chronically late to group meetings? Are
your coworkers driving you crazy because they are perpetually late? Here are
some suggestions that may help.
Try to get to the root cause and find out what is making your coworker
unhappy. Often, lateness is an extension of dissatisfaction one feels toward
the job or tasks at hand. If there are ways in which you can solve these issues,
such as by giving the person more responsibility or listening to the opinions of
the person and showing more respect, you can minimize lateness.
Make sure that lateness does not go without any negative consequences. Do
not ignore it, and do not remain silent. Mention carefully and constructively
that one person’s lateness slows down everyone.
Make an effort to schedule meetings around everyone’s schedules. When
scheduling, emphasize the importance of everyone’s being there on time and
pick a time when everyone can comfortably attend.
When people are late, be sure to ask them to compensate, such as by doing
extra work. Negative consequences tend to discourage future lateness.
Shortly before the meeting starts, send everyone a reminder. Yes, you are
dealing with adults and they should keep their own schedules, but some
people’s schedules may be busier than others, and some are better at keeping
track of their time. Reminders may ensure that they arrive on time.
Reward timeliness. When everyone shows up on time, verbally recognize the
effort everyone made to be there on time.
Be on time yourself! Creating a culture of timeliness within your group
requires everyone’s effort, including yours.
Sources: Adapted from information in DeLonzor, D. (2005, November).
Running late. HR Magazine, 50(11), 109–112; Grainge, Z. (2006, November
21). Spotlight on…lateness. Personnel Today, p. 33.
23
Turnover
Turnover refers to an employee leaving an organization. Employee turnover
has potentially harmful consequences, such as poor customer service and poor
companywide performance. When employees leave, their jobs still need to be
performed by someone, so companies spend time recruiting, hiring, and
training new employees, all the while suffering from lower productivity. Yet,
not all turnover is bad. Turnover is particularly a problem when high-
performing employees leave, while a poor performer’s turnover may actually
give the company a chance to improve productivity and morale.
Why do employees leave? An employee’s performance level is an important
reason. People who perform poorly are actually more likely to leave. These
people may be fired or be encouraged to quit, or they may quit because of their
fear of being fired. If a company has pay-for-performance systems, poor
performers will find that they are not earning much, owing to their
substandard performance. This pay discrepancy gives poor performers an
extra incentive to leave. On the other hand, instituting a pay-for-performance
system does not mean that high performers will always stay with a company.
Note that high performers may find it easier to find alternative jobs, so when
they are unhappy, they can afford to quit their jobs voluntarily. [18]
Work attitudes are often the primary culprit in why people leave. When
workers are unhappy at work, and when they are not attached to their
companies, they are more likely to leave. Loving the things they do, being
happy with the opportunities for advancement within the company, and being
happy about pay are all aspects of work attitudes relating to turnover. Of
course, the link between work attitudes and turnover is not direct. When
employees are unhappy, they might have the intention to leave and may start
24
looking for a job, but their ability to actually leave will depend on many factors
such as their employability and the condition of the job market. For this
reason, when national and regional unemployment is high, many people who
are unhappy will still continue to work for their current company. When the
economy is doing well, people will start moving to other companies in
response to being unhappy. Many companies make an effort to keep
employees happy because of an understanding of the connection between
employee happiness and turnover. As illustrated in the opening case, at the
SAS Institute, employees enjoy amenities such as a swimming pool, child care
at work, and a 35-hour workweek. The company’s turnover is around 4%–5%.
This percentage is a stark contrast to the industry average, which is in the
range of 12%–20%. [19]
People are more likely to quit their jobs if they experience stress at work as
well. Stressors such as role conflict and role ambiguity drain energy and
motivate people to seek alternatives. For example, call-center employees
experience a great deal of stress in the form of poor treatment from customers,
long work hours, and constant monitoring of their every action. Companies
such as EchoStar Corporation realize that one method for effectively retaining
their best employees is to give employees opportunities to move to higher
responsibility jobs elsewhere in the company. When a stressful job is a step
toward a more desirable job, employees seem to stick around longer. [20]
There are also individual differences in whether people leave or stay. For
example, personality is a factor in the decision to quit one’s job. People who
are conscientious, agreeable, and emotionally stable are less likely to quit their
jobs. Many explanations are possible. People with these personality traits may
perform better at work, which leads to lower quit rates. Additionally, they may
have better relations with coworkers and managers, which is a factor in their
25
retention. Whatever the reason, it seems that some people are likely to stay
longer at any given job regardless of the circumstances. [21]
Whether we leave a job or stay also depends on our age and how long we have
been there. It seems that younger employees are more likely to leave. This is
not surprising, because people who are younger will have fewer
responsibilities such as supporting a household or dependents. As a result,
they can quit a job they don’t like much more easily. Similarly, people who
have been with a company for a short period of time may quit more easily.
New employees experience a lot of stress at work, and there is usually not
much keeping them in the company, such as established bonds to a manager
or colleagues. New employees may even have ongoing job interviews with
other companies when they start working; therefore, they may leave more
easily. For example, Sprint Nextel Corporation found that many of their new
hires were quitting within 45 days of their hiring dates. When they
investigated, they found that newly hired employees were experiencing a lot of
stress from avoidable problems such as unclear job descriptions or problems
hooking up their computers. Sprint was able to solve the turnover problem by
paying special attention to orienting new hires. [22]
OB Toolbox: Tips for Leaving Your Job Gracefully Few people work in one company forever, and someday you may decide that
your current job is no longer right for you. Here are tips on how to leave
without burning any bridges.
Don’t quit on an impulse. We all have bad days and feel the temptation to
walk away from the job right away. Yet, this is unproductive for your own
career. Plan your exit in advance, look for a better job over an extended period
of time, and leave when the moment is right.
26
Don’t quit too often. While trading jobs in an upward fashion is good, leaving
one place and getting another job that is just like the previous one in pay,
responsibilities, and position does not help you move forward in your career,
and makes you look like a quitter. Companies are often wary of hiring job
hoppers.
When you decide to leave, tell your boss first, and be nice. Don’t discuss all
the things your manager may have done wrong. Explain your reasons without
blaming anyone and frame it as an issue of poor job fit.
Do not badmouth your employer. It is best not to bash the organization you
are leaving in front of coworkers. Do not tell them how happy you are to be
quitting or how much better your new job looks. There is really no point in
making any remaining employees feel bad.
Guard your professional reputation. You must realize that the world is a
small place. People know others and tales of unprofessional behavior travel
quickly to unlikely places.
Finish your ongoing work and don’t leave your team in a bad spot. Right
before a major deadline is probably a bad time to quit. Offer to stay at least
two weeks to finish your work, and to help hire and train your replacement.
Don’t steal from the company! Give back all office supplies, keys, ID cards,
and other materials. Don’t give them any reason to blemish their memory of
you. Who knows…you may even want to come back one day.
Sources: Adapted from information in Challenger, J. E. (1992, November–
December), How to leave your job without burning bridges. Women in
Business, 44(6), 29; Daniels, C., & Vinzant, C. (2000, February 7). The joy of
quitting, Fortune, 141(3), 199–202; Schroeder, J. (2005, November). Leaving
your job without burning bridges.Public Relations Tactics, 12(11), 4;
Woolnough, R. (2003, May 27). The right and wrong ways to leave your
job. Computer Weekly, 55.
27
K E Y T A K E A W A Y
Employees demonstrate a wide variety of positive and negative behaviors at work.
Among these behaviors, four are critically important and have been extensively
studied in the OB literature. Job performance is a person’s accomplishments of tasks
listed in one’s job description. A person’s abilities, particularly mental abilities, are
the main predictor of job performance in many occupations. How we are treated at
work, the level of stress experienced at work, work attitudes, and, to a lesser extent,
our personality are also factors relating to one’s job performance. Citizenship
behaviors are tasks helpful to the organization but are not in one’s job description.
Performance of citizenship behaviors is less a function of our abilities and more of
motivation. How we are treated at work, personality, work attitudes, and our age are
the main predictors of citizenship. Among negative behaviors, absenteeism and
turnover are critically important. Health problems and work–life balance issues
contribute to more absenteeism. Poor work attitudes are also related to
absenteeism, and younger employees are more likely to be absent from work.
Turnover is higher among low performers, people who have negative work attitudes,
and those who experience a great deal of stress. Personality and youth are personal
predictors of turnover.
E X E R C I S E S
1. What is the difference between performance and organizational citizenship
behaviors? How would you increase someone’s performance? How would you
increase citizenship behaviors?
2. Are citizenship behaviors always beneficial to the company? If not, why not? Can you
think of any citizenship behaviors that employees may perform with the intention of
helping a company but that may have negative consequences overall?
3. Given the factors correlated with job performance, how would you identify future
high performers?
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4. What are the major causes of absenteeism at work? How can companies minimize
the level of absenteeism that takes place?
5. In some companies, managers are rewarded for minimizing the turnover within their
department or branch. A part of their bonus is tied directly to keeping the level of
turnover below a minimum. What do you think about the potential effectiveness of
these programs? Do you see any downsides to such programs?
4.3 The Role of Ethics and National Culture
L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S
1. Consider the role of job attitudes on ethical behavior.
2. Consider the role of national culture on job attitudes and behaviors.
Job Attitudes, Behaviors, and Ethics
People prefer to work in companies that have an ethical environment. Studies
show that when an organization has a moral climate that values doing the
right thing, people tend to be happier at work, more committed to their
companies, and less likely to want to leave. In other words, in addition to
increasing the frequency of ethical behaviors, the presence of an ethical
climate will attach people to a company. An ethical climate is related to
performing citizenship behaviors in which employees help each other and
their supervisors, and perform many behaviors that are not part of their job
descriptions. [1]
If people are happy at work and committed to the company, do they behave
more ethically? This connection is not as clear. In fact, loving your job and
being committed to the company may prevent you from realizing that the
company is doing anything wrong. One study showed that, when people were
29
highly committed to their company, they were less likely to recognize
organizational wrongdoing and less likely to report the problem to people
within the organization. Whistleblowers, or people who reported wrongdoing,
were more likely to have moderate levels of commitment to the company. It is
possible that those people who identify with a company are blind to its
faults. [2]
Companies trying to prevent employees from behaving unethically face a
dilemma. One way of reducing unethical behaviors is to monitor employees
closely. However, when people are closely monitored through video cameras,
when their e-mails are routinely read, and when their online activities are
closely monitored, employees are more likely to feel that they are being treated
unfairly and with little respect. Therefore, high levels of employee monitoring,
while reducing the frequency of unethical behaviors, may reduce job
satisfaction and commitment, as well as work performance and citizenship
behaviors. Instead of monitoring and punishing employees, organizations can
reduce unethical behavior by creating an ethical climate and making ethics a
shared value. [3]
Job Attitudes Around the Globe
Do the same things satisfy people around the globe? Even though many of the
findings regarding satisfaction are generalizable to different cultures, some
research reveals that differences may also exist. In one study comparing job
satisfaction in 20 countries, work–family conflict was found to lower job
satisfaction only in individualistic cultures. It is possible that in collectivistic
cultures, when people have to make sacrifices for work, they may compensate
by forming better relations with coworkers, which prevents employees from
being dissatisfied. There is also evidence that while autonomy and
empowerment are valued in the United States, Mexico, and Poland, high levels
30
of empowerment were related to lower job satisfaction in India. [4]
Despite
some variation, major factors that make people happy, such as being treated
well and having good relations with others, are likely to generalize across
cultures.
Culture also influences work behaviors. Behaviors regarded as a citizenship
behavior in the United States or other Western cultures, such as helping a new
coworker learn the job, may be viewed as part of a person’s job performance in
other cultures. Research shows that managers in cultures such as Hong Kong
and Japan define job performance more broadly. For example, the willingness
to tolerate less than ideal circumstances within the company without
complaining was viewed as part of someone’s job in Hong Kong, whereas this
was viewed as more discretionary in the United States and Australia. Norms
regarding absenteeism and turnover are also subject to cultural differences.
One study shows that in China, absence from work because of one’s illness,
stress, or depression was relatively unacceptable, while in Canada, these
reasons were viewed as legitimate reasons for being absent. [5]
K E Y T A K E A W A Y
There is a connection between a company’s ethics climate, work attitudes, and
citizenship behaviors demonstrated by employees. A highly committed workforce
may not necessarily demonstrate higher levels of ethics, because highly committed
people may be less likely to notice companywide wrongdoing and, in turn, not report
them. Companies have to strike a balance between reducing unethical behaviors and
maintaining a highly satisfied and committed workforce. Some tactics of reducing
unethical behaviors, such as close monitoring of employees, may erode trust
between management and employees and lead to negative work attitudes. There
are cross-cultural differences in how employee work attitudes are shaped and the
31
work behaviors that are expected from employees. Being aware of these differences
facilitates effective management of a global workforce.
E X E R C I S E S
1. Which factors related to work attitudes in Western cultures should also be related to
work attitudes in other cultures? Are there any that you think would not be
important in a different culture you are familiar with?
2. Do you think people leave their jobs for the same reasons around the world? If not,
explain why you think so.
4.4 Conclusion Work attitudes are our feelings toward our company and job. Job satisfaction
and organizational commitment are related to many outcomes of interest,
such as absenteeism, performance, and turnover. Therefore, companies track
feelings toward work and try to create more positive attitudes. The main
behaviors that contribute to organizational effectiveness are job performance,
citizenship behaviors, absenteeism, and turnover. These behaviors are affected
by a complex blend of personality and situational factors, and factors affecting
these behaviors and work attitudes will be examined in more detail in other
chapters of this book.
4.5 Exercises
E T H I C A L D I L E M M A
You are a department manager in an advertising agency. The employees of the
department have recently completed an attitude survey. Three employees in your
32
department reported that they were harassed by senior people in the department
and they are experiencing a hostile work environment. You do not know who these
people are, but you feel that you need to do something. The surveys were filled out
confidentially, and employees were assured that their identities would not be
revealed to management. You feel that you can identify who they are because the
person in HR who administered the survey is a friend of yours and that person can
tell you the demographics of the employees, which would help you identify them.
1. Should you ask for the identity-revealing information? What are the advantages and
disadvantages of finding out the identity of these people?
2. How would you handle a situation like this now and in the future?
I N D I V I D U A L E X E R C I S E
Reading and Responding to Employee Blogs
You found out that one employee from your company has created a blog about the
company. Other current and ex-employees are also posting on this blog, and the
picture they are painting is less than flattering. They are talking about their gripes,
such as long work hours and below-market pay, and how the company’s products
are not great compared to those of competitors. Worse, they are talking about the
people in the company by name. There are a couple of postings mentioning you by
name and calling you unfair and unreasonable.
1. What action would you take when you learn the presence of this blog? Would you
take action to stop this blogger? How?
2. Would you do anything to learn the identity of the blogger? If you found out, what
action would you take to have the employee disciplined?
3. What would you change within the company to deal with this situation?
4. Would you post on this blog? If so, under what name, and what comments would
you post?
G R O U P E X E R C I S E
Exit Interview Role-Play and Developing an Attitude Survey
33
This role-play will be played by three students. One student will be an employee
from the human resources (HR) department conducting the interview, the second
will be the employee who is leaving, and the third will be an observer. The HR
employee and the departing employee will conduct an exit interview. At the
conclusion of the interview, the observer will provide feedback to the HR employee
regarding how the interview could have been improved and how the employee could
have been more open.
Part 1: Role-Play
Be sure to read only the role sheet assigned to you.
Part 2
In groups of three, review the information gathered from the exit interview. Many of
these problems may be affecting the rest of the employees. Develop an attitude
survey to be distributed to remaining employees of this company. Develop questions
based on what came out of the interview as well as other areas you feel may be
important to know. Discuss how the surveys would be administered and what would
be done to (a) have a high response rate and (b) ensure the accuracy of responses.
