Homework

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Notes for the professor:

Much of the content on these slides are based on Robbins & Judge (2012) (“Essentials of Organizational Behavior” textbook, edition 11, chapter 2: attitudes and job satisfaction)

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Attitudes are evaluative statements and these statements can be favorable or unfavorable. Individuals’ attitudes at work such as their satisfaction with their jobs or their commitment to the organization are important because factors like job satisfaction and organizational commitment can relate to one’s performance at work.

According to the single component definition, attitudes constitute of only “affect” or, in other words, of feelings we have about objects, people, or events. This single component view simplifies things for us as it only refers to “affect” or feelings. We tend to have complex views about the world but at the same time we want to predict behavior. We can predict behavior by looking at one’s attitudes through identifying one’s affect about objects, people, or events.

According to the tri-component view, which represents a more complicated view of attitudes, attitudes consist of affect, behavior, and cognition. These are the ABC’s of attitudes. According to this view or definition, affect includes how you feel, behavior includes how you behave (how you behave is considered as part of your attitude), and cognition includes your thoughts, your rationalizations. According to the tri-component view of attitudes, one’s attitudes include one’s affect, behaviors, and cognitions about objects, people, or events. For example, you may hate your job (negative affect), but you may show up at work (behavior) not to get fired. You

might also have these cognitions that say “I should be happy to get this job…”. As you see in this example, the components (affect, cognition, and behavior) may not be consistent.

An example where the components (affect, cognition, and behavior) are consistent is the following: “I like my job (affect), I show up at work (behavior), and work is good for me because it keeps my mind sharp and allows me to learn new skills, travel, make friends, be a part of a social community, pay for my bills, pay for the things I want to do in my life, and keeps me active and in the work force. Also, I should be very happy and grateful to have this job because so many of my friends have been looking for a great job for a long time now.” In another example, you may like smoking (affect), you may smoke a pack a day (behavior), and you may have a cognition that says “smoking is good for me because I don’t get overweight” or “it increases brain activity” (cognition). In both of these examples, the components (affect, cognition, behavior) are consistent and, therefore, individuals do not experience dissonance. However, to the extent that these components are not consistent, individuals experience dissonance, in others words, an aversive mental state (which will be discussed in later slides).

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But, what happens when affect, behavior, and cognition aspects of attitudes are in conflict? For example, you may believe that going to work is a good thing because it allows you to pay your bills and receive retirement, insurance, and other benefits (positive cognition), and you may also go to work (behavior), but you may not like your job (negative affect). In this example, the cognition is positive, the behavior is there, but the affect is negative. In another example, you may like the idea of recycling paper (positive affect), and also believe that recycling is a good thing as it prevents us from wasting precious resources (positive cognition), but do not actually recycle (absence of behavior). In this case, the affect is positive, the cognition is positive but the behavior does not follow.

When affect, behavior, and cognition aspects of attitudes do not agree, we experience dissonance, which is an aversive mental state experienced when we hold conflicting cognitions. We are aware of the incongruity. What do we do? Going back to the job example above, you may find another job you like more. Or, you may make changes in your current job to fit it into the kind of job you like (you may start new projects at work you’re interested in, make changes as to how you do your job, etc.), and, thus, start experiencing positive affect. In the recycling example above, you may change your behavior on recycling paper and actually start recycling since it is logical for the behavior to follow the consistent affect and cognition.

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When experienced, dissonance is unpleasant and, therefore, we attempt to reduce it. There are a number of ways in which we reduce the dissonance. One way is to change cognitions. Instead of thinking that smoking is good for you, you change your thinking to the belief that smoking is bad for you. Another way is to alter the importance of cognition. For example, you start thinking that smoking is not really a big deal. So what if I am smoking? Yet, another way is to add cognitions. In this case, you may start thinking that smoking is not a bad idea since you should enjoy life as you live it. One final way is to change behavior and that is, to stop smoking.

Taking the different steps above can change the attitude and reduce or eliminate the dissonance that is experienced.

In the example on this slide, I am experiencing positive cognition, the behavior is also there, but I’m experiencing negative affect. Because of the conflict between cognition(&behavior) and affect, I’m experiencing cognitive dissonance. What can I do? How can I resolve this conflict within myself? There are many things I can do. For example, I may look for another job that inspires me more and is more parallel to my true skills and passions. Or, I may enhance my positive cognition and tell myself all the other wonderful other things about my job and my negative affect may shift into a neutral and then a positive state. Or, I may enhance my positive cognition by specifically writing down everything I love about my job and that I am grateful for, and enhance my affect that way.

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What would you do? How would you resolve your cognitive dissonance in this job example? Please write down and explore different ideas that you may have.

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Please read and complete the exercise on the slide above.

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Job satisfaction refers to a positive feeling about a job that comes from evaluating its characteristics. Researchers tend to measure job satisfaction by looking at the overall satisfaction one feels about his/her job at the aggregate level. “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your job?” (from 1, highly satisfied, to 5, highly dissatisfied). Or, researchers measure it in a more sophisticated way by looking at the level of satisfaction that an employee has with different aspects of his or her job (e.g., nature of the work, supervision, pay, promotion opportunities, relationships with coworkers), and sum all of these up (all from Robbins & Judge, 2012, 11th edition, Essentials of organizational behavior).

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Job involvement is the extent to which people identify with their jobs psychologically and consider their perceived level of performance important to self- worth. Individuals that rate highly on job involvement identify strongly with and really care about the kind of work that they do. Research of nursing managers in Singapore showed that good leaders empower their employees by involving them in the decision making process, making the employees feel that their work is important, and giving them discretion to “do their own thing”. High degree of job involvement is positively related to organizational citizenship and job performance as well as reduced absences and resignation rates (all from Robbins & Judge, 2012, 11th edition, Essentials of organizational behavior).

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Affective commitment can be defined as an employee’s emotional attachment to his/her organization and a belief in the values of that organization. For example, a Petco employee may be affectively committed to his/her organization due to its involvement with animals (Robbins & Judge, 2012, 11th edition, Essentials of organizational behavior).

Continuance commitment refers to the perceived economic value of staying with one’s organization. For example, an employee may be committed to its organization because he is paid well and feels that it would not be good for his family if he quit (Robbins & Judge, 2012, 11th edition, Essentials of organizational behavior).

Normative commitment is an obligation to stay with an organization for moral or ethical reasons. For example, you may have taken a new project at work and may not want to leave your organization because you may feel that if you did that, you would leave your employer/organization in a bad place (Robbins & Judge, 2012, 11th edition, Essentials of organizational behavior).

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Research has shown that higher commitment is related to higher job performance more so for new employees (weaker relationship for more experienced employees). Higher commitment is also related to lower absenteeism and lower turnover (all from Robbins & Judge, 2012, 11th edition, Essentials of organizational behavior).

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Perceived organizational support is the extent to which employees believe that the organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being. For example, an employee may believe that if s/he had a child-care issue, the organization would accommodate him/her or that the organization would forgive an honest mistake if s/he makes one. Research shows that employees perceive their organizations as supportive when the rewards are perceived as fair, employees have voice in decisions, and employees see their supervisors as supportive. Research shows that employees with higher levels of perceived organizational support are more likely to have higher levels of organizational citizenship behavior, lower levels of tardiness (lateness, delay), and better customer service (all from Robbins & Judge, 2012, 11th edition, Essentials of organizational behavior).

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Employee engagement is a relatively new concept. Employee engagement refers to an employee’s involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the work that s/he does. We may ask employees about the availability of resources, opportunities to learn new skills, whether employees feel their work is important and meaningful, and whether their interactions with coworkers and supervisors are rewarding. Employees that are highly engaged have a passion for their work and feel deeply connected to their company. On the other hand, employees that are disengaged have basically checked out – putting their time but not their energy and attention to their work. Research has found that companies whose employees had high-average levels of engagement had higher customer satisfaction, were more productive, had higher level of profits, and lower turnover and lower level of accidents than at other companies. Research has also found that employees that are engaged were five times less likely to have safety incidents, and when there was an incident, it was much less serious and less costly for the engaged employee than for a disengaged one (all from Robbins & Judge, 2012, 11th edition, Essentials of organizational behavior).

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Research shows that most people are satisfied with their jobs in the U.S. and most other developed countries. Studies on U.S. workers over the past 30 years generally indicate that more workers are satisfied with their jobs than not. However, caution is in order. Research indicates that job satisfaction varies a lot depending on which aspect of job satisfaction we’re referring to. People, on average, are satisfied with their jobs overall, with the work itself, with their supervisors, and with their co- workers. On the other hand, they tend to be less satisfied with their pay and promotion opportunities/possibilities (all from Robbins & Judge, 2012, 11th edition, Essentials of organizational behavior).

Average job satisfaction levels (in the U.S.) by different aspects of job:

Satisfaction with their jobs overall  close to 80% (individuals being close to 80% satisfied with their jobs)

Satisfaction with work itself  A little over 75%, a little less than satisfaction with their jobs overall

Satisfaction with pay  close to 60%

Satisfaction with promotion opportunities/possibilities  a little over 20%

Satisfaction with supervision  a little over 65%

Satisfaction with coworkers  close to 70% (all from Robbins & Judge, 2012, 11th

edition, Essentials of organizational behavior).

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Why are some people more satisfied with their jobs than others? What do you think causes job satisfaction? Please brainstorm on this question for a few minutes and write down your ideas.

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What causes job satisfaction?

Interesting jobs that provide employees training, variety, independence, and control tend to satisfy most employees. There is also a strong relationship between how much people enjoy the social context of their workplace and how satisfied they are overall with their job . As it turns out, interdependence, feedback, social support, and interaction with coworkers outside work are strongly linked with job satisfaction, even after accounting for the characteristics of the work itself (all from Robbins & Judge, 2012, 11th edition, Essentials of organizational behavior).

For individuals who are poor or who live in poor countries, pay is related to job satisfaction and overall happiness. However, once people reach a level of comfortable living (in U.S., this is at about $40,000 a year, depending on the region and size of family), the link between pay and job satisfaction pretty much disappears. People who earn $85,000 are, on average, not happier with their jobs than those individuals who earn a figure closer to $40,000. Money motivates people, yes, however, what motivates people is not necessarily the same as what makes people happy. People are motivated by the prospects of making money. For example, a study with college freshmen found that college freshmen rated being “well of financially” as one of their first goals out of 19, ahead of goals such as helping others, raising family, etc. Your goal may not be to be happy. But, if your

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goal is to be happy, money is probably not going to do too much for you as long as you make enough money to live at a comfortable level (all from Robbins & Judge, 2012, 11th edition, Essentials of organizational behavior).

How can you create and increase your job satisfaction? For example, how can you increase your satisfaction with the advancement/promotional opportunities in your company? There is a story of a man who starts working at a bank branch as a bank teller. From day number 1, he dresses like a branch manager (as his goal is to be a branch manager himself). Sure enough within a short period of time, he becomes the manager of that branch. So, a creative way in which you can increase your satisfaction with promotional opportunities in your company (even if these opportunities are limited or seem to be non-existent) is by doing things that will get you into those higher level positions you want to be in (assuming, of course, you would like to be promoted within that company or that you really would like to take on that next level of position/responsibility).

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So, overall, what causes job satisfaction? As it turns out, a number of factors (including the ones we mentioned in the earlier slides) may play a role. Please check this PowerPoint slide to go through these different factors.

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So, now that we have gone through different factors that can play an important role in creating and enhancing job satisfaction, think about what would make you feel more satisfied and happier at work? Knowing the research on this topic, knowing yourself, having had your experiences, knowledge, and skills, please write down what would make you more or even more satisfied and happier at work? Is there anything that you can do, anything that you can change (within yourself and/or outside of yourself) that would allow you to be much more happier at work? Please jot down your ideas out of this brainstorming session. And, while you’re in this brainstorming session, try to also think creatively and out of the box. Some of the most brilliant, useful, inspiring, successful, effective ideas seemed odd, different, and bizarre at first, but they turned out to be some of the greatest ideas/ways of living/ways of embracing life. Like Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” 

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Please think about the best job you’ve ever had in your life. Why was is the best job for you? The chances are that you liked what you did and the people you worked with. Interesting jobs that provide employees training, variety, independence, and control tend to satisfy most employees. Also, there’s a strong relationship between how well people enjoy the social context of their work-place and how satisfied they are with their jobs overall. Even after accounting for the characteristics of the work itself, interdependence, feedback, social support, and interaction with co-workers outside the workplace are strongly linked to job satisfaction (all from Robbins & Judge, 2012, 11th edition, Essentials of organizational behavior).

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Next time you’re looking for a job, what are the things that you’d like to look for? What are your preferences? What are the things that are the most important to you? For you, what does this job have to have so that you feel so very satisfied and happy in it? Please write down your ideas.

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As it turns out, job satisfaction has lots of benefits! Research shows that higher levels of job satisfaction is related to higher job performance, higher organizational performance, better organizational citizenship behaviors (Professor’s definition of OCB  going above and beyond your job description; having a positive contribution to your company, co-workers, etc. that is above and beyond what’s expected of you  isn’t it a lovely construct? ), higher level of customer satisfaction, lower absenteeism, lower turnover, less workplace deviance (less likely to steal the stapler! or do other counteractive work behavior!) (Robbins & Judge, 2012, 11th edition, Essentials of organizational behavior)

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