Job Attitudes

• Attitudes


  Predisposed feelings that inform our opinions about objects, people, and events
• Attitudes


  Evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people or events
• Attitudes represent our feelings or opinions about people, places, and objects and range from positive to negative
• Attitudes represent our consistent beliefs and feelings about specific things
• Attitudes are important because they influence our behavior
• Behavior


  An action in response to a stimulus, including observable actions, unobservable mental processes, and non-conscious processes
• Three components of attitudes

  Affective, Cognitive, and Behavioral
• Cognitive dissonance


  The psychological discomfort a person experiences when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting cognitions (ideas, beliefs, values, or emotions)
• People tend to seek consistency in their attitudes and perceptions, so this conflict causes unpleasant feelings of unease or discomfort
• Festinger was fascinated by the way people are motivated to maintain consistency (and avoid dissonance) among their attitudes and beliefs, and the way they resolve inconsistencies that drive cognitive dissonance
• Signs of cognitive dissonance

  • Feeling uncomfortable before doing something or making a decision
  • Trying to justify or rationalize a decision you've made or action you have taken
  • Feeling embarrassed or ashamed about something you've done and trying to hide your actions from other people
  • Experiencing guilt or regret about something you've done in the past
  • Doing things because of social pressure or a fear of missing, even if it wasn't something you wanted to do
• Cognitive dissonance


  Conflict between perceptions that causes unpleasant feelings of unease or discomfort
• Cognitive dissonance


  • Motivated to maintain consistency (and avoid dissonance) among attitudes and beliefs
  • Resolves inconsistencies that drive cognitive dissonance
• Signs of cognitive dissonance

  • Feeling uncomfortable before doing something or making a decision
  • Trying to justify or rationalize a decision you've made or action you have taken
  • Feeling embarrassed or ashamed about something you've done and trying to hide your actions from other people
  • Experiencing guilt or regret about something you've done in the past
  • Doing things because of social pressure or a fear of missing, even if it wasn't something you wanted to do
• Ways to reduce cognitive dissonance

  • Change your attitude or behavior or both
  • Reduce the importance of the inconsistent behavior
  • Find consonant elements that outweigh dissonant ones
• Functions of attitudes


  • Gaining knowledge
  • Maintaining self-esteem
  • Improving social interactions
  • Expressing core values
• Gaining knowledge


  • Positive attitude towards a public figure leads to interpreting negative news about them as caused by situational factors
• Maintaining self-esteem


  • Maintaining a high regard for one's own social circles because they reflect back onto oneself
• Improving social interactions


  • Holding positive or negative attitudes toward the style of a certain social group or club
• Expressing core values


  • Wearing religious symbols or politically affiliated clothing to express positive attitude towards those values or beliefs
• Intentions as the key link between attitudes and planned behavior

  • Attitude toward the behavior
  • Subjective norm
  • Perceived behavioral control
• Four key workplace attitudes

  • Organizational commitment
  • Employee engagement
  • Perceived organizational support
  • Job satisfaction
• Attitudinal measures serve as important outcomes for managers to enhance and link to other significant outcomes
• Organizational commitment


  Reflects the extent to which an individual identifies with an organization and commits to its goals
• What drives organizational commitment


  • Person-culture fit
  • Personality
  • Meaningfulness of work
  • Organizational climate
  • Leader behavior
  • Organizational culture
• Psychological contracts


  Represent an individual's perception about the reciprocal exchange between themselves and the organization
• Employee engagement


  The harnessing of organization members' selves to their work roles; people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performance
• What contributes to employee engagement


  • Person factors: Personality, positive psychological capital, human and social capital
  • Situation factors: Job characteristics, leadership, organizational climate, stressors
• Consulting firms have data supporting the practical value of employee engagement
• Human and social capital


  The knowledge, skills, and health that people invest in and accumulate throughout their lives, enabling them to realize their potential as productive members of society
• What Contributes to Employee Engagement?


  • Job characteristics
  • Leadership
  • Organizational climate
  • Stressors
• Job characteristics


  • People are engaged when their work contains variety and when they receive timely feedback about performance
• Leadership


  • People are more engaged when their manager is supportive and maintains a positive, trusting relationship with them
• Organizational climate


  • Can range from positive and inspiring to negative and depleting. Positive climates obviously foster engagement
• Stressors


  • Environmental characteristics that cause stress. Engagement is higher when employees are not confronted with a lot of stressors
• Gallup estimates that an organization whose employees are highly engaged can achieve 10 percent higher customer loyalty/engagement, 20 percent more productivity, and 21 percent greater profitability
• Other recent academic studies similarly showed a positive relationship between employee engagement, performance, and physical and psychological well-being and corporate-level financial performance and customer satisfaction
• Perceived Organizational Support (POS)


  Reflects the extent to which employees believe their organization values their contributions and genuinely cares about their well-being
• Your POS would be negative if you worked for a bad boss or a company that did not provide good health benefits or career opportunities
• How Does POS Affect Employees?


  • People are willing to work hard and commit to their organizations when they believe the company truly cares about their best interests
  • We are motivated by the norm of reciprocity to return the favor when someone treats us well
  • Favorable treatment must be voluntary, not imposed by external constraints such as government or union rules
  • Voluntary actions demonstrate that the giver genuinely values and respects us