Chapter 9
Employee Attitudes and Their Effects
1. The organizational costs associated with poor employee attitudes may severely reduce an
organization’s competitiveness.
2. Job satisfaction is an affective attitude—a feeling of relative like or dislike toward something.
3. Group morale is of least significance when describing overall group satisfaction.
4. The nature of a worker’s environment off the job does not influence his or her feelings on the
job.
5. As workers grow older, they set their job expectations higher.
6. People with higher-level occupations tend to be less satisfied with their jobs than those with
lower-level occupations.
7. Analysis of group relationships allows managers to predict which groups are more likely to
exhibit the problem behaviors associated with dissatisfaction.
8. Affective commitment is a negative emotional state in which employees fail to exert effort
and choose to leave the organization.
9. Once established, an employee’s feelings about the job are static; they seldom change.
10. High satisfaction always leads to high employee performance.
11. Extended breaks are an example of psychological withdrawal.
12. The level of satisfaction leads to either greater or lesser commitment, which then affects
effort and eventually affects performance.
13. Higher job satisfaction is associated with higher employee turnover.
14. Dissatisfied employees do not necessarily plan to be absent, but they seem to find it easier to
respond to the opportunities to do so on a spontaneous basis.
15. A pattern of frequent tardiness is often a symptom of negative attitudes requiring managerial
attention.
16. Employee records provide quantifiable data and are a good measure of trends over time.
17. A valid instrument will produce consistent results, regardless of who administers it.
18. A manager should be sure that any instrument used to measure job satisfaction is either valid
or reliable.
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Feedback: A manager should be sure that any instrument used to measure job satisfaction is both
valid and reliable.
Page: 248
Difficulty: Medium
19. Showing appreciation for citizenship behavior can push employee attitudes in a more
favorable direction.
20. Attitudes influence behavior, but behavior has no effect on attitudes.
1. Managers are vitally interested in the attitudes that employees have toward all of the
following EXCEPT _____.
A) spirituality
B) careers
C) jobs
D) the organization
2. People who are optimistic, upbeat, cheerful, and courteous are said to have _____ affectivity.
A) vertical
B) positive
C) horizontal
D) neutral
3. People who are generally pessimistic, downbeat, irritable, and even abrasive are said to have
_____ affectivity.
A) neutral
B) vertical
C) negative
D) horizontal
4. Fiona is having a difficult time balancing life and work. Whenever she plans to attend her
daughter’s sporting events, she is called back to work to organize important business meetings.
At work, she feels guilty about not spending enough time with her daughter. This is an example
of the _____ effect.
A) elemental
B) spillover
C) bandwagon
D) domino
5. Based on Viktor Frankl’s premise on freedom to choose one’s attitude, which of the following
is NOT one of the seven core principles for helping employees find meaning through their work?
A) Let the situation guide your attitude.
B) Identify and commit to meaningful values and goals.
C) Shift your focus of attention when stressed.
D) Recognize ways in which you undermine your own happiness.
6. _____ is the degree to which an employee identifies with the organization and wants to
continue actively participating in it.
A) Organizational identification
B) Perceived organizational support
C) Organizational commitment
D) Organizational socialization
7. _____ commitment is a positive emotional state in which employees want to exert effort and
choose to remain with the organization.
A) Continuance
B) Affective
C) Normative
D) Experiential
8. _____ commitment is the choice to stay attached because of strong cultural or familial ethics
that drive the employees to do so.
A) Affective
B) Experiential
C) Continuance
D) Normative
9. _____ commitment encourages employees to stay because of their high “investments” in the
organization (time and effort) and the economic and social losses they would incur if they left.
A) Normative
B) Experiential
C) Continuance
D) Affective
10. Which of the following is a factor that inhibits employee commitment?
A) Inflated egos
B) Investments in employees
C) Employee autonomy
D) Reminders of employee investments
11. Which of the following is a factor that stimulates employee commitment?
A) Failure to follow through
B) Inflated egos
C) Insincere gratitude
D) Reminders of employee investments
12. Which of the following is an example of psychological withdrawal?
A) Unauthorized absences from work
B) Daydreaming on the job
C) Early departures from work
D) Extended breaks
13. Which of the following is an example of physical withdrawal?
A) Daydreaming on the job
B) Retaliation for presumed wrongs
C) Early departures from work
D) Loss of initiative
14. According to the characterizations of employee responses, voluntary departure is classified
as _____.
A) exit
B) voice
C) loyalty
D) neglect
15. According to the characterizations of employee responses, constructive criticism of disliked
policies is classified as _____.
A) exit
B) voice
C) loyalty
D) neglect
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written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Difficulty: Easy
16. According to the characterizations of employee responses, remaining in the organization but
not being verbal about problems is classified as _____.
A) exit
B) voice
C) loyalty
D) neglect
17. According to the characterizations of employee responses, being passively destructive is
classified as _____.
A) exit
B) voice
C) loyalty
D) neglect
18. _____ is the proportion of employees leaving an organization during a given time period.
A) Tardiness
B) Turnover
C) Spillover
D) Entitlement
19. Which of the following is NOT a negative effect of turnover in an organization?
A) Separation costs
B) Vacancy costs
C) Reengineering costs
D) Training costs
20. Which of the following is NOT a trait associated with “turnover personality?”
A) Introversion
B) Bitterness
C) Cynicism
D) Hedonism
21. Employers with lower turnover do all of the following EXCEPT _____.
A) watching for early signs of dissatisfaction
B) offering recognition and praise regularly
C) providing harsh criticisms
D) clarifying job expectations
22. Which of the following ailments is the most prevalent reason for employee presenteeism?
A) Sinus trouble or allergies
B) Migraine headaches
C) Acid reflux disease
D) Arthritis
23. Which of the following is most likely to be a reason for unethical rule-bending?
A) Fear of job loss
B) Paying back a favor
C) Creating an unwanted precedent
D) Personal embarrassment
24. Which of the following is most likely a reason against unethical rule-bending?
A) Ambiguous rules
B) Performance pressures
C) Social pressures
D) Personal embarrassment
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written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Difficulty: Easy
25. Which of the following statements is true about the use of surveys for measuring job
satisfaction?
A) They restrict the flow of communication in the organization.
B) They serve as an emotional release.
C) They merely assess positive attitudes of employees.
D) They discourage feedback on proposed organizational changes.
26. Which of the following is an indirect indicator of job satisfaction?
A) Tardiness
B) Grievances
C) Turnover
D) Exit interviews
27. _____ is the capacity of a survey instrument to produce consistent results, regardless of who
administers it or when someone responded to it.
A) Validity
B) Reliability
C) Turnover
D) Presenteeism
28. _____ is the capacity to measure what the survey instrument claims to measure.
A) Reliability
B) Presenteeism
C) Validity
D) Turnover
29. Which of the following statements is true of intranets?
A) It is used for external communications.
B) It is used to encourage a conversation between customers.
C) It refers to public computer networks accessible to all online viewers.
D) It facilitates collaboration between teams in an organization.
30. Which of the following statements is a guideline for changing employee attitudes?
A) Closely tie the reward system to team members’ seniority.
B) Discourage employees from participation in decision making.
C) Set challenging goals with employees so those with achievement drives can experience the
opportunity for satisfaction through their accomplishment.
D) Show appreciation and encouragement for members solely on the basis of their seniority and
decrease the amount of feedback for senior team members.
1. What is it about larger organizations that contribute to lower levels of job satisfaction?
2. List any three factors that can inhibit employee commitment.
3. Excessive employee turnover can have multiple negative effects on an organization. List the
various negative effects of excessive employee turnover and the costs associated with employee
separation and vacancy.
4. When does presenteeism occur? Describe the common factors of presenteeism.
5. Describe rule-bending.
6. What are organizational citizenship behaviors? Provide an example of such behavior.
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for extra assignment or sharing equipment with another worker.
Page: 245
Difficulty: Medium
7. What are the ways by which managers stay in touch with the level of employee satisfaction?
8. What is the first step in using job satisfaction information?
9. What is the difference between reliability and validity?
10. List the guidelines for changing employee attitudes.
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written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
• Define clear role expectations so employees struggling with ambiguity can overcome that
concern.
• Refrain from attacking the employee’s attitude. Use active listening skills instead,
because an undefended attitude is more receptive to change.
• Provide frequent feedback to satisfy the need for information about performance levels.
• Exhibit a caring, considerate orientation by showing concern for employee feelings.
• Provide opportunities for employees to participate in decision making.
• Encourage people to be happier by modeling the attitude and reinforcing it in others.
• Show appreciation for appropriate effort and citizenship behaviors.
Page: 250
Difficulty: Medium