Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 12e (Robbins/Judge)
Chapter 3 Attitudes and Job Satisfaction
1) Which of the following answer choices is the best definition of attitude?
A) Attitudes indicate how one will react to a given event.
B) Attitudes are the yardstick by which one measures ones actions.
C) Attitudes are the emotional part of an evaluation of a person, object, or event.
D) Attitudes are evaluative statements of what one believes about something or someone.
E) Attitudes are a measure of how the worth of an object, person or event is evaluated.
2) The emotional or feeling component of a person’s attitude is called ________.
A) complex understanding
B) the cognitive component
C) the affective component
D) a complex attitude
E) the behavior component
3) Janice is spending the summer working as an intern writing copy for a local firm. Today
Janice’s senior editor sent back some of Janice’s work covered in red ink corrections. Up until
now, all of Janice’s work had been corrected in green or blue ink. Janice is upset and worried that
her senior editor doesn’t like her.
Which component of an attitude is not represented in the previous scenario?
A) the positive component
B) the cognitive component
C) the affective component
D) the negative component
E) the behavioral component
4) The belief that “violence is wrong” is an evaluative statement. Such an opinion constitutes the
________ component of an attitude.
A) cognitive
B) affective
C) reflective
D) behavioral
E) reactive
5) Jan is a security officer. Jan believes that it is important to know exactly who is in the office at
any given time. She notices that some employees do not sign out of the office when they take
lunch, which makes it impossible to keep track of who is actually in the office. Jan becomes
frustrated with those employees. She makes note of them and reports them to their supervisors.
In the above scenario, what is the behavioral component of Jan’s attitude to the employees who
did not sign out of the office?
A) Jan believes that it is important that she know exactly who is in the office at any given time.
B) Jan does not like that some employees do not sign out of the office when they take lunch.
C) Jan finds it impossible to keep track of who is actually in the office.
D) Jan becomes frustrated with those employees who do not sign out of the office.
E) Jan notes which employees leave the office without signing out, and reports them to their
supervisors.
6) Which of the following is an example of an affective attitude?
A) believing that you did a good job
B) the observation that most dogs have four legs
C) the opinion that it is never acceptable to steal
D) anger at being unfairly accused of a wrongdoing
E) the avoidance of a restaurant where one once received bad service
7) The theory of cognitive dissonance was proposed by ________.
A) Maslow
B) Festinger
C) Hofstede
D) Skinner
E) Pavlov
8) According to Festinger, people will seek a(n) ________.
A) variable state with variable dissonance
B) stable state with maximal dissonance
C) unstable state with maximal dissonance
D) unstable state with minimal dissonance
E) stable state with minimal dissonance
9) “Dissonance” means ________.
A) reactance
B) constance
C) resistance
D) consistency
E) inconsistency
10) Leon Festinger argued that ________ follow(s) ________.
A) behavior; job satisfaction
B) behavior; attitude
C) attitudes; behavior
D) attitudes; job satisfaction
E) job satisfaction; behavior
11) Festinger argued that dissonance is ________. Therefore, people will attempt to reduce it.
A) monotonous
B) confounding
C) physically painful
D) exhausting
E) uncomfortable
12) Any incompatibility between two or more attitudes or between behavior and attitudes results
in ________.
A) organizational dissonance
B) cognitive dissonance
C) attitudinal clarification
D) values clarification
E) affective reactance
13) Jo is a courier, delivering parcels throughout the metropolitan area. Although she considers
herself law abiding, she often breaks the speed limit while making her deliveries. Which of the
following statements does not reflect a likely response to the conflict between her attitude and
her behavior?
A) “It’s not a problem that I speed a little bit; it’s not much over the limit, and everyone else
speeds some.”
B) “The speed limits are just too low around here; anyone driving at a reasonable speed will
break them.”
C) “This speeding is irresponsible. From now on I am observing the speed limits.”
D) “I’ve got to drive fast sometimes, otherwise I will not make all my deliveries and I’ll lose
clients.”
E) “It’s wrong to break even minor laws, but I’ll probably keep speeding anyway.”
14) Sheila works for a manufacturer of styrofoam trays for school lunches. Last year her son
came home from school and told her that the trays she makes go straight to the landfill where
they sit for hundreds of years without ever biodegrading. Although this information bothers
Sheila, she does not look for another job because she enjoys her very high salary.
Which dissonance moderating factor is illustrated by this example?
A) Dissonance is reduced because of the sense of control by the individual.
B) Dissonance is reduced because of the importance to the individual.
C) There is no dissonance moderating factor in the example.
D) Dissonance is increased because of the sense of control by the individual.
E) High dissonance is tolerated because of a high reward.
15) Mrs. Jonas is likely experiencing ________.
A) cognitive dissonance
B) unresolved anger
C) ethical evasion
D) uncertainty avoidance
E) social pressure
16) Mrs. Jonas can be expected to relieve the discomfort she is experiencing by doing the
following except ________.
A) deciding this issue is unimportant
B) rationalizing that it is not her problem since she is not the contractor
C) attempting to stop the contractor using undocumented workers
D) coming to accept that using undocumented workers does not harm workers’ rights
E) terminating the contract as it is against her attitude
17) In this situation Mrs. Jonas has a(n) ________ that is in conflict with a(n) ________.
A) behavior; behavior
B) attitude; attitude
C) social need; social interest
D) social need; social need
E) attitude; behavior
18) It is safe to say that this wouldn’t be a problem if Mrs. Jonas were ________.
A) a worker rather than a supervisor
B) working for the construction company
C) more of an ethical character
D) an undocumented worker
E) indifferent to workers’ rights
19) Festinger proposed that the desire to reduce dissonance is determined by three moderating
factors including the ________.
A) values of the elements creating the dissonance
B) degree of influence the individual believes he or she has over the elements
C) degree of positive affect the person has toward the behavior
D) fact that values and attitudes will vary over the short term
E) awareness that dissonance exists
20) Cameron loves her job as a data programmer, but her co-worker Blake, is very challenging.
Blake often loses his temper over aspects of shared projects that neither of them can control.
When discussing projects in Cameron’s work station, Blake plays with her office supplies,
rearranges her desk, and leaves snack and food crumbs. Worst of all, Blake always takes the
portion of a project that is the easiest, leaving Cameron to work harder and longer hours.
Which of the following is not an effective method for handling Cameron’s problems with Blake?
A) Cameron should invite Blake to lunch and directly confront him with her feelings.
B) Cameron should invite Blake to coffee to clarify if there are any misunderstandings.
C) Cameron should simply ignore Blake and his behavior.
D) Cameron should make a point of going to Blake’s work station and leaving a mess.
E) Cameron should ask a manager to help divide the work load for the next project.
21) The attitude-behavior relationship is likely to be much stronger if the attitude ________.
A) refers to something that the individual has direct personal experience with
B) must be defended against the attitudes of society at large
C) is perceived to be of little importance
D) is related to organizational structure
E) is not regularly discussed and examined
22) Which of the following is not a moderating variable of the attitude-behavior relationship?
A) direct experience
B) correspondence to behavior
C) power
D) accessibility
E) importance
23) What refers to a positive feeling about a job, resulting from an evaluation of its
characteristics?
A) job satisfaction
B) job involvement
C) job stability
D) organizational commitment
E) social investment
24) Employees’ beliefs in the degree to which they influence their work environment, their
competence, the meaningfulness of their job, and their perceived autonomy is termed as
________.
A) psychological empowerment
B) organizational commitment
C) perceived organizational support
D) employee engagement
E) job satisfaction
25) The degree to which a person identifies with his or her job, actively participates in it, and
considers his or her performance as being important to self-worth is ________.
A) job satisfaction
B) job involvement
C) job stability
D) organizational commitment
E) social embeddedness
26) In her work in the publishing industry, Vera seeks out new authors whom she considers
promising. In the past two years she has found a number of new writers whose work she thought
was exceptional, and immersed herself in the task of helping them shape their manuscripts for
submission to her managers for publishing. Although she was extremely proud of the results,
none of the authors she worked with were chosen for publication. Vera believes that the decision
not to publish these authors was based on personal rivalries within management, rather than the
quality of her writers’ work. She is extremely frustrated, dreads coming into work each morning,
and is seriously thinking of resigning.
How can Vera’s job attitudes best be described?
A) low job satisfaction and low job involvement
B) low job satisfaction and high job involvement
C) high job satisfaction and low job involvement
D) high job satisfaction and high job involvement
E) low organizational commitment
27) Which of the following is not considered a major job attitude by OB researchers?
A) job satisfaction
B) positive personality
C) organizational commitment
D) employee engagement
E) job involvement
28) Organizational commitment is defined as ________.
A) the degree to which an employee identifies with the organization they work for and its goals
B) an employee’s belief that the organization they work for will go to considerable lengths to
ensure that its employees are treated fairly
C) the degree to which an employee’s sense of fulfillment and self worth is related to their job
D) the amount of effort an employee will make in order to keep or advance their position in an
organization
E) the degree to which an employee believes their work impacts their organization
29) Of the following attitudes, the best predictor of turnover is ________.
A) pay
B) supervision
C) organizational commitment
D) cognitive dissonance
E) affective dissonance
30) ________ is the degree to which employees believe the organization values their
contribution and cares about their well-being.
A) Psychological empowerment
B) Employee engagement
C) Perceived organizational support
D) Organizational commitment
E) Job involvement
31) Guillermo’s wife was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Guillermo had to take a
considerable amount of time off work to care for their children, and he was late in completing his
portion of a large project. Guillermo never feared that his job was in jeopardy because of his
absences or his delay in completion of work.
Name the major job attitude relative to the above stated example.
A) psychological empowerment
B) perceived organizational support
C) organizational commitment
D) employee engagement
E) job involvement
32) Bryan Eusebius has a positive attitude toward his organization. He feels the management
treats all employees fairly in matters concerning rewards, takes into account employees’
opinions, and overall, is highly supportive. Bryan’s attitude toward his employing organization is
indicative of ________.
A) psychological empowerment
B) employee engagement
C) perceived organizational support
D) core self evaluations
E) organizational citizenship
33) In the context of employee engagement, it is observed that the highly engaged employees
feel a deep connection to their company. Disengaged employees ________.
A) feel disconnected, portraying deviant behavior at the workplace
B) put in efforts to be as good as engaged employees
C) continue working without affecting the turnover
D) put time but no attention into their work
E) engage in productive activities to prove their worth
34) An individual’s involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the work he/she
performs is known as ________.
A) employee engagement
B) job involvement
C) loyalty
D) job satisfaction
E) psychological empowerment
35) Which of the following statements is true about the major job attitudes?
A) They are highly distinct from one another.
B) They are generally resistant to change.
C) They tend to overlap one another.
D) They are not correlated to one another.
E) They are culture-specific.
36) Which of the following is the best method for measuring job satisfaction?
A) a single global rating system of 1 to 5 (highly satisfied to highly dissatisfied)
B) the summation of satisfaction of various job facets to reveal an overall score
C) job satisfaction is too broad of a term and there is no good way to measure it
D) the single global rating system and the job facets score are equally accurate
E) the length of time an employee stays on the job and is engaged
37) In which of the following categories do people report lower levels of satisfaction?
A) pay
B) co-workers
C) the work itself
D) overall job
E) supervisors
38) Which major job-satisfaction facet is most strongly correlated with high levels of overall job
satisfaction?
A) work flexibility
B) pay
C) social context of the workplace
D) supervision
E) transparency
39) Once an individual reaches a level of comfortable living, the relationship between pay and
job satisfaction ________.
A) becomes stronger
B) turns positive
C) virtually disappears
D) becomes negative
E) weakens, but only slightly
40) Charles makes $24,000 a year. Ana makes $40,000 a year. Ellis makes $75,000 a year. Adam
makes $75,000 a year. Shonali makes $30,000 a year.
Which of the following is not a true statement about the usual correlation between pay and job
satisfaction?
A) Charles is less likely to be satisfied with his job than Adam.
B) Ana is as likely to be as satisfied with her job as Ellis.
C) Ellis and Adam are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs than Shonali.
D) Charles is less likely to be satisfied with his job than Shonali.
E) Shonali is as likely to be satisfied with her job as Charles.
41) Ramiro has been a forklift driver for the local grocery store for six years. He earns $32,000 a
year. He works with a nice crew. He plays softball with his co-workers on the weekends. They
also volunteer together at the local food bank during the holidays, and socialize with their
families at summer picnics. Ramiro is highly satisfied with his job.
Which of the following is the most probable cause of Ramiro’s high job satisfaction?
A) pay
B) promotion
C) high stress
D) social context
E) work itself