Chapter 06 – Values, Attitudes, Job Satisfaction, and Counterproductive Work Behaviors
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CHAPTER SIX: Values, Attitudes, Job Satisfaction, and Counterproductive Work
Behaviors
LEARNING OJBECTIVES
See Slides 6-2, 6-3
When you finish studying the material in this chapter, you should be able to:
• Explain Schwartz’s value theory, and describe three types of value conflict.
• Describe the values model of work-family conflict, and specify at least three
practical lessons from work-family conflict research.
• Identify the three components of attitudes and discuss cognitive dissonance.
• Explain how attitudes affect behavior in terms of Ajzen’s theory of planned
behavior.
• Describe the model of organizational commitment.
• Define the work attitudes of employee engagement and job satisfaction.
• Identify and briefly describe five alternative causes of job satisfaction.
• Identify eight important correlates/consequences of job satisfaction, and
summarize how each one relates to job satisfaction.
• Identify the causes of counterproductive work behaviors and the measures used
to prevent them.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Chapter 6 continues the discussion from the previous chapter about important individual
differences. It describes personal values and discusses value conflicts and work-family
conflict. The concepts of attitudes and the connection between attitudes and behavior
are explored in this chapter. The key work attitudes of organizational commitment and
employee engagement are discussed. Ways to cultivate employee engagement are
discussed, as are the consequences of employee engagement. Job satisfaction is
defined and its causes, major correlates and consequences are explored. Finally, this
chapter describes counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs), including the causes of
CWBs and techniques for preventing them.
Values are desired ways of behaving or desired end-states. Personal values represent
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the things that have meaning to us in our lives. Schwartz proposed that there are ten
core values explained in Table 6-1 that guide our behavior across contexts and time.
Each value possesses motivational mechanisms that drive behavior. Figure 6-1 further
shows the relationships among the ten values. Some are consistent and positively
related whereas others are inconsistent and conflict with each other. Three types of
value conflict are intrapersonal, interpersonal, and individual-organization.
Conflict also occurs when the demands of one’s work role conflicts with those of the
family role. Work-family conflict can take two forms: work interference with family and
family interference with work. Figure 6-2 identifies the values that contribute to work-
family conflict. One’s general life values feed into one’s family-related values and work-
related values. Family values involve enduring beliefs about the importance of family
and who should play key family roles. Work values center on the relative importance of
work and career goals in one’s life. Value similarity relates to the degree of consensus
among family members about family values. Work congruence involves the amount of
value agreement between employee and employer. Employees’ job satisfaction,
organizational commitment, and intentions to quit are significantly related to the amount
of work-family conflict that exists in their lives. Among the practical implications for
dealing with work-family conflict are that work-family balance begins at home, an
employer’s family-supportive philosophy is more important than specific programs,
flexibility in work hours and location can promote work-family balance, as can
supportive bosses and colleagues, the importance of work-family balance varies across
generations, and it is important to take a proactive approach to managing work-family
conflict. Although organizations have implemented a variety of family-friendly programs,
it is important to achieve work-life integration.
An attitude is a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently positive or negative
manner with respect to a given object. Attitudes are more specific than values, but
values and attitudes are generally in agreement. Attitudes have affective, cognitive, and
behavioral components. People experience cognitive dissonance when their attitudes
or beliefs are incompatible with their behavior. Attitudes tend to be relatively stable over
time and related situations, especially during middle age. Ajzen’s theory of planned
behavior is commonly used to explain the relationship between attitudes and behaviors.
A person’s intention to engage in a behavior is the best predictor of that behavior.
Behavioral intentions are influenced by one’s attitude toward the behavior, by subjective
norms regarding exhibiting the behavior, and by perceived behavioral control.
It is important for managers to understand the causes and consequences of the key
work attitudes of organizational commitment, employee engagement, and job
satisfaction. Organizational commitment reflects the extent to which an individual
identifies with an organization and is committed to its goals. Figure 6-4 identifies the
antecedents for the three forms of organizational commitment: affective, continuance
and normative. Employees with affective commitment want to stay with an organization,
employees with continuance commitment need to stay with a firm, while those with
normative commitment feel they ought to remain with the organization. Organizational
commitment can impact turnover and on-the-job behavior such as performance,
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absenteeism, and organizational citizenship. It is important for managers to increase
the components of employee commitment.
Employee engagement is defined as the harnessing of organization members’ selves to
their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically,
cognitively, and emotionally during role performance. The attitudinal variable of
employee engagement contains four components: (1) feelings of urgency, (2) feelings of
being focused, (3) feelings of intensity, and (4) feelings of enthusiasm. Research has
demonstrated that employee engagement is associated with important organizational–
level outcomes. A practical implication of employee engagement is that firms should
track and respond to surveys of employee engagement.
Job satisfaction is an affective response toward various facets of one’s job. A person
can be relatively satisfied with one aspect of his or her job and dissatisfied with another
aspect. Different models specify distinct causes of job satisfaction. The proposed
causes include: need fulfillment, discrepancies, value attainment, equity, and
dispositional/genetic components. Need fulfillment models propose that satisfaction is
determined by the extent to which the characteristics of a job allow an individual to fulfill
his or her needs. Discrepancies models propose that satisfaction is a result of met
expectations. Met expectations represent the difference between what an individual
expects to receive from a job and what he or she actually receives. An individual will be
satisfied when he or she attains outcomes above and beyond expectations. The idea
underlying value attainment is that satisfaction results from the perception that a job
allows for fulfillment of an individual’s important work values. According to the equity
model, satisfaction is a function of how “fairly” an individual is treated at work. Finally,
according to the dispositional/genetic model, job satisfaction is partly a function of both
personal traits and genetic factors. Table 6-2 presents a summary of the research
findings on the relationship between job satisfaction and its major correlates and
consequences.
Counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) are defined as types of behavior that harm
employees, the organization as a whole, or organizational stakeholders such as
customers and shareholders. CWBs include theft, gossiping, back-stabbing, drug and
alcohol abuse, destroying organizational property, violence, purposely doing bad or
incorrect work, surfing the net for personal use, excessive socializing, tardiness,
sabotage, and sexual harassment. Some forms of CWBs involve mistreatment of
coworkers, subordinates, or even customers. CWBs may be a precursor to workplace
violence. Organizations must develop policies and procedures for employees to
complain about CWBs and to report any troubling employee behavior. Personality traits
and job conditions could make CWBs more likely. Employers should consider the
potential for CWBs during the screening process, they should ensure they are
motivating desired behaviors, and they should respond quickly and appropriately to
CWBs.
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LECTURE OUTLINE
I. Personal Values
i) Schwartz’s Value Theory
(1) Values are motivational in that they “represent broad goals that apply
across contexts and time.” See Slide 6-4
(2) Values are relatively stable and can influence behavior outside our
awareness.
(3) Table 6-1: Definition of Values and Motives in Schwartz’s Theory
profiles 10 broad values that guide behavior and the motivational
mechanisms that underlie each value. See Slide 6-5
(a) Power: social status and prestige, control or dominance over people
and resources.
(b) Achievement: personal success through demonstrating competence
according to social standards.
(c) Hedonism: pleasure and sensuous gratification for oneself.
(d) Stimulation: excitement, novelty, and challenge in life.
(e) Self-direction: independent thought and action choosing, creating,
exploring.
(f) Universalism: understanding, appreciation, tolerance and protection
of the welfare of all people and of nature.
(g) Benevolence: preservation and enhancement of the welfare of people
with whom one is in frequent personal contact.
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(h) Tradition: respect, commitment, and acceptance of the customs and
ideas that traditional culture or religion provides the self.
(i) Conformity: restraint of actions, inclinations, and impulses likely to
upset or harm others and violate social expectations or norms.
(j) Security: safety, harmony, and stability of society, of relationships,
and of self.
(4) Figure 6-1: Relationship among Schwartz’s Values shows the
proposed relationships among the 10 values. See Slide 6-6
(a) The circular pattern reveals which values are most strongly related and
which ones are in conflict.
(b) Adjacent values are positively related, whereas values that are further
apart are less strongly related.
(c) Values that are in opposing directions from the center conflict with
each other.
(5) Value Conflicts See Slide 6-7
(a) Intrapersonal Value Conflict
(i) Interpersonal conflict comes from inside the person.
(ii) People are likely to experience inner conflict and stress when
personal values conflict with each other.
(b) Interpersonal Value Conflict
(i) Interpersonal value conflict comes from between people.
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(ii) Interpersonal value conflict is often at the core of personality
conflicts.
(c) Individual-Organizational Value Conflict
(i) Individual-organizational value conflict results when values
espoused and enacted by the organization collide with employees’
personal values.
(ii) The Real World/Real People: Whistleblower at
GlaxoSmithKline Receives $96 Million Payout profiles an
example of individual-organizational value conflict.
ii) Work versus Family Life Conflict
(1) A Values-Based Model of Work-Family Conflict See Slides 6-9,
6-10
(a) Figure 6-2: A Values Model of Work-Family Conflict identifies the
values that contribute to work-family conflict. See Slide 6-8
(b) One’s general life values feed into one’s family-related values and
work-related values.
(c) Family values involve enduring beliefs about the importance of family
and who should play key family roles.
(d) Work values center on the relative importance of work and career
goals.
(e) Value similarity relates to the degree of consensus among family
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members about family values.
(f) Value congruence involves the amount of value agreement between
employee and employer.
(g) Work-family conflict can take two forms: work interference with family
and family interference with work.
(h) Satisfaction is higher for those who live according to their values.
(2) Practical Research Insights about Work-Family Conflict See
Slides 6-11, 6-12
(a) Work-family conflict research provides a number of interesting
conclusions:
(i) Work-family balance begins at home.
(ii) An employer’s family-supportive philosophy is more important than
specific programs.
(iii)Informal flexibility in work hours and in allowing people to work at
home is essential to promoting work-family balance.
(iv)Supportive bosses and colleagues can help.
(v) The importance of work-family balance varies across generations.
(vi)Organizations and managers should take a proactive approach to
managing work-family conflict.
(3) Organizational Response to Work-Family Issues See Slide 6–13
(a) Organizations have implemented a variety of family-friendly programs
and services aimed at helping employees to balance the interplay
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between their work and personal lives.
(b) Although these programs are positively received by employees,
experts now believe that such efforts are partially misguided because
they focus on balancing work-family issues rather than on integrating
them.
(c) Our work and personal lives should be a well-integrated whole.
II. Attitudes
i) The Nature of Attitudes See Slide 6-15
(1) Attitudes Overview
(a) Attitude: a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently
favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object.
See Slide 6-14
(b) Attitudes propel us to act in a specific way in a specific context.
(c) Attitudes affect behavior at a different level than do values.
(i) Values represent global beliefs that influence behavior across all
situations, whereas attitudes relate only to behavior directed toward
specific objects, persons, or situations.
(ii) Values and attitudes are generally but not always in harmony.
(2) Affective Component
(a) Affective component: the feelings or emotions one has about a given
object or situation.
(3) Cognitive Component
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(a) Cognitive component: the beliefs or ideas one has about an object or
situation.
(4) Behavioral Component
(a) Behavioral component: how one intends or expects to act toward
someone or something.
(b) Your overall attitude toward someone or something is a function of the
combined influence of all three components.
ii) What Happens When Attitudes and Reality Collide? Cognitive
Dissonance
(1) Cognitive dissonance: psychological discomfort experienced when
attitudes and behavior are inconsistent. See Slide 6-16
(2) People are motivated to maintain consistency between their attitudes and
beliefs and their behavior and will seek to reduce the “dissonance” or
psychological tension through: See Slide 6-17
(a) Changing their attitude or behavior, or both.
(b) Belittling the importance of the inconsistent behavior.
(c) Finding consonant elements that outweigh the dissonant ones.
iii) How Stable are Attitudes? See Slide 6-19
(1) Research has shown that general attitudes are more susceptible to
change during early and late adulthood than during middle adulthood.
(2) Three factors accounted for middle-age attitude stability:
(a) Greater personal certainty.
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(b) Perceived abundance of knowledge.
(c) A need for strong attitudes.
(3) Elderly people, along with young adults, can and do change their general
attitudes because they are more open and less self-assured.
iv) Attitudes Affect Behavior via Intentions
(1) Attitudes Affect Behavior via Intentions Overview
(a) Ajzen developed a model that focuses on intentions as the key link
between attitudes and planned behavior.
(b) Figure 6-3: Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior shows three
separate but interacting determinants of one’s intention to exhibit a
specific behavior. See Slide 6-22
(2) Determinants of Intention See Slides 6-20, 6-21
(a) In Figure 6-3, the nature and roles of the three determinants of
intention are:
(i) Attitude toward the behavior refers to the degree to which a person
has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation or appraisal of the
behavior.
(ii) Subjective norm refers to the perceived social pressure to perform
or not to perform the behavior.
(iii)Perceived behavioral control refers to the perceived ease or
difficulty of performing the behavior.
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(b) The Real World/Real People: The Physicians Committee for
Responsible Medicine Creates an Ad to Change People’s
Attitudes about Eating at McDonald’s profiles an advertisement
designed to change people’s intentions to eat at McDonald’s.
(3) Intentions and Behavior Research Lessons and Implications
(a) Research has shown that:
(i) Someone’s intention to engage in a given behavior is a strong
predictor of that behavior.
(ii) Research has demonstrated that Ajzen’s model accurately
predicted a variety of intentions and behaviors.
(b) Practical implications:
(i) Managers can influence behavioral change by doing or saying
things that affect the three determinants of employees’ intentions to
exhibit a specific behavior: attitude toward the behavior, subjective
norms, and perceived behavioral control.
(ii) Employee beliefs can be influenced through the information
management provides on a day-by-day basis, the organization’s
cultural values, the content of training programs, the behavior of
key employees, and the rewards that are targeted to reinforce
certain beliefs.
III. Key Work Attitudes
i) Organizational Commitment
(1) Organizational Commitment Overview
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(a) Organizational commitment: extent to which an individual identifies
with an organization and its goals. See Slide 6-23
(b) Organizationally committed individuals are believed to display a
willingness to work harder to achieve organizational goals and a
greater desire to remain at the organization.
(2) A Model of Organizational Commitment
(a) Figure 6-4: A Model of Organizational Commitment indicates that
organizational commitment is composed of three separate but related
components: See Slide 6-24
(i) Affective commitment: the employee’s emotional attachment to,
identification with, and involvement in the organization.
(ii) Continuance commitment: an awareness of the costs of leaving
the organization.
(iii)Normative commitment: a feeling of obligation to continue
employment.
(b) Employees with affective commitment want to stay with an
organization, employees with continuance commitment need to stay
with a firm, while those with normative commitment feel they ought to
remain with the organization.
(c) The three components of commitment combine to produce a binding
force that influences the consequences of employee turnover and on–
the-job behavior.
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(d) Each component of commitment is influenced by a separate set of
antecedents.
(e) Psychological contract: an individual’s perception about the terms
and conditions of a reciprocal exchange with another party.
(3) Research and Practical Applications
(a) Research shows there is a positive relationship between organizational
commitment and job satisfaction and job performance.
(b) There is a negative relationship between organizational commitment
and turnover.
(c) Managers can increase:
(i) Affective commitment by hiring people whose personal values are
consistent with the organization’s values.
(ii) Continuance commitment by offering employees a variety of
progressive benefits and human resource programs.
(iii)Normative commitment by making sure that management does not
breach its psychological contracts and by trying to enhance the
level of trust throughout the organization.
ii) Employee Engagement
(1) Employee Engagement Overview
(a) Employee engagement: extent to which employees give it their all at
work. See Slide 6-25
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(b) The attitudinal variable of employee engagement contains four
components: (1) feelings of urgency, (2) feelings of being focused, (3)
feelings of intensity, and (4) feelings of enthusiasm.
(2) What Contributes to Employee Engagement? See Slides 6-26,
6-27, 6-28
(a) Personal characteristics found or thought to influence employee
engagement include positive or optimistic personalities, proactive
personality, conscientiousness, person-environment fit (PE Fit), and
being present or mindful.
(b) There is a broad set of contextual factors that potentially impacts
employee engagement.
(c) Organizational culture is one contextual factor that impacts employee
engagement as employees are more likely to be engaged when an
organization has a clan culture that promotes employee development,
recognition, and trust between management and employees.
(d) Job security, feelings of psychological safety, and leader behavior are
also contextual factors that propel employee engagement.
(e) Employee engagement is higher when people have line of sight with
the organization’s vision, strategies, and goals, whereby the
employees understand how their jobs influence the achievement of
broader strategic goals.
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(f) The Real World/Real People: United Health Group Focuses on
Improving Employee Engagement profiles the actions of one firm to
increase employee engagement.
(3) What Are the Consequences of Employee Engagement?
(a) A meta-analysis found that employee engagement was significantly
associated with organizational-level customer satisfaction/loyalty,
profitability, productivity, turnover, and safety outcomes.
(b) Other research showed a positive relationship between employee
engagement and employees’ performance and physical and
psychological well-being, and corporate-level financial performance
and customer satisfaction.
(4) Practical Takeaways
(a) Firms should budget resources to measure, track, and respond to
surveys of employee engagement.
IV. Job Satisfaction
i) Job Satisfaction Overview
(1) Job satisfaction: an affective or emotional response toward various
facets of one’s job. See Slide 6-29
(2) Job satisfaction is not a unitary concept, as a person can be relatively
satisfied with one aspect of his or her job and dissatisfied with one or more
other aspects.