The document discusses various topics related to job satisfaction, including:
1. Different theories around values, attitudes, and job satisfaction such as Schwartz's Value Theory and Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior.
2. Components of attitudes including affective, behavioral, and cognitive.
3. Factors that influence job satisfaction such as organizational commitment, job involvement, and employee engagement.
4. Daniel Pink's 16 rules for motivation, innovation, and leadership including starting to doubt yourself and eliminating sales commissions to increase sales.
9. A Values Model General Life Values Family Values Value Similarity Value Congruence Work Values Work/Family Conflict Value Attainment Job & Life Satisfaction Source: Krietner/Kinicki, 2009
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17. Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior Attitude toward the behavior Subjective norm Perceived behavioral control Intention Behavior Source: Krietner/Kinicki, 2009 Source: Icek Ajzen
Personal values are reflected in our “value system.” This system is an organization of beliefs concerning preferable modes of conduct or end-states (how we would like to behave and how we would like things to turn out). These modes are measured on a continuum of relative importance and are believed to be enduring. Personal values are things that have meaning in our lives. Shalom Schwartz is a researcher who has studied personal values and their impact on human behavior. He has proposed that there are 10 values that guide behavior. This table shows those 10 values and the motivational mechanisms that underlie each. Certainly within each of those ten there are many subsets, just like the Q Sort Values exercise we just did in class.
There are relationships between these ten values, but the farther apart they are in this chart, the less connected they are. For example what would you assume regarding the relationship between Power and Universalism.
Intrapersonal Value Conflict occurs when highly ranked instrumental and terminal values pull an individual in different directions. Interpersonal Value Conflict occurs when combinations of instrumental and terminal values inevitably spark disagreements. Individual-Organization Value Conflict occurs when values espoused or enacted by the organization collide with employee’s personal values. In contrast, value congruence or person-culture fit reflects the similarity between an individual’s personal values and the cultural value system of an organization.
1. Intrapersonal Value Conflict - A. I want to be healthy by exercising regularly; I want to advance my career and be a good parent to my children 2. Interpersonal Value Conflict - C. I want to be honest by reporting company financials accurately; My coworker values a bonus that would come from adjusting the company financials. 3. Individual-Organization Value Conflict – B. I want to be healthy; My organization values smoking For example, a core organizational goal at Philip Morris is to manufacture and sell quality cigarettes. When you walk into their corporate office in Richmond there is big sign that said “Please smoke”, smoking is allowed everywhere in the building. Clearly if someone strongly valued a healthy lifestyle, they may have a problem working at PM.
Over time, we have seen some common trends in general life values as numbers of women in the workforce has increased in part due to more dual-income families, more single working parents, and an aging population requiring care. Simultaneously we have seen more downsizing and corporate cost-cutting that has often resulted in more work for fewer employees. This combination of events makes it even more difficult to balance work and family responsibilities. We’ve also witnessed a change in work attitudes suggesting that employees in general are less convinced that work should be an important part of one’s life or that working harder makes one a better person, typical attitudes during the depression and post-WWII era. Let’s define the next set of terms in this model: Family values are 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. Value similarity is the degree of consensus among family members about family values (internal to the family). Value congruence involves the amount of value agreement between employee and employer. It should be noted that work-family conflict takes on two forms: work interferes with family and family interferes with work. This is definitely not a one-sided problem and you as employees and ultimately managers will need to deal with this from a work perspective and a family perspective. The last two boxes in the model are a package deal. Satisfaction tends to be higher for those who live according to their values and lower for those who do not.
Research findings: False: Family-supportive philosophy is more important than specific programs. In other words a company can have a policy but if the culture is one that discourages people taking advantage of this policy or it’s perceived as career suicide, then it won’t really serve it’s purpose. True: Work flexibility is important in promoting work-family balance –research findings indicate that type of assignment and project based work can allow employees to focus on work more on occasion, when necessary, than family, and vice versa. This suggests that we are not talking about equal time splitting, but a fluid emphasis on work or family that shifts with the employee needs being the key to work/life balance. Work/life researchers have begun to espouse the notion that work and family are not opposites and should not be balanced but instead organizations should find ways to better enable employees to integrate both important and satisfying aspects of one’s life. False : Managers perceived as having higher work-life balance were rated MORE not LESS promotable.
An attitude is a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently positive or negative fashion with respect to a given object or topic. Attitudes are likely to propel us to act in a certain way based on our attitude about a specific object, person, or situation. For example, having a positive attitude about your school work will make you more inclined to study hard and do well in your classes.
An attitude is a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently positive or negative fashion with respect to a given object or topic. Attitudes are likely to propel us to act in a certain way based on our attitude about a specific object, person, or situation. For example, having a positive attitude about your school work will make you more inclined to study hard and do well in your classes.
Attitudes have three components, presented here in a different order than is presented in your textbook so that you can use the ABC mnemonic to help you remember the three components: (1) affective – feelings or emotions about an object (2) behavioral – how one intends to act toward someone or something and (3) cognitive – beliefs or ideas one has about an object.
“ I like going to work.” - Affective “ Working allows me to afford what I want and need.” - Cognitive “ I intend to quit my job.” - Behavioral “ Working with my coworkers is frustrating.” - Affective “ I believe working helps contribute to society.” – Cognitive We know, though, that our attitudes can not always predict behavior. On the other hand, attitudinal intentions (how someone intends to behave in a given situation) are the best predictors of behavior. (Remember we said that an attitude has three parts – this speaks to the behavioral component). Although we noted that attitudes are resistant to change, they may be influenced indirectly through education and training that change underlying beliefs (cognitive component). For example, I have a poor attitude towards my boss because I believe he is embezzling money. When I find out that in fact he is not, my attitude toward him may change to be more positive. Researchers have found that behavioral intentions were a better predictor of employee turnover than job satisfaction, satisfaction with the work itself, or organizational commitment. Researchers in organizational behavior have spent a lot of time focusing on attitudes related to one’s job. This area of research specifically focuses on job satisfaction.
“ I like going to work.” - Affective “ Working allows me to afford what I want and need.” - Cognitive “ I intend to quit my job.” - Behavioral “ Working with my coworkers is frustrating.” - Affective “ I believe working helps contribute to society.” – Cognitive We know, though, that our attitudes can not always predict behavior. On the other hand, attitudinal intentions (how someone intends to behave in a given situation) are the best predictors of behavior. (Remember we said that an attitude has three parts – this speaks to the behavioral component). Although we noted that attitudes are resistant to change, they may be influenced indirectly through education and training that change underlying beliefs (cognitive component). For example, I have a poor attitude towards my boss because I believe he is embezzling money. When I find out that in fact he is not, my attitude toward him may change to be more positive. Researchers have found that behavioral intentions were a better predictor of employee turnover than job satisfaction, satisfaction with the work itself, or organizational commitment. Researchers in organizational behavior have spent a lot of time focusing on attitudes related to one’s job. This area of research specifically focuses on job satisfaction.
Cognitive Dissonance is the psychological discomfort experienced when attitudes and behavior are inconsistent. For example, you may continue working for a company (behavior) even though you have a negative attitude about what they do (e.g. sell CDs that contain profanity). To reduce cognitive dissonance you have three options: Change your attitude and/or behavior – for example, stop working there or stop thinking that selling CDs that have profanity is a problem. Belittle the importance of the inconsistent behavior – You could say in this situation, “Just because I work here doesn’t mean I condone or contribute to the selling of obscene CDs. After all, I just work in the accounting department; I don’t produce or sell them directly.” Find consonant elements that outweigh dissonant ones – Some elements in this situation could be “I have to work,” “I like my job and coworkers,” or “the company treats me well.”
http://people.umass.edu/aizen/index.html Ajzen’s Theory or Planned Behavior focuses on intentions as the key link between attitudes and planned behavior. His theory shows three separate but interacting determinants of one’s intentions. First, the attitude toward the behavior, or the degree to which a person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation or appraisal of the behavior in question. Second, the subjective norm, or the perceived social pressure to perform or not perform the behavior. Third, perceived behavioral control, which is the perceived ease or difficulty of performing the behavior based on past experience as well as anticipated impediments and obstacles. This theory has predicted intentions in a number of different contexts including weight loss, voting, attending training, reenlisting in the military, and having children. This is also an important model to consider with regard to organizational ethics. Attitudes people hold as individuals, the norms and attitudes of others in their social group, and the ease of executing the behavior all factor in to when a person may decide to behave in an unethical manner.
In an interesting look at work attitudes & values in the evolution of humanity and work life. Before the early Greeks what was “work” mostly like, regardless of location?
Organizational commitment is simply the extent to which an individual identifies with the firm and it’s goals, regardless of size. Research has shown that there is a s trong relationship between organizational commitment and job satisfaction. It is also highly correlated with job performance. In addition, employees have lower intentions to quit their jobs when they are committed to their respective organizations. Additionally we’ve talked briefly in previous classes about Organizational Citizenship Behavior, which is an individuals choice to behave and perform in ways that may not be formally rewarded but benefit the organization. Affective commitment is the employee's emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organization. People are committed to staying at the organization because they want to. Continuance commitment refers to an awareness of the costs of leaving the organization. People stay with an organization because they need to. And normative commitment is a feeling of obligation to continue employment. People feel they ought to remain.
The other two work attitudes we will study in this chapter are listed on this slide. Job involvement is the extent to which an individual is immersed in his or her personal job and is p ositively associated with job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intrinsic motivation and is negatively related to intentions to quit. Improving job involvement can reduce turnover. Likewise, a positive relationship exists between job involvement and performance. We can improve job involvement by providing work environments that fuel intrinsic motivation where employees are motivated by the job itself, rather than by extrinsic factors such as pay and benefits. Employee engagement is an individual difference variable defined as an individual’s involvement, satisfaction and enthusiasm for work. This sounds like something that would cause employees to put forth more effort and be more committed to their jobs, however there has been little empirical evidence to support this claim. However, surveys have revealed that employee engagement was related to customer satisfaction, profitability, productivity, turnover, and safety outcomes measured at the organizational level.
The final work attitude that we will discuss and that concludes this chapter is job satisfaction . Interestingly, job satisfaction is one of the most frequently studied work attitudes by OB researchers. It is possible to be satisfied with some elements of the job but not others. For example, you might be satisfied with your boss but not your pay, or the type of work you do but not your hours.
First, let’s consider the five significant causes of job satisfaction that are explained here. Need fulfillment— performing your job fulfills your personal needs, allows for family time, provides challenging work, and the like. Discrepancies , or met expectations—the extent to which one receives what he or she expects from a job. When expectations are greater than what is received dissatisfaction is high. Value Attainment —the extent to which a job allows fulfillment of one’s work values. Equity— the level of fair treatment one receives on the job. This cause will be covered more extensively in Chapter 8 when we talk about motivation. Disposition/genetic components —research findings estimate that 30% of an individual’s job satisfaction is associated with dispositional and genetic components; that means we can only hope to change or influence 70% of someone’s level of satisfaction.
Factors that lead to Job Satisfaction include: Autonomy (remember Daniel Pink: Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose?); Task Significance, Feedback, Skill Variety, Skill Identity, Workload, Working Conditions, Pay . . . Etc.
For those of you paying attention here’s the 12 Rules from Wagner/Harter’s book :The 12 Rules of Great Management: First, Break all the Rules.
1. Asking why, asking will I, rather than just making a declarative “I Will” statement actually opens more possibilities and creates better results. The science clearly shows that incentive pay doesn’t improve performance, it makes performance worse. Paying too much means above market, but not outrageously. That attracts the best talent, reduces turnover, and increases performance. Sales commissions interfere with teamwork, commitment and collaboration which improves organizational outcomes. It also leads to poor customer service. From Netflix “"We should focus on what people get done, not how many hours or days worked. Just as we don't have a nine to five day policy, we don't need a vacation policy." “ Nothing wrong with passion, but if you’ve ever been in a long term relationship, passions fade, and then commitment and the ability to act are what makes the difference. Getting rid of the things that aren’t really important to you and clutter up your life, or behaviors you want to change, is as effective as “to do lists,” if not more.
What’s the definition of insanity? Doing what you’ve always done and expecting different result. Choose specifically do something productive in a way that makes sense to you but may be opposite of what “the world” thinks. When we’re locked in a problem we get bogged down. When we’re solving someone else’s problem, options and solutions come much easier. Find a mentor, partner, associate and share. Buy one – give one away. An exponentially growing business model changing the planet. Carving out time that isn’t billable creates all kinds of solutions and innovations that don’t get created during billable time.
11. We are purpose driven beings. If there’s no “why”, there’s a problem. Performance reviews are arbitrary and lack authenticity. Do your own performance review monthly, suggest peer reviews, and if possible use feedback software tools. Please! Clarity and integrity are extremely important. The evidence is clear – those words mean nothing, and focusing on that doesn’t maximize results. Maximize customer value. With your finger, write an E on your forehead. Internal/External Locus of Control exercise. Period