The importance of job satisfaction shows up in two decisions people make about their work—
belonging and performing. The fi rst is the decision to belong—that is, to join and remain a member of
• Organizational citizenship behaviors are the extras people do to go the extra mile in their work.
• Counterproductive work behaviors are behaviors that intentionally disrupt relationships or performance at work.
Spotting Counterproductive or Deviant Workplace Behaviors
Whereas organizational citizenship behaviors help make the organization a better and more pleasant place, counterproductive or deviant behaviors do just the opposite. To varying degrees of severity, they harm the work, the people, and the organizational culture. Here are some things to look for.
• Personal aggres- sion—sexual harass- ment, verbal abuse, physical abuse, intimidation, humilia- tion.
• Production devi- ance—wasting resources, avoiding work, disrupting
workfl ow, making deliberate work errors.
• Political deviance—spreading harmful rumors, gossiping, using bad language, lacking civility in relationships.
• Property deviance—destroying or sabotaging facilities and equipment, stealing money and other resources.
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68 3 Emotions, Attitudes, and Job Satisfaction
an organization. This decision links job satisfaction and withdrawal behaviors, both absenteeism and turnover. The second decision, the decision to perform, raises quite another set of issues. We all know that not everyone who belongs to an orga- nization, whether it’s a classroom or workplace or sports team or voluntary group, performs up to expectations. So, what is the relationship between job satisfaction and performance?51 A recent study, for example, fi nds that higher levels of job sat- isfaction are related to higher levels of customer ratings received by service work- ers.52 But can it be said that high job satisfaction causes high levels of customer service performance?
Three different positions have been advanced about causality in the satisfaction– performance relationship. The fi rst is that job satisfaction causes per- formance; in other words, a happy worker is a productive worker. The second is that performance causes job satisfaction. The third is that job satisfaction and performance infl uence one another, and are mutually affected by other factors such as the availability of rewards. Perhaps you can make a case for one or more of these positions based on your work experiences.
Satisfaction Causes Performance If job satisfaction causes high levels of performance, the message to managers is clear. To increase employees’ work per- formance, make them happy. But, research hasn’t found a simple and direct link between individual job satisfaction at one point in time and later work perfor- mance. A sign once posted in a tavern near one of Ford’s Michigan plants helps tell the story: “I spend 40 hours a week here, am I supposed to work too?” Even though some evidence exists for the satisfaction causes performance relationship among professional or higher-level employees, the best conclusion is that job sat- isfaction alone is not a consistent predictor of individual work performance.
Performance Causes Satisfaction If high levels of performance cause job satisfaction, the message to managers is quite different. Instead of focusing on job satisfaction as the precursor to performance, try to create high performance as a pathway to job satisfaction. It generally makes sense that people should feel good about their jobs when they perform well. And indeed, research does fi nd a link between individual performance measured at one time and later job satisfaction.
Figure 3.5 shows this relationship using a model from the work of Edward E. Lawler and Lyman Porter. It suggests that performance leads to rewards that, in turn, lead to
Performance Valued
Rewards Satisfaction
Perceived Equity of Rewards
Valued
Rewards = Intervening variable = Moderating variable Perceived
Equity of Rewards
Figure 3.5 Simplifi ed Porter-Lawler model of the performance n satisfaction relationship.
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Job Satisfaction and Its Importance 69
The spillover of job satisfaction onto workers’ family lives is the subject of a study published in the Academy of Management Journal by Remus Ilies, Kelly Schwind Wilson, and David T. Wagner.
Noting that communication technologies and fl exibility in work schedules have narrowed the gap between work and home, the researchers asked the question: How does daily job satisfaction spill over to affect a person’s feelings and attitudes in the family role?
The research was conducted by survey and telephone interviews with 101 university employees and their spouses or signifi cant others over a two-week period. High work–family role integration was defi ned as making “little distinction between their work and family roles,” while low work–family role integration meant that work and family were quite segmented from one another. A key hypothesis in the
research was that job satisfaction spillover from work to home on any given day would be greater for the high work–family role integration employees.
Results showed that workers displayed higher positive affect at home on days when they also reported higher job satisfaction. As shown in the fi gure, the expected moderating effect of work–
family integration also held. Workers with high work–family role integration showed a stronger relationship between daily job satisfaction and positive affect at home versus those with low work–family role integration. In fact, among workers with low work–family integration, those who tended to segment work and family roles, positive home affect actually declined as job satisfaction increased.
Job Satisfaction Spillover onto Family Lives
Do the Research How can the fi ndings for the low work–family integration group be explained? What research questions does this study raise in your mind that might become the topics for further study in this area? Would you hypothesize that the job satisfaction–home spillover effects would vary by type of occupation, age of worker, family responsibilities such as number of at-home children, or other factors? Could you suggest a study that might empirically investigate these possibilities?
RESEARCH INSIGHT
Low Job Satisfaction High Job Satisfaction Higher
Lower Positive Home Affect
High work–family role integration
Low work–family role integration
Source: Remus Ilies, Kelly Schwind Wilson, and David T. Wagner, “The Spillover of Daily Job Satisfaction onto Employees’
Family Lives: The Facilitating Role of Work-Family Integration,” Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 52, No. 1 (2009), pp. 87–102.
satisfaction.53 Rewards are intervening variables in this model; when valued by the recipient, they link performance with later satisfaction. The model also includes a moderator variable—perceived equity of rewards. This indicates that performance leads to satisfaction only if rewards are perceived as fair and equitable. Although this model is a good starting point, and one that we will use again in discussing motivation and rewards in Chapter 6, we also know from experience that some people may per- form well but still not like the jobs that they have to do.
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70 3 Emotions, Attitudes, and Job Satisfaction
Rewards Cause Both Satisfaction and Performance The fi nal position in the job satisfaction–performance discussion suggests that the right rewards allocated in the right ways will positively infl uence both performance and satisfaction. These two outcomes also infl uence one another. A key issue in respect to the allocation of rewards is performance contingency. This means that the size of the reward varies in proportion to the level of performance.
Research generally fi nds that rewards infl uence satisfaction while performance- contingent rewards infl uence performance.54 The prevailing management advice is to use performance-contingent rewards well in the attempt to create both.
Although giving a low performer a small reward may lead to dissatisfaction at fi rst, the expectation is that he or she will make efforts to improve performance in order to obtain higher rewards in the future.55
3 study guide
Key Questions
and Answers
What are emotions and moods?• Affect is a generic term that covers a broad range of feelings that individuals experi- ence as emotions and moods.
• Emotions are strong feelings directed at someone or something and that infl uence behavior, often with intensity and for short periods of time.
• Moods are generalized positive or negative states of mind that can be persistent infl uences on one’s behavior.
• Emotional intelligence is the ability to detect and manage emotional cues and information. Four emotional intelligence skills or competencies are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
How do emotions and moods infl uence behavior in organizations?
• Emotional contagion involves the spillover effects onto others of one’s emotions and moods; in other words, emotions and moods can spread from person to person.
• Emotional labor is a situation where a person displays organizationally desired emotions while performing a job.
• Emotional dissonance is a discrepancy between true feelings and organizationally desired emotions; it is linked with deep acting to try to modify true inner feelings and with surface acting to hide one’s true inner feelings.
• Affective Events Theory (AET) relates characteristics of the work environment, work events, and personal predispositions to positive or negative emotional reactions and job satisfaction.
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Terms to Know 71
What are attitudes and how do they infl uence behavior in organizations?
• An attitude is a predisposition to respond in a certain way to people and things.
• Attitudes have affective, cognitive, and behavioral components.
• Although attitudes predispose individuals toward certain behaviors, they do not guarantee that such behaviors will take place.
• Individuals desire consistency between their attitudes and their behaviors, and cognitive dissonance occurs when a person’s attitude and behavior are inconsistent.
• Job satisfaction is an attitude toward one’s job, co-workers, and workplace.
• Job involvement is a positive attitude that shows up in the extent to which an individual is dedicated to a job.
• Organizational commitment is a positive attitude that shows up in the loyalty of an individual to the organization.
What is job satisfaction and why is it important?
• Five components of job satisfaction are the work itself, quality of supervision, relationships with co-workers, promotion opportunities, and pay.
• Job satisfaction infl uences physical withdrawal behaviors of absenteeism, turnover, as well as psychological withdrawal behaviors like day dreaming and cyber loafi ng.
• Job satisfaction is linked with organizational citizenship behaviors that are both interpersonal—such as doing extra work for a sick teammate—and organizational—
such as always speaking positively about the organization.
• A lack of job satisfaction may be refl ected in counterproductive work behaviors such as purposely performing with low quality, avoiding work, acting violently at work, or even engaging in workplace theft.
• Three possibilities in the job satisfaction and performance relationship are that satisfaction causes performance, performance causes satisfaction, and rewards cause both performance and satisfaction.
Terms to Know
Affect (p. 54) Attitude (p. 61)
Cognitive dissonance (p. 62) Counterproductive work
behaviors (p. 67) Display rules (p. 59) Emotion and mood contagion (p. 58)
Emotional dissonance (p. 58)
Emotional intelligence (p. 54) Emotional labor (p. 58) Emotions (p. 54)
Employee engagement (p. 63) Job involvement (p. 62) Job satisfaction (p. 62) Moods (p. 56)
Organizational citizenship behaviors (p. 67)
Organizational commitment (p. 63) Relationship management (p. 55) Self-awareness (p. 55)
Self-conscious emotions (p. 56) Self-management (p. 55) Social awareness (p. 55) Social emotions (p. 56) c03EmotionsAttitudesandJobSatisfaction.indd Page 71 7/12/11 7:14 PM ff-446
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72 3 Emotions, Attitudes, and Job Satisfaction
Self-Test 3
Multiple Choice
1. A/an ____________ is a rather intense but short-lived feeling about a person or a situation, while a/an ____________ is a more generalized positive or negative state of mind. (a) stressor, satisfi er (b) affect, attitude (c) spillover, moderator (d) emotion, mood
2. When someone is feeling anger about something a co-worker did, she is experienc- ing a/an ____________, but when just “having a bad day overall” she is experiencing a/an ____________. (a) mood, emotion (b) emotion, mood (c) affect, effect
(d) dissonance, consonance
3. Emotions and moods as personal affects are known to infl uence ____________.
(a) attitudes (b) ability (c) aptitude (d) intelligence
4. If a person shows empathy and understanding of the emotions of others and uses this to better relate to them, she is displaying the emotional intelligence competency of ____________. (a) self-awareness (b) emotional contagion (c) relationship management (d) social awareness
5. The ____________ component of an attitude indicates a person’s belief about something, while the ____________ component indicates positive or negative feeling about it. (a) cognitive, affective (b) emotional, affective (c) cognitive, mood
(d) behavioral, mood
6. ____________ describes the discomfort someone feels when his or her behavior is inconsistent with an expressed attitude. (a) Alienation (b) Cognitive dissonance (c) Job dissatisfaction (d) Person–job imbalance
7. Affective Events Theory shows how one’s emotional reactions to work events, environ- ment, and personal predispositions can infl uence ____________. (a) job satisfaction and performance (b) emotional labor (c) emotional intelligence (d) emotional contagion 8. The tendency of people at work to display feelings consistent with the moods of
their co-workers and bosses, is known as ____________. (a) emotional dissonance (b) emotional labor (c) mood contagion (d) mood stability
9. When an airline fl ight attendant displays organizationally desired emotions when interacting with passengers, this is an example of ____________. (a) emotional labor (b) emotional contagion (c) job commitment (d) negative affect
10. A person who always volunteers for extra work or helps someone else with their work is said to be high in ____________. (a) emotional labor (b) affect (c) emotional intelligence (d) organizational commitment
11. The main difference between job involvement and ____________ is that the former shows a positive attitude toward the job and the latter shows a positive attitude toward the organization. (a) organizational commitment (b) employee engagement (c) job satisfaction (d) cognitive dissonance
12. Job satisfaction is known to be a good predictor of ____________. (a) deep acting (b) emotional intelligence (c) cognitive dissonance (d) absenteeism
13. The best conclusion about job satisfaction in today’s workforce is probably that ____________. (a) it isn’t an important issue (b) the only real concern is pay (c) most people are not satisfi ed with their jobs most of the time (d) trends show declining job satisfaction
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Next Steps 73
14. Which statement about the job satisfaction–job performance relationship is most consistent with research? (a) A happy worker will be productive. (b) A productive worker will be happy. (c) A well rewarded productive worker will be happy.
(d) a poorly rewarded productive worker will be happy.
15. What does “performance-contingent” refer to when rewards are discussed as possible infl uences on satisfaction and performance? (a) rewards are highly valued (b) rewards are frequent (c) rewards are in proportion to performance (d) rewards are based only on seniority
Short Response
16. What are the major differences between emotions and moods as personal affects?
17. Describe and give examples of the three components of an attitude.
18. List fi ve facets of job satisfaction and briefl y discuss their importance.
19. Why is cognitive dissonance an important concept for managers to understand?
Applications Essay
20. Your boss has a sign posted in her offi ce. It says—“A satisfi ed worker is a high- performing worker.” In a half-joking and half-serious way she points to it and says,
“You are fresh out of college as a business and management major, am I right or wrong?” What is your response?
Next Steps
Top Choices from The OB Skills Workbook
Case for Critical Thinking
Team and Experiential Exercises
Self-Assessment Portfolio
• Management Training Dilemma
• My Best Manager
• My Best Job
• Graffi ti Needs Assessment
• Sweet Tooth
• Learning Style Inventory
• Student Leadership Practices Inventory
• 21st Century Manager
• Global Readiness Index c03EmotionsAttitudesandJobSatisfaction.indd Page 73 7/12/11 7:14 PM ff-446
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74
Just-in-time Learning Saves the Day
Right about now, you’re starting to panic. Your boss has a request: The Web designer is on maternity leave. You’re good with computers, so can you edit some pages on the company’s Web site?
What do you do? Cross your fi ngers and dive in head fi rst. That’s the spirit behind Head First Labs, a series of irreverent tech tutorial books designed to help readers learn—and remember—new and complicated information by incorporating storytelling, unexpected images, and hands-on projects.
Published by O’Reilly Media, the books emphasize just-in-time learning, the idea of acquiring just enough knowl- edge to get by, where and when you need it.
Here’s the core of Head First’s philosophy: Sometimes you have to trick your brain. Because its primary goal is to keep you safe and out of trouble, your gray matter tends to favor the important stuff (Danger! Fire! Angry boss! ) over what it thinks is trivial. The solution: Couple the information you need now with enough unusual images, piquant captions, and unexpected elements to kick those neurons into learning mode.
“When you learn just-in-time, you’re highly motivated,” says research statistician John Cook. Because you’re already under the gun, “there’s no need to imagine whether you might apply what you’re learning.”a
But what about those Web pages the boss asked you to edit?
With the help of a Head First guide, you learn just enough to make the necessary changes without crashing the site. Your grateful boss rewards you with your favorite kind of positive reinforcement: lunch on the company’s dime. While you’re waiting for the check, she leans in and asks, “How much do you know about databases?”
“What you know is trivial. The real issue is, what do you know how to do?”
—Roger Schank, Director of North- western University’s Institute for Learning Sciencesb
FYI: For employees with less than 12 years of work experience, trained (on the job) workers enjoy wages that are almost 10% higher than wages of untrained workers.
Quick Summary
• O’Reilly Media’s Head First books provide engaging just-in-time training on dense tech topics like programming and Web design.
• The guides use unexpected pictures, real-life examples, and hands-on exercises to increase information retention.
• Companies fi nd that just-in-time learning tools cuts training costs, minimizes employee downtime, and improves productivity.
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➠
754 Perception, Attribution, and Learning
the key point
In all the events and experiences of everyday living it can be a shock when people view the same thing and come to different conclusions. But this is reality—people often perceive situations in different ways. The better we understand perception and attribution and their effects on how people behave and learn, the better we can be at dealing with events, people, and relationships not only just-in-time, but also in positive ways.
chapter at a glance
What Is Perception and Why Is It Important?
What Are the Common Perceptual Distortions?
What Is the Link Between Perception, Attribution, and Social Learning?
What Is Involved in Learning by Reinforcement?
what’s inside?
ETHICS IN OB
WORKERS REPORT VIEWS ON ETHICAL WORKPLACE CONDUCT
FINDING THE LEADER IN YOU
RICHARD BRANSON LEADS WITH PERSONALITY AND POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT
OB IN POPULAR CULTURE
POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT AND THE BIG BANG THEORY
RESEARCH INSIGHT
INTERACTIONAL JUSTICE PERCEPTIONS AFFECT INTENT TO LEAVE
it’s in the eye of the beholder
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