Starbucks’ baristas are important for store success.
TED S. WARREN/AP PHOTO
Insights for Leaders
It should be evident by now that the various personality dimensions have important implications for understanding behavior and improving performance. However, leaders or groups should not try to change or otherwise directly control employee personality because being able to do so is generally impossible. Even if such control were possible, it would be highly unethical. Rather, the challenge for leaders and employees is to understand the crucial role played by personality in explaining some aspects of human behavior in the workplace. Knowledge of important individual differences provides leaders, employees, and students of organizational behavior with valuable insights and a framework that they can use to diagnose events and situations.
Although understanding differences in personality is important, behavior always involves an interaction of the person and the situation. Sometimes the demands of the situation may be so overwhelming that individual differences are relatively unimport- ant for leaders. For example, if an office building is burning, everyone in it will try to flee. However, the fact that all employees behaved the same way says nothing about the personalities of those individuals. In other situations, individual differences may explain more about behavior.
Under normal working conditions, a person’s personality has a role in determin- ing how that person behaves at work. Just reflect on how Steve Jobs’ personality affects others at Apple, or the characteristics of baristas that Starbucks looks for when hiring new employees. We believe that considering both the personality of the individual and the demands of the job are needed to help leaders understand why individuals behave as they do in organizations. When an individual’s personality does not fit the demands of the job, that person will be less satisfied and productive. Job applicants should assess the fit between their personal characteristics and the demands of the job and organiza- tion. However, if all individuals share common characteristics and preferences, leaders need to recognize that the organization might be more resistant to change. To remain competitive over the long term, leaders are probably well served to hire some indi- viduals who do not fit the mold. For that reason, this perspective is consistently used throughout this book. Many of the topics covered in this book, such as leadership, interpersonal communication, conflict management, stress, and resistance to change, examine both personal and situational causes for the organizational behavior discussed.
Both interact to determine behavior.
Work-Related Attitudes
It is often very difficult to separate personality and attitudes. You cannot see either one, but you can see the results of each through a person’s behavior. Attitudes are another type of individual difference that affects an individual’s behavior in organiza- tions. Attitudes are relatively lasting feelings, thoughts, and behaviors aimed at specific
Learning Goal
3. Describe the attitudes that affect performance.
A company survey found the top two reasons individuals want to work for Starbucks are “the opportunity to work with an enthusiastic team”
and “to work in a place where I feel I have value”
(agreeableness). Therefore, Starbucks looks to hire individuals with high self-esteem who are sensitive to the feelings of others and who want partici- pation from and success for all team members.
Highly effective baristas are also stable individu- als who do not show anxiousness or hostility to others even under stressful conditions. Finally, Starbucks wants barista partners who combine their passion for great coffee and quality customer service, listen to others, are reliable, organized, and can focus on completing their tasks.
To learn more about Starbucks, go to www.starbucks.com.
individuals, groups, ideas, issues, or objects.23 Attitudes are influenced by an individual’s background and experiences. They are formed by a variety of forces, including their personal values, experiences, and personalities. Attitudes are important for three reasons. First, attitudes are reasonably stable over time. Unless individuals have strong reasons to change, they will persist. Individuals who have a favorable attitude toward buying domestic cars will probably like domestic cars in the future, unless important reasons occur to change their automobile preferences. Second, individuals hold attitudes that are directed toward some object—job, supervisor, company, college. If a barista likes coffee and serving individuals, they probably won’t have a negative attitude toward working at Starbucks as a barista. Third, attitudes influence our behavior. That is, individuals tend to behave in ways that are consistent with their feelings. If we have a specific attitude toward an object or person, we tend to form other consistent attitudes toward related objects or individuals. Therefore, to change a person’s attitude, you need to change a person’s behavior.
Components of Attitudes
Individuals often think of attitudes as a simple concept. In reality, attitudes and their effects on behavior are complex. An attitude consists of:
an
• affective component—the feelings, sentiments, moods, and emotions about some specific person, idea, event, or object;
a
• cognitive component—the thoughts, opinions, knowledge, or information held by the individual about a specific person, idea, event, or object; and
a
• behavioral component—the predisposition to act on a favorable or unfavorable evaluation to a specific person, idea, event, or object.
These components don’t exist or function separately. An attitude represents the interplay of a person’s affective, cognitive, and behavioral tendencies with regard to something—another person or group, an event, or an issue. For example, suppose that a college student has a negative attitude about the use of tobacco. During a job interview with the representative of the Altria Group, he discovers that Philip Morris, a maker of cigarettes, is owned by the Altria Group. He might feel a sudden uneasiness during the interview (the affective compo- nent) because a close friend’s parent recently died from lung cancer. He might form a negative opinion of the interviewer based on beliefs and opinions about the type of person who would work for such a company (the cognitive component).
He might even be tempted to make an unkind remark to the interviewer or suddenly terminate the interview (the behav- ioral component). However, the person’s actual behavior may or may not be easy to predict and will depend on several factors, including the current state of the job market, that we will discuss shortly.
Attitudes Affecting Job Performance
Individuals form attitudes about many things. Employees have attitudes about their manager, pay, working conditions, promotions, where they park, coworkers, and the like. Some of these attitudes are more important than others because they are more closely linked to performance. Especially important to job performance are attitudes of hope, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment.
Diversity Insight
Individuals working together and respect- ing one another so that they can achieve their common goal is all I want. We need all sorts of individuals to succeed as an organization.
Albert Black, CEO, On-Target Supplies and Logistics
Hope
Hope involves a person’s mental willpower (determination) and waypower (road map) to achieve goals.24 Simply wishing for something isn’t enough; a person must have the means to make it happen. However, all the knowledge and skills needed to solve a problem won’t help if the person doesn’t have the willpower to do so. Therefore, a simple definition of hope is
Hope = mental willpower + waypower to achieve goals.
Answering the questions in Table 3.3 will help you understand this definition of hope. You need to have a high level of both the willpower and the waypower to have a high level of hope to accomplish your goals. This concept applies to a variety of work- related attitudes. The high-hope person enjoys the pursuit of challenging goals and pursues them with a positive attitude. High-hope individuals engage in self-talk, such as “This should be an interesting task” or “I am ready for this challenge.” High-hope individuals are attentive and focused on the appropriate behaviors for the situation.
They commit themselves to desired positive work outcomes (e.g., good performance) and distance themselves from negative outcomes. They possess an internal locus of control. As such, they need a high degree of autonomy in order to express themselves and be productive. They can be easily offended and discouraged if micromanaged and will likely try to search for alternative pathways to regain control. Hopeful employees tend to be creative and resourceful.
In contrast, low-hope individuals are apprehensive about what is to come.
Their attention is quickly diverted from task-relevant behavior to such thoughts as “I’m not doing very well.” Low-hope individuals may feel a lot of negative emo- tions very quickly. Low-hope individuals are especially susceptible to feeling great amounts of stress in their jobs and becoming easily derailed by issues in their pur- suit of goals. With such derailments, low-hope individuals perceive that they are not going to reach their desired goals. Their natural tendency is to withdraw from friends and become “loners.” For high-hope individuals, however, the stressor is
TABLE 3. 3 Hope Scale
Read each item carefully. For each item, what number best describes you?
1 = definitely false 2 = mostly false 3 = mostly true 4 = definitely true
______ 1. I energetically pursue my work (academic) goals.
______ 2. I can think of many ways to get out of a jam.
______ 3. My past experiences have prepared me well for my future.
______ 4. There are lots of ways around any problem.
______ 5. I’ve been pretty successful in life.
______ 6. I can think of many ways to get things in life that are most important to me.
______ 7. I meet the goals (work/academic) that I set for myself.
______ 8. Even when others get discouraged, I know I can find a way to solve the problem.
Scoring: Total the eight numbers. If you score higher than 24, you are a hopeful person. If you score less than 24, you probably aren’t hopeful. Items 1, 3, 5, and 7 relate to will power, and items 2, 4, 6, and 8 relate to waypower.
Source: Adapted from Snyder, C. R. Managing for high hope. R&D Innovator, 1995,4(6), 6 –7; Snyder, C. R., LaPointe, A. B., Crowson, J. J., and Early, S. Preferences of high- and low-hope people for self-referential input. Cognition and Emotion, 1998, 12, 807–823.
seen as a challenge that needs to be worked around. What happens when high-hope individuals are blocked from reaching their goal? They are not filled with anger, self-pity, and negative emotions, as is the case for low-hope individuals in similar circumstances. Rather, high-hope individuals will find another goal that will fulfill similar needs. This is because high-hope individuals have several goals that can bring them happiness. Leaders who are hopeful spend more time with employees, establish open lines of communication with employees and others, and help others set difficult, but achievable, goals. High-hope individuals tend to be more certain of their goals, value progress toward achieving those goals, enjoy interacting with individuals, readily adapt to new relationships, and are less anxious in stressful situ- ations than are low-hope individuals.
Leaders can help employees increase their level of hope by using one or more of the following management practices.25 First, they can help subordinates set clear and specific goals that have benchmarks so that the employees can track progress toward their goals. Vague goals may actually lessen hope because the result sought is unclear and tracking progress is therefore difficult, if not impossible. Employees who set performance goals that are slightly higher than previous levels of performance learn to expand their range of hope. They also learn a great deal about which goals are best for them. Second, leaders can help employees break overall, long-term goals into small subgoals or steps. Remember how you learned to ride a bike? Through many falls and wobbles, you learned that each consecutive subgoal (moving the pedals, balanc- ing, going a block without falling) is a stretch. These small steps provided you with positive mental maps about how to reach your goal—riding a bike. Third, leaders can help employees figure out how to motivate themselves to reach their goals.
Job Satisfaction
An attitude of great interest to managers and team leaders is job satisfaction.26 Job satisfaction reflects the extent to which individuals find fulfillment in their work. Job satis- faction has been linked to employees staying on the job and low job turnover. With the cost of replacing employees being about 30 to 40 percent of their salary, job turnover can become quite expensive. Similarly, employees who are highly satisfied with their jobs come to work regularly and are less likely to take sick days.
Do employees generally like their jobs? Despite what you may hear in the news about dissatisfied employees going on strike or even acting violently toward their coworkers and/or managers, they are generally quite satisfied with their jobs. Low job satisfaction can result in costly turnover, absenteeism, tardiness, and even poor mental health. Because job satisfaction is important to organizations, we need to look at the factors that contribute to it.
A popular measure of job satisfaction used by organizations is shown in Table 3.4.
It measures five facets of job satisfaction: pay, security, social, supervisory, and growth satisfaction. Take time now to complete it. Obviously, you may be satisfied with some aspects of your job and, at the same time, dissatisfied with others.
The sources of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction vary from person to person.
Some individuals may find that being an animal control officer, mortician, correc- tional/probation officer, or a used car salesperson might not offer sources of personal satisfaction. Yet, individuals who perform these jobs often think that they are perform- ing important jobs and derive a great sense of job satisfaction from performing them.
Important sources of satisfaction for many employees include the challenge of the job, the interest that the work holds for them, the physical activity required, working con- ditions, rewards available from the organization, the nature of coworkers, and the like.
Table 3.5 lists work factors that often are related to various levels of job satisfaction.
An important implication is that job satisfaction be should considered an outcome of an individual’s work experience. Thus, high levels of dissatisfaction should indicate to leaders that problems exist, say, with working conditions, the reward system, or the employee’s role in the organization.
A commonsense notion is that job satisfaction leads directly to effective perfor- mance. (A happy worker is a good worker.) Yet, numerous studies have shown that a simple, direct link between job satisfaction and job performance often doesn’t exist.27 Research has shown that job satisfaction and job performance are influenced by one’s personality. That is, a person’s locus of control and Big Five personality characteristics affect the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. The difficulty of relating attitudes to behavior is important. For example, individuals who hold a positive attitude toward their job but are low in conscientiousness may not necessar- ily work harder because they end up coming in late to work, fail to show up at all, are unorganized, and the like. General attitudes best predict general behaviors, and spe- cific attitudes are related most strongly to specific behaviors. These principles explain,
TABLE 3.4 Measuring Job Satisfaction
Think of the job you have now, or a job you’ve had in the past. Indicate how satisfied you are with each aspect of your job below, using the following scale:
1 = Extremely dissatisfied 2 = Dissatisfied 3 = Slightly dissatisfied 4 = Neutral
5 = Slightly satisfied 6 = Satisfied
7 = Extremely satisfied
_____ 1. The amount of job security I have.
_____ 2. The amount of pay and fringe benefits I receive.
_____ 3. The amount of personal growth and development I get in doing my job.
_____ 4. The people I talk to and work with on my job.
_____ 5. The degree of respect and fair treatment I receive from my boss.
_____ 6. The feeling of worthwhile accomplishment I get from doing my job.
_____ 7. The chance to get to know other people while on the job.
_____ 8. The amount of support and guidance I receive from my supervisor.
_____ 9. The degree to which I am fairly paid for what I contribute to this organization.
_____ 10. The amount of independent thought and action I can exercise in my job.
_____ 11. How secure things look for me in the future in this organization.
_____ 12. The chance to help other people while at work.
_____ 13. The amount of challenge in my job.
_____ 14. The overall quality of the supervision I receive on my work.
Now, compute your scores for the facets of job satisfaction.
Pay Satisfaction:
Q2 + Q9 = _____ Divided by 2:
Security Satisfaction:
Q1 + Q11 = _____ Divided by 2:
Social Satisfaction:
Q4 + Q7 + Q12 = _____ Divided by 3:
Supervisory Satisfaction:
Q5 + Q8 + Q14 = _____ Divided by 3:
Growth Satisfaction:
Q3 + Q6 + Q10 + Q13 = _____ Divided by 4:
Scores on the facets range from 1 to 7. (Scores lower than 4 suggest there is room for change.) This questionnaire is an abbreviated version of the Job Diagnostic Survey, a widely used tool for assessing individuals’ attitudes about their jobs.
Source: J. Richard Hackman & Greg R. Oldham, Work Redesign, © 1980. Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ.
at least in part, why the expected relationships often don’t exist. Job satisfaction is a collection of numerous attitudes toward various aspects of the job and represents a general attitude. Performance of a specific task, such as preparing a particular monthly report, can’t necessarily be predicted on the basis of a general attitude. However, stud- ies have shown that the level of overall workforce job satisfaction and organizational performance are linked. That is, organizations with satisfied employees tend to be more effective than organizations with unsatisfied employees.