Schwartz model organizes values into

CHAPTER 2

Values and Attitudes

©McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. Authorized only for instructor use in the classroom. No reproduction or further distribution permitted without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.

1

VALUES AND ATTITUDES

Outline

Personal Values

Personal Attitudes and Their Impact on Behavior and Outcomes

Key Workplace Attitudes

The Causes of Job Satisfaction

Major Correlates and Consequences of Job Satisfaction

©McGraw-Hill Education.

2

Major Questions You Should Be Able to Answer

2.1 What role do values play in influencing my behavior?

2.2 How do personal attitudes affect workplace behavior and work-related outcomes?

2.3 Why should management pay attention to workplace attitudes?

2.4 How can changes in the workplace improve job satisfaction?

2.5 What work-related outcomes are associated with job satisfaction?

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Personal Values Are…

Abstract ideals that guide one’s thinking

and

behavior across all situations

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Values are abstract ideals that guide one’s thinking and behavior across all situations.

They are strongly influenced by our religious or spiritual beliefs, the values of our parents, experiences during childhood, and events occurring throughout the communities and societies in which we live.

Managers need to understand an employee’s values because they encompass concepts, principles, or activities for which people are willing to work hard.

All workers need an understanding of values to work effectively with others and manage themselves.

4

Schwartz’s Value Theory

Values are motivational

&

Represent broad goals over time

Bipolar values are incongruent

while

Adjacent values are complementary

Jump to Appendix 1 for description

Source: S.H. Schwartz, “An Overview of the Schwartz Theory of Basic Values,” Online Readings in Psychology and Culture 2(1), December 1, 2012, http//dx.doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.116.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Schwartz believes that values are motivational in that they “represent broad goals that apply across contexts and time.”

Not only have these 10 values been found to predict behavior as outlined in the theory, but they also generalize across cultures.

The model organizes values by showing the patterns of conflict and congruity among them. In general, adjacent values like self-direction and universalism are positively related, whereas values that are farther apart (like self-direction and power) are less strongly related. Taking this one step further, Schwartz proposes that values that are in opposing directions from the center conflict with each other.

5

What Do We Know About Values?

A person’s values are stable over time but personal values vary across generations and cultures.

Attracting employees whose personal values align with those of the organization yields many benefits.

Lower employee turnover

Higher employee retention

Higher employee engagement

Increased customer satisfaction

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Implications of Schwartz’s Value Theory

Workplace Application

Managers can better manage their employees when they understand an employees' values and motivation

Pursuit of incongruent goals may lead to conflicting employee actions and behaviors

Personal Application

Employees will derive more meaning from work by pursuing goals that are consistent with their values

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Managers can better supervise workers by using Schwartz’s model to understand their values and motivation. For example, if a manager knows that an employee values universalism and benevolence, then it would be wise to assign this employee to projects or tasks that have social value.

This model can help you determine if your values are consistent with your goals and whether you are spending your time in a meaningful way.

In general, values are relatively stable across time and situations. This means that positive employee attitudes and motivation are greatest when the work environment is consistent with employee values.

Values tend to vary across generations because they are influenced by events occurring during childhood.

7

Test Your OB Knowledge (1 of 6)

Which of the following statements is NOT true about personal values?

In general, values are relatively stable across time and situations.

Values tend to vary across generations.

Schwartz’s value theory can be generalized across cultures.

Values are not motivational in nature.

Not all values are compatible.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

The answer is (D). Values are motivational in nature in that they represent broad goals that apply across contexts and time.

8

Personal Attitudes

Encompass our feelings or opinions about people, places, and objects

Comprised of theses three components:

Affective — Feelings

Cognitive — Beliefs

Behavioral — Intentions

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Attitudes represent our feelings or opinions about people, places, and objects, and range from positive to negative.

They are important because they impact our behavior.

In a work setting, workplace attitudes are positively related to performance and negatively to indicators of withdrawal – lateness, absenteeism, and turnover.

9

When Attitudes and Reality Collide

We experience Cognitive Dissonance

We can reduce it by

Changing an attitude or behavior or both

Belittling the importance of the inconsistent behavior

Finding consonant elements that outweigh dissonant ones

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Cognitive dissonance represents the psychological discomfort a person experiences when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting cognitions (ideas, beliefs, values, or emotions).

People are motivated to maintain consistency (and avoid dissonance) among their attitudes and beliefs, and how they resolve inconsistencies that drive cognitive dissonance. From observation, Festinger theorized that if you are experiencing cognitive dissonance, or psychological tension, you can reduce it in one of three ways:

Change your attitude or behavior or both.

Belittle the importance of the inconsistent behavior.

Find consonant elements that outweigh dissonant ones.

10

Our Personal Attitudes Affect Behavior via Our Intentions

Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior

Jump to Appendix 2 for description

Source: I. Ajzen, “The Theory of Planned Behavior,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes,Vol. 50, No. 2, Copyright 1991.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Three key general motives predict or at least influence intention and behavior.

1. Attitude toward the behavior. The degree to which a person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation or appraisal of the behavior in question.

2. Subjective norm. A social factor representing the perceived social pressure for or against the behavior.

3. Perceived behavioral control. The perceived ease or difficulty of performing the behavior, assumed to reflect past experience and anticipated obstacles.

According to the Ajzen model, someone’s intention to engage in a given behavior is a strong predictor of that behavior.

So if we want to change behavior we should look at intentions and how we might modify them by working on the three general motives shown in Figure 2.2.

Managers may be able to 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

In the workplace, one of the simplest levers managers can use to change behavior is information. Management provides information to employees daily. Standard organizational information that can affect motivation includes

• Reports on the organization’s culture.

• Announcements of new training programs.

• News on key managers.

• Updates to human resource programs and policies.

• Announcements of new rewards of working for the company.

All such messages reinforce certain beliefs, and managers may consciously use them to influence behavior.

11

Test Your OB Knowledge (2 of 6)

José is considering volunteering to help his company with its annual food drive. Which of the following is NOT an indicator of whether he will do so?

José thinks the food bank is a great way to help his community.

José is already volunteering at the animal shelter.

José’s boss expects him to volunteer.

José’s company gives employees a day off to volunteer.

The food bank is located close to José’s home.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

The answer is (B). The other answers are determinants of intentions:

Attitude toward the behavior

Subjective norm

Perceived behavioral control

12

Key Workplace Attitudes

Some workplace attitudes are more potent than others. The following four are especially powerful:

Organizational Commitment

Employee Engagement

Perceived Organizational Support

Job Satisfaction

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Savvy managers will track four key workplace attitudes:

1. Organizational commitment

2. Employee engagement

3. Perceived organizational support

4. Job satisfaction

These attitudinal measures serve a dual purpose:

First, they represent important outcomes that managers may be working to enhance directly.

They link to other significant outcomes that managers will want to improve where possible.

Organizational commitment reflects the extent to which an individual identifies with an organization and commits to its goals.

13

Organizational Commitment (1 of 2)

The extent to which an employee identifies with an organization and is committed to its goals.

And it leads to

Greater employee retention

Greater motivation in pursuit of organizational goals

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Committed individuals tend to display two outcomes:

• Likely continuation of their employment with the organization.

• Greater motivation toward pursuing organizational goals and decisions.

14

Organizational Commitment (2 of 2)

Increasing Employee Commitment

Hire those whose personal values most align with those of the organization.

Guard against managerial breaches of psychological contracts.

Build the level of trust.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Organizational commitment exists to the degree that your personal values generally match the values that undergird a company’s organizational culture. For example, if you value achievement and your employer rewards people for accomplishing goals, you are more likely to be committed to the company.

Commitment depends on the quality of an employee’s psychological contracts.

Psychological contracts represent an individual’s perception about the terms and conditions of a reciprocal exchange between him- or herself and another party.

In a work environment, the psychological contract represents an employee’s beliefs about what he or she is entitled to receive in return for what he or she provides to the organization.

Research shows that an employer breach of the psychological contract is associated with lower organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and performance, and greater intentions to quit.

15

What Is Employee Engagement?

The extent to which employees give it their all to their work roles.

And includes the feeling of

Urgency

Being Focused

Intensity

Enthusiasm

©McGraw-Hill Education.

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 essence of this definition is the idea that engaged employees “give it their all” at work. Further study identified its components as four feelings:

• Urgency

• Being focused

• Intensity

• Enthusiasm

16

What Contributes to Employee Engagement?

A mix of

Organizational Level Factors,

Person Factors, and

Environmental Characteristics

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Person Factors:

Positive or optimistic personalities

Proactive personality

Conscientiousness

Environmental Characteristics

Job characteristics. These represent the motivating potential of the tasks we complete at work. For example, people are engaged when their work contains variety and when they receive timely feedback.

Leadership. People are more engaged when their manager is charismatic and when a positive, trusting relationship exists between managers and employees.

Stressors. Stressors are environmental characteristics that cause stress. Finally, engagement is higher when employees are not confronted with a lot of stressors.

Organizational Level Factors

Career opportunities

Managing performance

Organization reputation

Communication

Recognition

17

Employee Engagement

Increases in Employee Engagement has been linked to

Increased Customer Loyalty and Satisfaction

Increased Employee Performance

Increased Employee Well-being

Greater Financial Performance

©McGraw-Hill Education.

One way to increase employee engagement is to make sure that the inputs in the Organizing Framework are positively oriented. Organizations do this by measuring, tracking, and responding to surveys of employee engagement.

Other ideas include the creation of career and developmental opportunities for employees, recognizing people for good work, effectively communicating and listening, effective use of performance management practices allowing people to exercise during the work day, creating a physically attractive and stimulating work environment, and giving people meaningful work to do.

18

Perceived Organizational Support

It is the extent to which employees believe that the organization

Values their contributions

Genuinely cares about their well-being

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Perceived organizational support (POS) reflects the extent to which employees believe their organization values their contributions and genuinely cares about their well-being.

Perceptions of support can either be positive or negative. For example, your POS would be negative if you worked for a bad boss and a company that did not provide good health benefits or career opportunities.

19

Perceived Organizational Support

Associated with

Increased organizational commitment

Job satisfaction

Organizational citizenship behavior

Task performance

Lower turnover

©McGraw-Hill Education.

We are more likely to reciprocate with hard work and dedication when our employer treats us favorably.

The outcomes associated with POS include increased organizational commitment, job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior, and task performance. POS also is related to lower turnover.

POS can be increased by treating employees fairly, by avoiding political behavior, by providing job security, by giving people more autonomy, by reducing stressors in the work environment, and by eliminating abusive supervision.

20

Test Your OB Knowledge (3 of 6)

Sandra manages the marketing department for the Greener Grass Corporation. In an effort to increase employee engagement, Sandra could try all the following EXCEPT

Redesign jobs so that workers have variety and feedback.

Take a class to learn how to be a charismatic leader.

Try to limit the stressors in the workplace.

As staff leave, replace them with new hires who score high in pessimism on a personality test.

Provide recognition to employees who perform well.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

The answer is (D). The other answers are ways to increase employee engagement.

21

Job Satisfaction Is…

An affective or emotional response toward various facets of one’s job

In other words, it is the extent to which

an individual likes his or her job

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Job satisfaction essentially reflects the extent to which an individual likes his or her job.

Formally defined, job satisfaction is an affective or emotional response toward various facets of one’s job.

This definition implies job satisfaction is not a unitary concept. Rather, a person can be relatively satisfied with one aspect of her or his job and dissatisfied with one or more other aspects.

22

Models Job Satisfaction

Model How Management Can Boost Job Satisfaction
Need fulfillment Understand and meet employees’ needs.
Met expectations Meet expectations of employees about what they will receive from job.
Value attainment Structure the job and its rewards to match employee values.
Equity Monitor employee’ perceptions of fairness and interact with them so they feel fairly treated.
Disposition/genetic components Hire employees with an appropriate disposition.
©McGraw-Hill Education.

The interactional perspective states that behavior is a function of interdependent person and environmental factors.

Environments present various types of rewards and opportunities that people achieve or realize with diverse knowledge, skills, abilities, and motivations.

Different people may perceive similar situations in different ways and similar people may perceive different situations in the same way.

23

Test Your OB Knowledge (4 of 6)

David, an accountant with Brighter Future Corporation, is experiencing job dissatisfaction due to comparing how hard he works and how much he gets paid versus his perception of a coworker’s effort and reward. David’s dissatisfaction can be explained by ______ model.

disposition/genetic components

equity

need fulfillment

value attainment

met expectations

©McGraw-Hill Education.

The answer is (B). David is comparing his outcomes/inputs ratio with a co-worker and perceiving it to be less favorable.

24

Outcomes Linked with Job Satisfaction

Attitudes

Motivation

Job Involvement

Withdrawal Cognitions

Perceived Stress

Behaviors

Job Performance

Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)

Counterproductive Work Behavior (CWB)

Turnover

©McGraw-Hill Education.

People bring their abilities, goals, and experiences to each and every situation, which often changes the situation.

Conversely, because situations have unique characteristics, such as opportunities and rewards, they change people.

It also is true that the current job market and employer expectations differ from those at the height of the technology bubble in the late 1990s or at the depths of the Great Recession in 2007–2009. In the first scenario, you changed, and in the second the environment changed.

Finally, your manager—an environmental characteristic—can change what you do, how you do it, and your effectiveness. You in turn can impact these same characteristics in your manager.

25

Job Satisfaction & Job Performance

Research tells us that job satisfaction and performance

Are moderately related

Indirectly influence each other

Better to consider the relationship at the business unit level versus at the individual level

©McGraw-Hill Education.

One of the biggest controversies within OB research centers on the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance.

This is more complicated than it might first appear, and OB experts have identified at least eight different ways in which these variables are related.

The dominant theories are either that satisfaction causes performance or performance causes satisfaction.

Two key research findings:

Job satisfaction and performance were moderately related, supporting the belief that employee job satisfaction is a key workplace attitude which managers should consider when attempting to increase employees’ job performance.

The relationship is complex. It is not that one directly influences the other or vice versa. Rather, researchers now believe both variables indirectly influence each other through a host of person factors and environmental characteristics. Researchers now believe that incomplete measures of individual-level of performance understate the relationship between satisfaction and performance. To solve this problem, researchers examined the relationship between aggregate measures of job satisfaction and organizational performance.

It thus appears managers indirectly or directly can positively affect a variety of important organizational-level outcomes such as job performance and customer satisfaction by increasing employee job satisfaction.

26

Job Satisfaction & Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)

Represents discretionary individual behaviors that are:

Typically not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system

And can, in the aggregate, promote effective functioning of the organization

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is defined as “individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization.”

This definition highlights two key points:

OCBs are voluntary.

OCBs help work groups and the organization to effectively achieve goals.

27

OCB’s are linked to many benefits

For the Individual

Improved job satisfaction

Improved performance ratings

Reduced intention to quit

Lower absenteeism

Lower turnover

For the Organization

Higher productivity/efficiency

Lower costs

Improved customer satisfaction

Higher unit-level satisfaction

Lower turnover

©McGraw-Hill Education.

OCBs have a moderately positive correlation with job satisfaction.

OCBs are significantly related to both individual-level consequences and organizational-level outcomes.

This is important for two reasons.

Exhibiting OCBs is likely to create positive impressions about you among your colleagues and manager. In turn, these impressions affect your ability to work with others, your manager’s evaluation of your performance, and ultimately your promotability.

The aggregate amount of employees’ OCBs affects important organizational outcomes.

It thus is important for managers to foster an environment that promotes OCBs.

28

Job Satisfaction & Counterproductive Behavior

Counterproductive work behavior (CWB) are behaviors that harm other employees, the organization as a whole, or organizational stakeholders such as customers and shareholders.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

CWBs represent a particularly negative work-related outcome. In contrast to the helping nature of OCBs, counterproductive work behavior (CWB) represents behavior that harms other employees, the organization as a whole, or organizational stakeholders such as customers and shareholders.

Examples of CWBs include bullying, theft, gossiping, backstabbing, drug and alcohol abuse, destroying organizational property, violence, purposely doing bad or incorrect work, surfing the Internet for personal use, excessive socializing, tardiness, sabotage, and sexual harassment.

29

Job Satisfaction & Turnover

Turnover is harmful when high-performing employees voluntarily leave the organization.

To reduce voluntary turnover

Hire people who “fit” with the organization’s culture.

Spend time fostering employee engagement.

Provide effective onboarding.

Recognize and reward high-performing employees.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Job satisfaction has a moderately strong, negative relationship with turnover.

This finding suggests that managers are well served to reduce turnover by trying to enhance employees’ job satisfaction. This recommendation is even more important for high performers.

Practical steps employers can take to tackle a turnover problem. Managers can reduce voluntary turnover if they

Hire people who “fit” within the organization’s culture.

Spend time fostering employee engagement. Engaged employees are less likely to quit.

Provide effective onboarding. Onboarding programs help employees to integrate, assimilate, and transition to new jobs by making them familiar with corporate policies, procedures, culture, and politics by clarifying work-role expectations and responsibilities.

Recognize and reward high performers because they are more likely to quit than average performers.

30

Test Your OB Knowledge (5 of 6)

Catherine is walking through the employee parking lot on her way to her office. She notices someone left an empty fast-food bag in the parking lot. Catherine goes out of her way to pick it up and dispose of it. What behavior is Catherine exhibiting?

psychological contract

green behavior

withdrawal cognitions

CWB

OCB

©McGraw-Hill Education.

The answer is (E). Catherine’s voluntary act is demonstrating care for the organization’s property, a component of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).

31

Values and Attitudes: Putting It All in Context

Figure 2.4 Organizing Framework for Understanding and Applying OB

Jump to Appendix 3 for description

© 2014 by Angelo Kinicki and Mel Fugate. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited without express permission of the authors.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Another lens through which OB sees the world relies on organizational levels.

OB distinguishes among three: individual, group, and organizational.

The distinction between levels is fundamental to OB.

Understanding and considering levels increases problem solving effectiveness.

32

Test Your OB Knowledge (6 of 6)

The organizing framework for understanding and applying OB is based upon

a systems approach.

using person and environmental factors as inputs.

processes including individual level, group/team level, and organizational level.

outcomes organized into individual level, group/team level, and organizational level.

The framework is based on all of these.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

The answer is (E). All the statements describe the organizing framework.

33

Appendix 1 Schwartz’s Value Theory

Jump back to slide with original image

This graphic depicts the values and motives in Schwartz’s theory, as in Figure 2.2 of the text.

The graphic is a pie divided into quarters: openness to change, self-transcendence, conservation, and self-enhancement.

In openness to change it is broken into self-direction, stimulation, with hedonism changed with self-enhancement.

In self-transcendence is universalism and benevolence.

In conservation is conformity, tradition, and security.

In self-enhancement is power, achievement, and hedonism, which is shared with openness to change.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Appendix 2 Our Personal Attitudes Affect Behavior via Our Intentions

Jump back to slide with original image

This graphic shows Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior, with intentions being the key link between attitudes and planned behavior. The three key general motives, attitude toward the behavior, the subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, predict or at least influence intention and behavior.

©McGraw-Hill Education.

Appendix 3 Values and Attitudes: Putting It All in Context

Jump back to slide with original image

The graphic is Figure 2.4 the Organizing framework for understanding and applying OB.

Inputs

Person Factors

Values

Personal attitudes

Intentions

Situation Factors

Processes

Individual level

Group, team level

Organizational level

Outcomes

Individual level

Task performance

Workplace attitudes

Well-being, flourishing

Citizenship behavior, counter-productive behavior

Turnover

Group, team level

Organizational level

Accounting, financial performance

Customer service, satisfaction

Inputs lead to processes and processed to outcomes. Outcomes relate back to both processes and inputs.

©McGraw-Hill Education.