As we continue our study of individual behavior in organizations, the topics of personal values, attitudes, and job satisfaction will be the focus of Chapter 6.
The first two objectives focus on what you will learn about values. Objectives 3 and 4 will move into the topic of attitudes and how they affect behavior.
The fifth and sixth objectives provide a transition from the topic of attitudes to the third major topic in this chapter, job satisfaction. The final two objectives continue the discussion of job satisfaction and provide valuable insights into this key variable to organizational success.
Let’s begin by asking you this question to get you thinking about what you’ve experienced as it relates to some of the areas we’ll be covering this chapter. If you chose A, you may have had personality conflicts or work style differences that you couldn’t resolve. This would be related to what we discussed in the last chapter. Choosing option B may have had to do with incompatible value systems which will be a focus of this chapter. You may have felt if you chose C that the effort you were expending wasn’t being rewarded adequately. Equity theory is a concept we’ll discuss in a later chapter where we’ll learn the factors that could lead to perceptions of unfairness. Option D is often cited as a reason people move to another job. Routine or uninteresting work can lead to low job satisfaction which will be a work-related attitude we’ll discuss in this chapter.
Our first topic is values. Let’s begin with some basics: 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. Two types of values are: Instrumental values are alternative behaviors or means by which we achieve desired ends. You can think of instrumental values as instruments or tools that guide behaviors or how we act. Examples include honesty, ambitious, loving, independent. So we could conclude, for example, that people who value ambitious or achievement-oriented behavior are more likely to be that way themselves. Terminal values are desired end-states or life goals. Another way to describe terminal values is to ask you how you would like to see things terminate or end up. Examples include happiness, wisdom, freedom, security. It’s easy to see, then, that values vary from individual to individual and affect the way they behave at work. For example, people whose values are different from those of the organization will be likely to have less satisfaction with that type of work. Let’s talk a little more about the impact of these values on people on the next slide.
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.
Notice that in this model that general life values feed into family and work values. 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: True: According to a recent survey, generation X fathers – those who are under 38 tend to spend an equal amount of time with their children as mothers and the amount of time they spend on household chores is rising since 1977 (but still not equal to women now) 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. True: Strange at first, self-employed people report higher levels of work-family conflict and lower levels of family satisfaction than people employed by organizations.
Let’s shift our focus from values to attitudes. An attitude is a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently positive or negative fashion with respect to a given object or topic. General attitudes are more likely to change during early and late adulthood; they tend to be stable during middle adulthood. Why? Individuals tend to be more certain, and have a greater perceived knowledge, and a need for strong attitudes during middle adulthood.
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.
Which attitude component is depicted by each of these statements? “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, thought 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.”
Azjen’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.
We will now consider attitudes as they relate to work. This figure presents an interesting historical overview of how attitudes toward work have changed significantly throughout recorded history.
The first work attitude we will examine is organizational commitment. You might be asking why organizational commitment matters. 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.
This model shows that organizational commitment is composed of three separate but related components. 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 n ormative commitment is a feeling of obligation to continue employment. People feel they ought to remain.
Dylan is independently wealthy but works very hard at his job. He believes in the values of the company and enjoys devoting time to accomplishing the company goals. Dylan most likely has _________. Affective commitment Normative commitment Continuance commitment Answer - A
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. 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.
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.
This table answers the question, “Why do we care about job satisfaction?” We care about job satisfaction because we desire to have satisfied employees so that there is positive morale. Also, job satisfaction is related to a number of other variables that are important to achieving organizational goals. Let’s point out some of the negative relationships job satisfaction has with other variables, which means when job satisfaction is high, the variable is low. For example, job satisfaction has a strongly negative relationship with withdrawal cognitions , which is related to one’s intentions to leave their job. People are more likely to leave, if they intend to leave and start thinking about leaving. Therefore, this should be motivation for managers to take job satisfaction seriously because turnover is so costly to organizations. In addition, job satisfaction also has a strong negative relationship with perceived stress . Stress, as we’ll discuss later in the course, has many negative affects on employee’s health, effectiveness on the job, absenteeism due to sickness, and the like. Likewise, job satisfaction has a moderately negative relationship with turnover, heart disease, and pro-union voting. Finally, job satisfaction has a weakly negative relationship with absenteeism and tardiness. Let’s now identify some of the positive relationships job satisfaction has with other variables, which means when job satisfaction is high, the variable is also high. Job satisfaction has a moderately positive relationship with job performance, motivation, organizational citizenship behavior, life satisfaction, and mental health. It thus appears that managers can positively affect a variety of important organizational outcomes by improving employee job satisfaction.
The following set of slides has been developed in close collaboration with the authors of the text to provide instructors with additional material for class lectures. In most cases, the material is not discussed in the text, and includes updated sources and relevant examples to accompany text information.
Videos applicable to this chapter and available on the Organizational Behavior Video DVD, Volume One include: Patagonia Leaving Corporate America NOTE: Slides for the complete set of video cases on the Organizational Behavior Video DVD, Volume One can be found on the book’s website in the Instructor’s Resources. www.mhhe.com/kreitner
Source: Conlin, M. Smashing the Clock, BusinessWeek , November, 2006 Problem: jobs with high demands (always-on, transcontinental availability) and low control (always on-site, no personal life). Reaction against idea that physical presence = productivity Another thing about this experiment: It wasn't imposed from the top down. So secret was the operation that Chief Executive Brad Anderson only learned the details two years after it began transforming his company. Such bottom-up, stealth innovation is exactly the kind of thing Anderson encourages. The Best Buy chief aims to keep innovating even when something is ostensibly working. "ROWE was an idea born and nurtured by a handful of passionate employees," he says. "It wasn't created as the result of some edict." But Best Buy was afflicted by stress, burnout, and high turnover. The hope was that ROWE, by freeing employees to make their own work-life decisions, could boost morale and productivity and keep the service initiative on track. They explained how in the world of ROWE, there would be no mandatory meetings. No times when you had to physically be at work. Performance would be based on output, not hours. Managers would base assessments on data and evidence, not feelings and anecdotes. The executives liked what they heard and agreed. By the end of 2007, all 4,000 staffers working at corporate will be on ROWE. Starting in February, the new work environment will become an official part of Best Buy's recruiting pitch as well as its orientation for new hires. And the company plans to take its clockless campaign to its stores--a high-stakes challenge that no company has tried before in a retail environment. And there were generational conflicts: Some boomers felt they'd been forced to choose between work and life during their careers. So everyone else should, too. ROWE Commandments: No.1: People at all levels stop doing any activity that is a waste of their time, the customer's time, or the company's money. No.7: Nobody talks about how many hours they work. No.9: It's O.K. to take a nap on a Tuesday afternoon, grocery shop on Wednesday morning, or catch a movie on Thursday afternoon.
You may chose to have students respond using their clickers or by show of hand Answer : C – roughly 2/3rds as reported in Training Magazine, April 2006 Survey was conducted by Right Management Consultants, 336 organizations Only 1/3 rd of employees at a typical company are fully engaged and daily “walk the talk” in their jobs. The rest are unsure of or disengaged from their employers’ missions and business strategies- and that’s bad news for the bottom line. Lack of buy-in by employees results in lower productivity and product quality as well as more customer complaints and higher turnover. Why? Management. This is the biggest reason in that they don’t communicate their business 28% say discussions about the business strategy and objectives are limited to senior leadership teams 24% haven’t communicated to all employees 15% are unsure how to do it. “Employees should have opportunities to provide feedback and strategies to improve operations, and be recognized and rewarded for contributing to the organization’s success.”
Source: Holtom, B.C., Mitchell, T. R., and Lee, T.W. Increasing human and social capital by applying job embeddedness theory, Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 35.(4), 316-331, 2006. Job Embeddedness contributes to employees’ decisions to stay or go beyond org. commitment and job satisfaction. Comprised of: Fit: the extent job and community are similar or fit with other aspects in a person’s life Links: the person has links to other people or activities Sacrifice: what would the person sacrifice if he/she left Go to next slide….
Source: Holtom, B.C., Mitchell, T. R., and Lee, T.W. Increasing human and social capital by applying job embeddedness theory, Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 35.(4), 316-331, 2006. Thus, the better the fit between the organization and community, the more links to both the organization and community, and the greater the sacrifice to the individual if he/she left are better predictors of turnover than simply org. commitment or job satisfaction
Source: Holtom, B.C., Mitchell, T. R., and Lee, T.W. Increasing human and social capital by applying job embeddedness theory, Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 35.(4), 316-331, 2006. This table provides some examples of practices companies have embraced to try to strengthen job embeddedness. An example practice that strengthens the Sacrifice-Community is Marriott who provides local transportation assistance.
Source: Gardner, M. Arizona Republic, Sick leave or free day off?, D3, 1/15/05 Unscheduled absenteeism climbed from 2.4% to 1.9% from 2003 to 2004. 14 th annual CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey found: 38% of unscheduled absences are due to personal illness. 62% call in sick due to: 23% Family issues 18% Personal needs 11% Stress 10% Entitlement mentality Discussion questions: When is it ethical to use sick days? – companies create difficult situations for employees when they limit sick time to their own personal illness rather than allowing it to be used to care for a sick family member. What can corporations do to control cost yet meet employee’s needs? Some are moving to a paid time off leave bank where employees are given a certain number of days to use as they see fit.
Notes: Topic Covered: Flextime Flextime provides employees with greater autonomy by allowing them to choose their daily starting and finishing times within a given period called a bandwidth. (See above slide) The only stipulation is that all employees must be present during a core period of time. Source: R Kreitner and A Kinicki Organizational Behavior 1 st ed. BPI/Irwin (Burr Ridge, IL) 1989, pp. 550-551
Taken from Time Magazine p. 38 Data is from focus groups, and polls conducted by the men’s cable network Spike TV on the trends of Dads when balancing work and family. Other data: 77% of those polled indicated that they were not a say-at-home dad, while 22% were and among those who were, the breakdown by ethnicity was: African-American 31% Hispanic 25% White 18%
Taken from the Arizona Republic 4/3/05 p. D4 “France’s 35-hour work week, introduced under the Socialists, is slated to return to the 39-hour workweek. With unemployment at 10%, politicians admit that the 35-hour law has failed.
Notes: Topic Covered: Flextime; work-family balance; job satisfaction Flextime is a strategic solution that reduces turnover, improves morale,and brings talent into the job market. Offering employees flexible scheduling is growing in popularity. However, as this popularity grows, companies are realizing that informal schedule changes can create communication problems and hostility among employees. To combat this, more organizations are implementing formal policies that require workers to present solid business cases for going on flextime, including how it will benefit their clients, and how they plan to communicate with team members and supervisors. Implementing a flextime policy can be a major hurdle in companies that still measure loyalty through face-time however. For those interested in going through with implementing flextime, experts share advice on how to launch a successful program that not only improves morale but also positively affects the bottom line. Use flex policies to lure new employees by mentioning it in job openings If it’s not mentioned in the ad, people interested in flex scheduling won’t apply Recognize that flextime isn’t a perk, it’s a strategic tool Employees are more loyal, motivated and dedicated Reduces turnover Empower employees to craft flexible solutions When employees are urged to plan their own schedule, they are forced to come up with creative solutions, this carries over to work with clients Expect employees to make a business case for going flextime The focus can’t just be on the individual, it should be on the client as well If a client’s needs will be served, flextime could be appropriate Give employees a formal structure for planning and implementing a flexible schedule A step-by-step process helps them think through all the issues involved and foresee any obstacles Share success stories Get hesitant managers beyond the myth of managing flex workers by documenting stories in newsletters and encouraging everyone to try it The more buy-in from management, the more successful the program Adopt a flex policy on a small scale and measure the results Pinpoint business problems that could be affected by flextime, such as reduction in overtime costs or improved call resolutions, them implement a program in one department and document changes over a set time Use the results to support a decision for a formal flex policy throughout the organization Source: “Formalized Flextime: The Perk That Brings Productivity,” Sarah Gale, Workforce , February 2001, pp. 39-42
Notes: Topic Covered: Flextime; work-family balance; job satisfaction Flexible hours and the increasing use of technology have been hailed as boons for workers trying to balance their job demands with their personal or family obligations. But technology’s promise of freeing workers from the constraints of place and time and boosting productivity could instead handcuff them with 24/7 work cycles that leave little room for personal needs. Commonplace tools such as laptop computers and mobile phones are being joined by personal digital assistants, tracking devices, and wireless and high-speed Internet access—further enabling the boundaries of work time to blur. Add to this companies’ ability to cobble together work teams from around the world, and it’s evident that work is becoming less constrained by time and location. For Discussion: As you look forward to achieving what you consider to be a proper work-life balance, how will you deal with situation? Source: “Vacation? What Vacation?,” D Patel, HR Magazine , August 2002, pp. 144
Notes: Topic Covered: Rewards and job satisfaction/job motivation In the early 1970s, psychologist Edward L. Deci conducted a series of lab experiments with college students demonstrating that contingent reward schemes tend to erode intrinsic motivation. Deci formulated his cognitive evaluation theory to explain how contingent rewards can either enhance or erode intrinsic motivation by affecting one’s feelings of competence and self-determination. The mechanisms of this theory are illustrated in the above slide. Source: Intrinsic Motivation, Deci, p. 158 depicted in Kreitner and Kinicki, Organizational Behavior , 1 st ed, BPI/Irwin 1989
Notes: Topic Covered: Job Satisfaction A survey of 5,000 people found that while most Americans continue to find jobs interesting and some don’t even mind the commute, a “bare majority” like their jobs. The survey was conducted through the mail in March 2002 by the New-York-based Conference Board Only 51% were satisfied with their jobs Compared to 59% in 1995, with similar results in 2000 Only about one worker in five was satisfied with promotion policies and bonus plans Nearly two in five were content with their wages Job Satisfaction was lowest in New England00only 44% compared with 56% in 2000 and 65% in 1995 The northern Midwest prairie and south central states—Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi also dropped below 50% Workers in the Rocky Mountain states were the most satisfied—though they too dropped from 63% to 57% in the last seven years Even among the higher-earning households, it had dropped from 67% in 1995 to 55% in 2002 Less than 48% of people aged 35-44 were satisfied with their work compared with nearly 61% in 1995 The most satisfied workers were those under the age of 25 and over 65 Source: “Americans More Unhappy with Jobs: Satisfaction Lowest in New England” Robert O’Neill Arizona Republic , August 22, 2002, p D2
Notes: Topic Covered: Job Satisfaction/Value Attainment/Consequences and Correlates of Job Satisfaction The Society of Human Resource Management offers the above tips for training managers to curb turnover Teach them to provide daily informal feedback to employees Today’s tech jobs attract self-reliant workers who may not need specific feedback on their daily tasks, but still need interaction with managers to better understand their role in the company Train them to ask employees regularly about their own training needs Young workers embrace lifelong learning because they believe in self-generated career security Teach managers to be flexible More often, as the economy becomes increasingly centered on information, workers have to be flexible to meet the demands of clients. In return, these same people want their managers to return the favor in the name of work/life balance. Source: “Knowing How to Keep Your Best and Brightest” Workforce, April 2002 pp. 57-60 Kevin Dobbs
Notes: Topic Covered: Job Satisfaction/Value Attainment/Consequences and Correlates of Job Satisfaction In a survey of 8,000 people in 35 industries, here’s what respondents said were the leading drivers for keeping them (See above slide) Source: “Retention in Tough Times” Training and Development, January 2002 pp. 32-37 Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans
Topic Covered: Job Satisfaction/Value Attainment/Consequences and Correlates of Job Satisfaction Here are some tips collected from participants for keeping top talent. Focus initially on the executive group They need to be retention champions to truly implement a cultural change Present a retention business case to the executive team Show the numbers; reflect the true value in revenues, costs, and productivity; and attach results to the bottom line Make retention mandatory Devise measures to keep managers accountable, then reward them for success Design retention as an OD intervention It’s important to not only deliver training, but also to explore new ways to learn Integrate retention into a cultural process. Use exit interviews Share that information with managers, show them why people leave, and educate them on the power they have to keep talent Conduct routine sensing interviews Know your at-risk talent, make asking a routine part of your mangers’ job, and never stop asking what matters most Focus on the histories and culture of acquired employees Blend company cultures, respect past experiences, and integrate those who were drafted with the enlisted employees View recruiting as ongoing and proactive Look at specific employee groups, cultural groups, or management groups. Ensure stability Keep track of employment trends Look at your talent pool and succession plan. Who will you develop to replace your star performers? Source: “Retention in Tough Times” Training and Development, January 2002 pp. 32-37 Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans
Topic Covered: Job Satisfaction/Value Attainment/Consequences and Correlates of Job Satisfaction Treat your people like VIPs—Very Individual People Very Individual People One size doesn’t fit all Leverage the strengths of the current team members Find new opportunities, but don’t forget what has been successful in the past and use that as the foundation for a retention plan in the future Develop individualized retention plans That’s especially important for top talent The plans should emphasize development, work challenge and life-work balance Provide clear development plans and learning opportunities That means not only formal training, but also mentoring programs Empower employees to seek development opportunities Stay connected with previous employees You can learn from them and present a retention environment that might bring them back into the fold Plan challenges for knowledge-based people They are the technical gurus that keep your business on the competitive edge, so plan and assign their next project long before they reach the end of their current assignments Give them challenging experiences to keep them engaged and help them learn Communicate goals, strategies and successes Ongoing communication about retention reinforces the value that the company places on its talent pool Maintain a warrior spirit towards retention Keep it at the top of your corporate initiative list because your talent is a key element of your success Don’t let the assumption that “there are plenty of people out there” let you take your eye off the ball Source: Business Week, February 25, 2002 p. 118
You might consider the following questions for discussion: Which type of value, terminal or instrumental, is more powerful in influencing your behavior? Have you ever encountered a lack of value congruence or person-culture fit? What did you do about this situation? What is your experience with work/family conflict, and what useful lessons did you learn from our discussion of it? Is it easier to change an employee’s attitudes or values? Explain. Have you ever experienced cognitive dissonance? Describe the situation and your solution for reconciling the dissonance. How could a specific intention you have at this time be explained with Ajzen’s model of planned behavior? Describe a situation in which you had high organizational commitment. What made you feel this way? If you were a manager, which of the three key work attitudes-organizational commitment, job involvement, and job satisfaction-would be most important to cultivate in your employees? Explain your rationale. Do you believe that job satisfaction is partly a function of both personal traits and genetic factors? Explain. Do you think job satisfaction leads directly to better job performance? Provide your rationale.
