Question

To what extent do you think that values and attitudes contribute to an employees's overall satisfaction with their job? Why or why not? Referring to both examples from the business and political worlds, what can happen when a population's collective value system differs greatly from that of their employers or goverments?

Course: Organizational behaviour and management

Answer 1

Values and attitudes greatly contribute to an employees's overall satisfaction with their job.

Job satisfaction is one of the most important and much studied attitudes in organizational behavior. One reason for the interest in job satisfaction is that whether a employee is satisfied with his or her job has significant consequences not only for the employee, but also for co-employees, managers and the organization as a whole. Employee’s level or degree of job satisfaction can range from extreme satisfaction to extreme dissatisfaction. Formally defined, job satisfaction is an "affective or emotional response towards various facets of one’s job." Studies show that employees are more satisfied and are less likely to quit when their personal values are consistent with the organization’s values, and when they have positive attitudes about work environment (Hom and Griffeth, 1995). Values are desired ways of behaving or desired end-states. When an employee’s values collide with organizational values, employee may have interpersonal value conflicts, or the individual organizational value conflicts that may affect job satisfaction, turnover, and potentially performance. Attitudes, on the other hand, are defined as a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object. Research shows that overall job attitudes were positively related to performance and negatively associated with indications of withdrawal, tardiness, absenteeism, and turnover (Harrison, Newman, and Roth, 2006).

Work values are employee’s personal convictions about the outcomes he or she should expect from work and how he or she should behave at work. Attitude, on the other hand, is a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner towards a given subject. Work values and attitudes capture the range of thoughts and feelings that make up the experience of work. Because work values are more stable and long lasting, they can strongly affect work attitudes and hence employee’s level of job satisfaction. In order for the employees to be satisfied with their job, their interpersonal, intra-personal, and individual organization values, all must be aligned to avoid many work related conflicts. Attitudes towards work are not as long lasting values, and hence can be changed by increasing pay, promotion or moving to another position. By aligning employee’s values with that of organizations and by addressing the attitude problems of employees, management can increase the job satisfaction level. Satisfied employees are less likely to quit their job, or be absent from work, have less stress and will perform their job better.