CHAPTER 1.

Values, Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

VALUES
Meaning and Definition of Values
A value system is viewed as a relatively permanent perceptual framework which influences the nature of an individuals behavior. The values are the attributes possessed by an individual and thought desirable. Values are similar to attitudes but are more permanent and well built in nature. A value may be defined as a concept of a desirable, an internalized criterion or standard of evaluation a person possesses. Such concepts and standards are relatively few and determine or guide an individuals evaluations of the many objects encountered in every day life. According to Milton Rokeach, Values are global beliefs that guide actions and judgments across a variety of situations. He further said, Values represent basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct (or end-state of existence) is personally or socially preferable to an opposite mode of conduct (or end-state of existence). They contain a judgmental element, i.e., they carry an individual's ideas as to what is right, good, or desirable. Values have both content and intensity attributes. The content attribute emphasizes that a mode of conduct or end-state of existence is important. The intensity attribute specifies how important it is. When we rank an individual's values in terms of their intensity, we obtain the value system of that person. All of us have a hierarchy of values that forms our value system. This system is identified by the relative importance we assign to such values as freedom, self-respect, honesty, obedience, equality, and so on. Values are so embedded that they can be inferred from people's behavior and their perception, personality and motivation. They generally influence their behavior. Values are relatively stable and enduring. This is because of the way in which they are originally learnt. The values learnt can be divided into two broad categories: i) Terminal Values: Terminal values' lead to ends to be achieved, e.g., comfortable life, family security, selfrespect and sense of accomplishment .Terminal values reflect what person is ultimately striving to achieve. ii) Instrumental Values: Instrumental values' relate to means for achieving desired ends, e.g., ambition, courage, honesty and imagination. Instrumental values reflect how the person gets there. Table: Terminal and Instrumental Values Terminal Values ("ends") Instrumental Values ("means") Comfortable Life Ambition Sense of Accomplishment Courage Family Security Honesty Mature Love Helpfulness Self-respect Independence Wisdom Imagination

Characteristics of Value
1) Part of Culture: Values are elements of culture, and culture is the complex of values, ideas, attitudes, and other meaningful symbols to shape human behavior in the society. Every society has its own culture and people in that society adhere to cultural requirements. 2) Learned Responses: Human behavior represents learned phenomenon. Unlike other animals, human beings have to learn almost everything about how to be human from experience. This is because human

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beings live in a society having certain cultural characteristics which prescribe to behave in a particular way. Cultural field represents a set of stimuli to an individual and also a set of responses appropriate to those stimuli. The individual either is directly rewarded for adopting those responses (alternatively punished for not adopting) or indirectly associated them with other stimulus situations that are rewarding. Through this process, the individuals are uncultured or socialized, i.e., the response of a set of culture becomes his own set of response tendencies. Cultural items learned early in the life tend to resist change more strongly than those learned late in life. This fact is very important from organizational behavior point of view. 3) Inculcated: Values are inculcated and are passed through generation to generation by specific groups and institutions. Such transmission starts from the family from where the socialization process starts. Apart from family, educational, religious, and ethnic institutions also transmit cultural values from one generation to another. 4) Social Phenomenon: Values are a social phenomenon, that is, cultural habits are shared by aggregates of people living in organized society. An individuals way of thinking and behaving is not culture, rather group behavior constitutes culture. Group is developed and reinforced through social pressure upon those who are interacting with one another. 5) Gratifying Responses: Values exist to meet the biological and other needs of the individuals in the society. Thus, elements in the culture become extinguished when they no longer are gratifying to members of the society. The society rewards behaviors which are gratifying for its members. 6) Adaptive Process: Culture is adaptive, either through a dialectical process or evolutionary process. Dialectical or sharply discontinuous change occurs when the value system of a culture becomes associated with the gratification of only one group or class in the environment. In such a case, other classes of the society reject the logic of the value system and replace it with a new value system, such as through revolution or other methods. In the evolutionary process, the change occurs slowly as a gradual process, but not through revolution.

Importance of Value
Values are important to the study of organizational behavior because of the following points signifying their importance: 1) Values lay the foundations for the understanding of attitudes and motivation. 2) Personal value system influences the perception of individuals. 3) Value system influences the manager's perception of the different situations. 4) Personal value system influences the way in which a manager views the other individuals and the groups of individuals in the organization. 5) Value system also influences a managers decisions and his solutions to the various problems. 6) Values influence the attitudes and behaviors. An individual will get more job satisfaction if his values align with the organizations policies. If the organizations policies are different from his views and values, he will be disappointed; the disappointment will lead to job dissatisfaction and decline in performance. 7) The challenge and re-examination of established work values constitute important cornerstones of the current management revolution all over the world. Hence, an understanding of the values becomes a necessity.

Types of Values
1) Allports Classification: All port and his associates have categorized values into six major types as follows: i) Theoretical: Interest in the discovery of truth through reasoning and systematic thinking. ii) Economic: Interest in usefulness and practicality, including the accumulation of wealth. iii) Aesthetic: Interest in beauty, form and artistic harmony. iv) Social: Interest in people and human relationships. v) Political: Interest in gaining power and influencing other people. vi) Religious: Interest in unity and understanding the cosmos as a whole. 2) Graves Classification: Graves has classified various personal values into five categories. These are: i) Existentialism: Orientation of behavior congruent with existing realities, ii) Conformistic: Orientation towards achievement of material beliefs through control over physical resources, iii) Sociocentric: Orientation with getting people, iv) Tribalistic: Orientation towards safety by submitting to power, v) Egocentric: Orientation to survival and power.

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3) England's Classification: England has classified personal values into two categories: i) Pragmatic: A pragmatic is one who takes a pragmatic view of the situation which is stereotyped; he opts for concepts and actions which appear to him as important and successful irrespective of good or bad. ii) Moralist: A moralist is one who is guided by the ethical considerations of right or wrong, just or unjust, honest or dishonest. 4) Rokeach's Classification: Rokeach has classified various personal values into two main categories: i) Terminal (end) Values: Terminal values reflect what a person is ultimately striving to achieve, e.g., comfortable life, family security, self-respect, achievement, etc. ii) Instrumental (means) Values: Instrumental values relate to means for achieving desired ends, e.g., ambition, courage, honesty, imagination, etc. Individuals differ in holding terminal values, at least in the context of degrees. Similarly, individuals may differ in respect of instrumental values for achieving a particular terminal value.

Sources of Values System

Parents, friends, teachers and external reference groups can influence individual values. Indeed, a person's values develop as a product of learning and experience in the cultural setting in which he lives. As learning and experiences vary from one person to another, value differences are the inevitable result. Not only the values but also their ranking in terms of importance differs from person to person. A person learns and develops values because of the following factors: 1) Familial Factors: A significant factor influencing the process of socialization of an individual is role of the family. The child rearing practices that parents use shape the individual's personality. The learning of social behavior, values and norms come through these practices. For example, through reward and punishment, parents show love and affection to children, indicating the typical ways in which a child should behave in difficult conditions. 2) Social Factors: Of the societal factors, school has a major role to play in the development of values. Through discipline in school, a child learns desirable behaviors important in the school setting. Interactions with teachers, classmates and other staff members in the educational institutions make the child inculcate values important to the teaching-learning process. Other institutions that may influence the values are religious, economic and political institutions in the society. 3) Personal Factors: Personal attributes such as intelligence, ability, appearance and educational level of the person determine his development of values. For example, ones higher level of intelligence may result in faster understanding of values. 4) Cultural Factors: Cultural factors include everything that is learned and passed on from generation to generation. Culture includes certain beliefs and other patterns of behavior. An individual is a participant in social culture, group culture and organizational culture. Thus, he is known as a composite of many cultural elements. Culture is based on certain implicit and explicit values. For example, whether a person is cooperative, friendly or hostile depends upon to which culture he belongs to. Individual relationships are different in different cultures and within certain groups of society also. Whether, the individual values money making or doing service to the mankind again depends upon his cultural background. 5) Religious Factors: Individuals, generally, receive strength and comfort from their religion. Religion comprises of a formal set of values which are passed on from generation to generation. Advancement in technology has under viewed faith in traditional religious beliefs and values. 6) Life Experiences: A man learns the most from his own personal life experience. Sometimes man can learn from the experience of others also. In the long run, most of the values which influence our behavior are validated by the satisfaction we have experienced in pursuing them. Individuals work out their values on the basis of what seems most logical to them. Values carry importance in direct proportion to how much faith the individual has in them. He should have those values which can stand the test of reality. He should not have rigid values but flexible system which can change with the changes in the individual himself, his life situation and the socio-economic environment. 7) Role Demands: The role demand refers to the behavior associated with a particular position in the organization. All organizations have some formal and some informal code of behavior. Role demand can create problems when there is a role conflict. Thus, the managers will have to quickly learn the value system prevalent in the organization, if they want to move up the ladder of success. For example, if the informal code of behavior says that the manager must mix up socially with the subordinates, he should learn to do so even though, his personal value system conflicts with his role as a manager.

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8) Halo Effect: The halo effect refers to the tendency of judging people on the basis of a single trait, which may be good or bad, favorable or unfavorable. Sometimes, we judge a person by one first impression about him or her. For example, if a person is kind, he will also be perceived as good, able, helpful, cheerful, nice, and intelligent and so on. On the other hand, if a person is abrasive, he shall also be perceived as bad, awful, unkind, aggressive, harmful and wicked. Thus, what one sees in the universe depends partly on ones inner needs. Thus, with the help of halo effect, we see certain values in others which are actually not there, but we perceive them to be there.

Value Systems of Indian Managers

Various researchers have attempted to identify the value systems of Indian managers. These researchers have used Allport-Vernom-Lindzey model, Gravess model, and England's model. Besides, many of them have measured managerial values in the context of work values, their major findings are presented below: 1) Managers tend to have value orientation towards economic, theoretic, political, social, aesthetic, and religious in that order. 2) Managerial values tend to be existential, conformistic, manipulative, sociocentric, tribalistic, and egocentric. 3) Indian managers are more pragmatist than moralist. There are generally some acceptable unethical practices in business. Such practices are in the form of nepotism, bribes, gifts, personal favors, unfair completive practices, dishonesty in customer relations, and personal benefits. 4) In terms of work values, Indian managers tend to: i) Be money orientated during early days of their career and later shift to matters like job satisfaction, and finally at the end of the career, to intangible value like status; ii) Attach high importance to values like loyalty and obedience; and iii) Be ambitious, though not overwhelmingly, believe to a large extent in the fate without allowing this belief to directly interfere in doing day-to-day working. 5) Indian managers give importance to various occupational values in the order of: to be free from supervision, adventurous experiences/challenges, social status and prestige, to exercise leadership and control over others, opportunities to work with people, chances to earn a good deal of money, and stable and secure future.

ATTITUDES
Meaning and Definition of Attitude
Attitude is a relatively permanent organizing or cognitive, perceptual, emotional, and motivational process with respect to some aspect of our environment. It is primarily a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object. Thus, an attitude is the way we think, feel, and act toward some aspect of our environment. An attitude may be defined as a tendency to react positively or negatively in regard to an object. Attitudes are evaluative statements or judgments either favorable or unfavorable concerning objects, people or events. According to Bem, Attitudes are likes and dislikes. According to Engel, Attitudes are an overall evaluation that allows one to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object or alternative. According to Allport, Attitude is learned predispositions to respond to an object or class of object in a consistently favorable or unfavorable way. A definition of attitude popularized by cognitively oriented social psychologists is, an enduring organization of motivational, emotional, perceptual, and cognitive process with respect to some aspect of the individuals world.

Components of Attitudes
i) Cognitive or Informational Component: It consists of beliefs and values, ideas, opinions and other information a person has about the attitude object. For instance, the belief that honesty pays in the longrun is a value statement. Such an opinion is the cognitive component of an attitude. And a person seeking a job may learn from newspapers and other sources that a particular company is a good pay-master. Cognitive component sets the stage for affective component.

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ii)

Affective or Emotional Component: It involves the persons feelings of likes and dislikes towards the attitude object. Thus, it is an emotional or feeling segment of an attitude. For example, A may say that I dont like B because he is dishonest.

iii) Behavioral Component: The tendency of a person to behave in; a particular manner towards the attitude object is the behavioral component of an attitude. For example, A may say that I might avoid dealings with B because of my feeling that he is dishonest.
INFORMATIONAL Ideas Beliefs & Values Information EMOTIONAL Feelings of likes and dislikes Positive and Negative BEHAVIORAL Tendency to behave

ATTITUDE

ATTITUDE OBJECT Figure: Components of Attitude

These components show that an attitude can be considered as a way of thinking, feeling and behaving. For example, if someone has favorable thoughts about his supervisor at the job, he would develop feelings of consideration and respect for him and, as a result, may like to associate more frequently with him.

Characteristics of Attitudes
1) Attitudes have an Object: By definition, attitudes must have an object. That is, they must have a focal point whether it is an abstract concept, such as ethical behavior, or a tangible item, such as a motorcycle. The object can be a physical thing, such as a product, or it can be an action, such as buying a lawnmower. In addition, the object can be either one item, such as a person, or a collection of items such as a social group. 2) Attitudes have Direction, Degree and Intensity: An attitude expresses how a person feels toward an object. It expresses: i) Direction: The person is either favorable or unfavorable toward, or for against the object; ii) Degree: How much the person either likes or dislikes the object; and iii) Intensity: The level of sureness or confidence of expression about the object, or how strongly a person feels about his or her conviction. Although degree and intensity might seem the same and are actually related, they are not synonymous. 3) Attitudes have Structure: Attitudes display organization, which means that they have internal consistency and possess inter-attitudinal centrality. They also tend to be stable, to have varying degrees of salience, and to be generalized. The structure of human attitudes may be viewed as a complex Tinker Toy set erected in a type of circular pattern. At the center of this structure are the individuals important values and self-concept. Attitudes closed to the hub of this system are said to have a high degree of centrality. Other attitudes located farther out in the structure possess less centrality. 4) Attitudes are Learned: Attitudes is gradually learnt over a period of time. The process of learning attitudes starts right from childhood and continues throughout the life of a person. However, in the beginning, the family members have a greater impact on the attitude of a child. For example, if the family members have a positive attitude toward business and negative towards service, there is a greater likelihood that the child will inculcate similar attitudes towards these objects.

Types of Attitude / Job Related Attitudes

The focus of OB is on job-related attitudes of employees. Such attitudes tap positive or negative evaluations that employees hold about certain aspects of their work environment. The behavioral scientists have concentrated on three job related attitudes: job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment as shown in figure below .

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1) Job Satisfaction: The term job satisfaction refers to the general attitude or feelings of an individual towards his job. A person, who is highly satisfied with his job, will have a positive attitude towards the job. On the other hand, a person who is dissatisfied with his job, will have a negative attitudes about the job. For example, a person who is satisfied with his job will always be punctual, absenteeism will be minimum, performance will be high, his attitude towards his Attitudes co-workers and boss will also be very positive. In case of dissatisfied person, he will generally be late for office, on small pretexts he will absent Job Organizational Job himself from the job, turnover will be high, Involvement Commitment Satisfaction performance level will be poor and his behavior in the organization will not be very good. When people speak of employee attitudes, they Organizational invariably relate these with job satisfaction. In fact, Behavior these two are used interchangeably, though some Types of Attitudes differences do exist between these two. 2) Job Involvement: A general definition of job involvement states that job involvement measures the degree to which a person identifies psychologically with his or her job and considers his or her perceived performance level important to self worth. Employees who have a high level of job involvement very strongly identify with their jobs and really care about the kind of work they do. High degree of involvement just like job satisfaction will lead to less absenteeism and lower resignation rates. However, the research has shown that it seems to more consistently predict turnover than absenteeism. In case of turnover, the research has shown as much as 16% variation in the turnover depending upon the level of job involvement. 3) Organizational Commitment: The third job attitude that affects the organization behavior is the organizational commitment. Organizational commitment is a state in which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organization. In such a setup the employee feels proud of being the employee of a particular organization. Whereas job involvement refers to identification with ones specific job, organizational commitment means identifying with ones employing organization and its goals. Sometimes an employee may be involved or attached to his job but may not be committed to the organization and its objectives. Turnover and absenteeism are low when an employee has organizational commitment. In fact, studies have indicated that organizational commitment is a better indicator of turnover than the far more frequently used job satisfaction predictor. Sometimes, an employee may be dissatisfied with the job, but he may not be dissatisfied with the organization as a whole. In such a case, he may stick with the organization because he may consider it a temporary situation. But once the dissatisfaction spreads to the organization as a whole, he is most likely to consider resigning from the job.

Sources of Attitudes
The central idea running through the process of attitude formation is that the thoughts, feelings and tendencies to behave are acquired or learned gradually. The attitudes are acquired from the following sources: 1) Direct Personal Experiences: People form attitudes by coming in directly contact with an attitude object. By the time a person goes for work in a specified Organization, he holds many attitudes Direct toward the type of the job that is acceptable to Personal him, the expected pay, working conditions and Experience supervision. Through job experiences they develop attitudes about such factors as salary, performance reviews, job design, work group, Sources of affiliation and managerial capabilities etc. Attitude Previous work experience can account for the individual differences in attitudes such as loyalty, commitments, performance etc. Many Association Social managers in work organizations frequently Learning notice these differences in attitudes.
Figure: Sources of Attitude

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2) Association: People are highly influenced by the major groups or associations to which they belong. Geographic region, religion, educational background, race, sex, age and income-class all strongly influence attitudes. The nearer the group the stronger is the group influence on the attitudes of the individual. 3) Social Learning: Attitudes are also learnt from others it includes: i) Family: Family is the primary group where an individual belongs to. Family exerts influence on the initial core of attitudes held by an individual. Individuals develop certain attitudes from family membersparents, brothers, sisters etc. The family characteristics influence the individuals early attitude patterns. ii) Peer Groups and Society: As people approach their adulthood, they increasingly rely on their peer groups for approval/attitude. How others judge an individual largely determine his self-image and approval-seeking behavior. Social class and religious affiliation also play vital role in forming attitudes of an individual.

iii) Models: Some of the attitudes are developed through imitation of models. The process is something like this: In a particular situation, we see how another person behaves. We correctly or incorrectly interpret his behavior as representing certain attitudes and beliefs. iv) Institutional Factors: Many institutional factors function as sources and support of our attitudes and beliefs. For example, consider the description of a certain temple Aarati. When the people come into this temple, they bow down to pray, sit with heads bowed. Their clothes are clean and freshly washed. When the Pujari signals and is with Aarati all start singing Bhajan and clap. The entire process is devoted to ritual. From this we can get an idea as to the general character of the religious attitudes and beliefs.

Formation of Attitude
The above are the three important ways in which attitudes are learnt. But what type of attitudes will ultimately develop is dependent on the following factors: 1) Psychological Factors: The psychological make-up of a person is made up of his perceptions, ideas, beliefs, values, information, etc. It has a crucial role in determining a person's attitudes. For example, if a person perceives that generally all superiors are exploitative, he is likely to develop a negative attitude towards his superior who in fact is not exploitative.
Psychological factors Economic factors Attitude Political Social Family factors

factors 2) Family Factors: During childhood, a person factors spends a major part of his time in the family. Thus, Organizational he learns from the family members who provide factors him with ready-made attitudes on a variety of issues such as education, work, health, religion, Figure: Formation of Attitudes politics, economics, etc. Every family instills or attempts to instill such attitudes among its members as are considered appropriate to its socio-economic status in the society. Therefore, a person from a middle class family may hold a different attitude towards spending than a person from an affluent family. In the later years of life, however, any person whom we admire, respect or fear may have greater influence on our attitudes.

3) Social Factors: Societies differ in terms of language, culture, norms, values, beliefs, etc., all of which influence a person's attitudes. For example, people in India in general hold different attitude towards communism than people of China. Similarly, Indians and Americans differ in their attitudes towards religion. Thus, people belonging to a nation develop attitudes which would be in tune with the needs of the society. 4) Organizational Factors: It should be remembered that a worker spends a major part of his life in the institution in which he works. Thus, organizational factors such as nature of job, factory or office layout, fellow workers, quality of supervision, monetary rewards associated with the job, trade unionism, informal groups, organization's policies and practices, play an important role in shaping the job attitudes of a person. For example, if a creative person finds the nature of his job to be repetitive, dull, boring and less changing; he is likely to develop a negative attitude towards his job. 5) Economic Factors: A persons attitude towards a host of issues such as pleasure, work, marriage, working women, etc., is influenced by economic factors such as his economic status in the society, rate of inflation in the economy, government's economic policies, and the country's economic conditions. For example, during the Gulf crisis, the government of India made a big drive to save oil so as to cut the import bill. A big campaign was started to educate people in this regard. It aimed at promoting negative attitude towards pleasure trips and positive attitude towards proper driving and maintenance of vehicles.

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6) Political Factors: Politics plays a crucial role in the administration of a country. Therefore, political factors such as ideologies of the political parties, political stability and the behavior of the political leaders greatly affect the attitudes of the people.

Attitude Behavior Consistency

A positive attitude towards a product and even an intention to purchase does not necessarily mean that purchase will result. Attitude behavior consistency (i.e., the extent to which attitudes lead to actual purchase) is determined by a variety of factors: 1) Consumer Influences The relationship between attitude and behavior is influenced by the consumer at three levels: i) Consumers Access to Resources: For high priced items marketer adopt strategies like installment programs, bank financing, etc. ii) Consumers Past Experience with the Brand: Attitudes formed through personal experiences are stronger and more predictive of future buying behavior than formed through advertising. iii) Action/Inertia Orientation of the Consumer: Action oriented consumers are always eager to act. The inertia oriented individuals dont wish to disturb the status quo unless strongly compelled. 2) Situation Influences Three situational factors influence the relationship between attitude and behavior: i) Time gap between positive attitude formation and the actual opportunity to buy: Greater this time gap less will be the action orientation. ii) Message repetition: Higher repetition leads to reinforcement of attitude and is likely to influence purchase behavior. iii) Social influence: Peer pressure may change the (individually held) attitude. For example, a consumer may like to buy Newport Jeans, but under peer group disapproval may not actually buy it. 3) Measurement Factors The relationship between intention and behavior is influenced by the level of specificity of measurement. Attitude can predict behavior only if it is measured with a high of measurement. Attitude can predict behavior only if it is measured with a high level of specificity. Moreover, while finding our consumer attitude, the timing of measurement is also important. For example, attitude towards taking a holiday reason trip on a weekend is likely to be higher than during weekdays.

Functions of Attitudes
1) Adjustment function: Attitudes often help people adjust to their work environment. When employees are well treated, they are likely to develop a positive attitude towards management and the organization. When employees are berated and paid poorly, they are likely to develop a negative attitude towards the firm and its owners. These attitudes help employees adjust to their environment and are a basis for future behavior. For example, if employees who are well treated are asked about management or the organization, they are likely to say good things. Just the reverse may be true for those berated and are poorly paid.
Adjustment Ego defensive

Attitude

Knowledge

Value expression

Functions of Attitudes 2) Ego-defensive Function: People often form and maintain certain attitudes to protect their own self-images. For example, workers may feel threatened by the employment or advancement of minority or female workers in their organization. These threatened workers may develop prejudices against the new workers. They may develop an attitude that such newcomers are less qualified, and they might mistreat these workers. Such an ego defensive attitude is formed and used to cope with a feeling of guilt or threat. Unless this feeling is removed, this kind of attitude will remain unchanged.

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3) Expressive Function: This attitudinal function contains three main aspects: i) It helps express the individuals central values and self-identity. Consumers express their values in the products they buy, the shops they patronize, and the life style they exhibit. ii) It also helps individuals define their self-concept, and facilitates the adoption of sub-culture values considered important. For example, teenagers may dress and behave in a certain way in order to foster their status in a group. iii) It helps individuals adopt and internalize the values of a group they have recently joined and as a consequence, they are better able to relate to the group. 4) Knowledge Function: People need maintain a stable, organized, and meaningful structure of their world in order to prevent chaos. Attitudes provide the standards or frames of reference by which an individual judges objectives or events, and attitudes that provide consistency in our thinking are particularly relevant. The knowledge function of attitudes is observed more in consumer behavior.

Attitude Theories and Models

The three classical theories based upon the consistency principle are congruity, balance, and cognitive dissonance. Newer multi-attribute, attitude theories are discussed after a consideration of these traditional views. 1) Congruity Theory: This theory was developed by C.E. Osgood and P.H. Tannenbaum. The flows of the theory are on changes in the evaluation of a source and a concept that are linked by an associative or dissociative assertion. This theory is building on the notion of positive and negative attitudes and adds the concept of attitude strength. Congruity exists when a source and concept which are positively associated have exactly the same evaluations. Congruity is a stable state and is also said to exist when a source and concept which are negatively associated have exactly the opposite evaluations attached to them. And when incongruity exists, according to the theory, it leads to attitude change. Congruity theory helps to rate attitude towards an object from 3 (highly unfavorable) to +3 (highly favorable) with middle zero point. Here, in order to obtain congruity, one should take into account not only the direction of the attitude (as in balance theory) but also its strength.
Final rating of P.C -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3

Sales Man

Personal Computer

Congruity Theory

Suppose we are convinced based on the information received from the salesman that the personal computer is good and will meet all our requirements, a rate of +3 (highly favorable) may be given. However, if we develop a slight dislike for the salesman, a rating of 1 (slightly unfavorable) may be given. According to congruity theory, the final attitude towards the object is calculated by having the difference between the ratings. So in the case of the personal computer, to achieve congruity we will have to adjust both these ratings. Therefore we will give the personal computer a rating of +1 (slightly favorable), the mid point between 1 and +3. This can be seen in the given above. 2) Balance Theory: This theory has been developed by Fritz Heider. According to balance theory, a person perceives her or his environment in terms of triads. That is, a person views herself or himself as being involved in a triangular relationship in which all three elements (persons, ideas, and things) have either positive (liking, favorable) or negative (disliking, unfavorable) relationships with each other. This relationship is termed sentiment. Unlike the congruity model, there are no numerical values used to express the degree of unity between elements. Instead, the model is described as unbalanced if the multiplicative relationship among the three elements is negative, and balanced if the multiplicative relationship is positive. To illustrate, consider the consumer situation expressed as three statements: i) I like large luxurious cars, ii) I dont like energy-wasting products, iii) I believe large, luxurious cars waste energy.

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This situation is described by the triad shown in figure below. Notice that the structure is not in balance, because there is a positive relationship on two sides of the triad and a negative relationship on the third side, and this result in a negative multiplicative product.
I Like (+) Large, luxurious cars Are (+) Dont like (-) Large, luxurious cars

Graphical Representation of an Unbalanced Attitudinal Structure Because the relationship presented in the example is unbalance, it will produce tension for the consumer. It may be possible for her to live with the tension and do nothing to resolve it. However, if sufficient tension exists, it is likely that attitude change will occur regarding at least one element in the trial in order to restore balance to the system. These attempts at resolution can resolution can result in the consumer to: a) Disliking large, luxurious cars; b) Believing that large, luxurious cars are not really energy-wasting products; or c) Liking energy-wasting products (they create jobs and provide psychological satisfaction) For example: As we can see, rationalization can help to change our perceptions of relationships and thus our attitudes. 3) Cognitive Dissonance: The theory of cognitive dissonance was developed in 1957 by Leon Festinger. Festinger describes cognitive dissonance as a psychological state which results when a person perceives that two cognitions (thoughts), both of which he believes to be true, do not fit together; that is, they seem inconsistent. The resulting dissonance produces tension, which serves to motivate the individual to bring harmony to inconsistent elements and thereby reduce psychological tension. This theory considers the third component of the attitudes behavioral tendency, with cognitions. This theory states that there are three types of relationships between all cognitions dissonance, consonance and irrelevance. i) Cognitions are dissonant when they are opposed to ones experience about the relationship of events. ii) Cognitions are consonant when one follows from the other on the basis of logic or experience. iii) Cognitions are totally irrelevant when two events are not interrelated. For instance, say two pieces of information A and B, in a persons mind can be related in one of the three ways: a) They can be consistent or consonant, and then A implies B. b) They can be inconsistent or dissonant, then A implies opposite of B. c) They can be unrelated or irrelevant; the A is not related to B. For example, two pieces of information I like ice-cream and Ice-cream can make me fat are dissonant. This means, one does not want to become fat and yet one wants to eat ice-cream. On the other hand I like green salad and Green salad is good for you are consonant pieces of information. The presence of dissonances gives rise to pressures to reduce or eliminates the dissonance. The aim of cognitive dissonance theory is to reduce the amount of dissonance, often defined as mental discomfort. Dissonance can be reduced by three methods: changing a behavioral cognitive element, changing an environmental element and adding a new cognitive element. This theory can be applied to marketing so as to reduce post-purchase dissonance in consumer purchase decision, i.e., when information about an accepted or rejected item is received subsequent to after a purchase decision is made. At this time, positive information about a rejected item will generate dissonance. Similarly, negative information about an accepted item will lead to dissonance.

Factors Affecting Level of Dissonance

The extent to which dissonance will be felt will depend on the following factors: i) Significance of the decision: If the individual has spent a lot of money on the holiday, the dissonance would undoubtedly greater. ii) Attractiveness of the rejected alternative: If the decision had been a narrow one then positive information from one of the rejected options is likely to create greater dissonance.

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iii) Number of the negative views of the choice made: If the selected destination is seen as having a number of positive aspects, then a disappointing report about the weather, for instance is less likely to create dissonance. iv) Number of options considered: The more rejected choices, greater the dissonance. Trying to choose a holiday destination from more alternatives makes it more likely that one of the rejected options would have turned out better. v) Commitment to decision: If the decision can easily be reversed then less dissonance is likely to result. vi) Choice (voluntary or forced): If the choice is forced rather than voluntary, then lesser the dissonance. Here also, a person experiencing dissonance will try to reduce the discomfort by adopting either of the following ways. The individual may: i) Change his decision. ii) Selective exposure or actively seek positive information about the chosen alternative. iii) Selective attention or concentrate on positive information about the chosen alternative. iv) Change the attitude. v) Selective avoidance, that is, avoid information likely to cause dissonance. vi) Selective interpretation, that is, dismiss ambiguous information about the choice made. Markers can use dissonance theory in the following ways: a) Post Purchase Re-Enforcement: The firm will continue to provide the purchaser with positive information about the product even after purchase and thus reduced post purchase dissonance. This will also help to build brand and corporate identity. This is usually done by various car manufacturing companies. b) Try and Buy Schemes: Offering limited trials, re-inforced by various sales promotion techniques. This will help in creating a firm commitment and positive attitude towards the product, which will increase the likelihood of the purchase of the product. This may also help to avoid dissonance when the product is returned. Companies like Coca-cola, Pepsico etc. operate in this way. c) Anticipating and Addressing Dissonance in the Advertising Message and Product Branding: For instance, HLL, was accused by Fena for including Lemon Power on the packaging of Wheel, (washing detergent), especially in the absence of lemon in its washing powder. So to avoid any dissonance in the consumers mind HLL was forced to change the packaging to cleaning power and lemon perfumed instead of lemon power. 4) Tricomponent Attitude Model i) The Cognitive Component: The first component of the tricomponent attitude model consists of a persons cognitions, that is, the knowledge and perceptions that are acquired by a combination of direct experience with the attitude object and related information from various sources. This knowledge and resulting perceptions commonly take the form of beliefs, that is, the consumer believes that the attitude object possesses various attributes and that specific behavior will lead to specific outcomes. ii) The Affective Component: A consumers emotions or feelings about a particular product or brand constitute the affective component of an attitude. These emotions and feelings are frequently treated by consumer researchers as primarily evaluative in nature, that is, they capture an individuals direct or global assessment of the attitude-object (i.e., the extent to which the individual rates the attitude object as favorable or unfavorable, good or bad). Affect-laden experiences also manifest themselves as emotionally charged states (e.g., happiness, sadness, shame, disgust, anger, distress, guilt, or surprise). Research indicates that such emotional states may enhance or amplify positive or negative experiences and that later recollections of such experiences may impact what comes to mind and how the individual acts. iii) The Conative Component: Conation, the final component of the tricomponent attitude mode, is concerned with the likelihood or tendency that an individual will undertake a specific action or behave in a particular way with regard to the attitude object. According to some interpretations, the conative component may include the actual behavior itself. In marketing and consumer research, the conative component is frequently treated as an expression of the consumers intention to buy. Buyer intention scales are used to assess the likelihood of a consumer purchasing a product or behaving in a certain way.

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Attitude Measurement
Attitudes are subjective attributes of people. They are also regarded as constructs in the sense that they are conceptualization of human qualities, which are formed based on either rational consideration or on the basis of statistical evidence. This means individuals may vary along a number of attitudinal dimensions. Psychologists have devised numerous methods for the measurement of attitudes. The most significant ones are: 1) Thurstone type of Scale: It was developed by L.L. Thurstone and E.J Chave by collecting a large number of statements relating to the areas in which attitudes were to be measured. The statements relating to the attitude object are both favorable and unfavorable and are placed in 11 piles with most favorable statement placed on pile 1, to the most unfavorable one being placed in pile 11. The scale is then presented to the respondents who will make his selection based on his choice of the statement. His attitude score will be worked out based on the average or medium scale of the statements that he has checked. 2) Likert Scales: Likerts attitude scale uses five points. The statement relating to the measurement of attitudes is given to the respondent, who is then asked to check one of the five points given for every statement it includes: i) Strongly approved ii) Approved iii) Undecided iv) Disapproved v) Strongly disapproved These points show degree of agreement or disagreement with the given statements. A positive aspect of the Likert scales is that in this scaling technique, it will be possible to make numerous statements because of every aspect only one statement is required, which will have both positive and negative degrees. 3) Semantic Differential: This attitude scaling technique was developed by C.E. Osgood, G.J. Suci and P.H. Tannenbaum. This technique calls for successive allocation of a concept to a point in the multidimensional space by selection from among a set of given scaled semantic alternatives. It consists of several or many pairs of opposite adjectives or phrases, with scale values in between. While using this scale, the respondent will mark the position along each scale that reflects his or her attitude to the attitude object. The scale values (often ranging from 1 to 7) are associated with the different responses. The individuals score is usually the sum of the values. 4) Repertory Grid: The personal construct theory, developed by George Kelly has been considered to be of relevance to the study of perception, personality and attitudes. The underlying notion of Kellys theory is the belief that people are fundamentally inquisitive and will explore and explain the world using what he calls constructs. These constructs are, essentially, definitions of the parts of the world of dividing it into various compartments, to make sense of it and predict what is likely to happen in the future. The repertory grid technique developed by George Kelly for the measurement of constructs is frequently used in marketing in the comparative study of attitudes. 5) Opinion Surveys: Attitude scales help to measure the attitudes of individuals by summarizing data for all employees within a group; such scales can be used to quantify 'morale' of employee groups. Attitude scales can be useful in indicating the relative level of morale of employees group, they do not enable the management to identify specific factors that may be sources of employees' unrest or dissatisfaction. The information can be obtained by the use of questionnaire that provides for giving opinions about specific matters such as working conditions, company policies, facilities, etc. These points show degree of agreement or disagreement with the given statements. A positive aspect of the Likert scales is that in this scaling technique, it will be possible to make numerous statements because for every aspect only one statement is required, which will have both positive and negative degrees. 6) Interviews: Still another method of obtaining information about personnel reactions is the use of interviews. The workers should be interviewed by the representatives of some outside organization such as a consultancy firm or a university department. In a guided interview, the interviewer asks a series of questions such that each of which may be answered by a simple yes or no or by some other words or phrases. In the unguided interview, the interviewer asks more general questions to encourage the employee to express himself and solicit information about his job satisfaction, job involvement and job commitment.

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7) Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: It is the process by which a person attempts to convert his/her attitudes, beliefs and expectations into reality. For instance if A predicts that something is going to happen, he will try hard to ensure that it happens. Similarly, if a teacher expects better results of his students in the forthcoming examinations, he will work hard in that direction to ensure better results. One may hold self-fulfilling prophecy in both positive and negative ways. The term is used more in the context of negative prophecy. For instance, if a trade union leader predicts labor trouble in the factory, he will act accordingly, i.e., resorting to propaganda against the management, instigating of workers, and so on.

Changing Attitudes and Behavior

Once formed, attitudes have tendency to persist and are very difficult to change. The main difficulty in changing attitudes is resistance on the part of people to change. They do not want to be informed that they are wrong in their thoughts and feelings. But attempts to change attitudes are very common. Since attitudes are acquired through the process of learning, they can also be changed trough the process of education. In this process, leadership plays an important role. A leader is one who is able to influence the perceptions, attitudes and behavior of other person or a group of persons for some objective. By the same token, any person whose perception, attitude and behavior are being influenced by someone is called a follower. A leader, attempting to change the attitude of his follower(s), can focus his attention on the components of an attitude and the situation surrounding the attitude. To be more specific, attitudes can be changed by changing any one or more of the following factors: 1) Change in Ideas and Beliefs: When the reason for the undesirable attitude is insufficient or misleading information, attempts to change such attitudes can be made by supplying sufficient amount of desired information to the person. For example, people can be seen possessing negative attitude towards the staff at the railway reservation counters. They believe that the staff avoids the work. Therefore, whenever there is some delay in getting reservation, people express their anguish towards the staff. Such a negative attitude can be changed by drawing the attention of public towards the circumstances in which the staff works. Sometimes the staff is to deal with illiterate passengers which consumes a lot of their time. 2) Change in Feelings or Emotions: Sometimes, attempts to change ideas and beliefs by providing facts are without effect on the negative attitude toward something because of the strong impact of emotions on such attitudes. The most effective way in such circumstances is listening. That is why complaint boxes are provided in some organizations. Some government departments organize open house meetings with the public to listen to their grievances. This goes a long way in changing the negative attitudes of people. 3) Change in Situation: To change an undesirable attitude, some situational variables, which are causing such an attitude, could be modified. For example, if inadequate pay is the cause of the negative attitude, then pay increase may be planned. A few more examples of situational variables, which may affect attitude towards job, are communication among people at work, nature of job, management practices, style of supervision and work groups. 4) Change in Behavior: In the ultimate analysis, the undesirable behavior accompanying some attitude is the focus of change. Though it is a direct method of changing some undesirable attitude, it is more complicated and not likely to last long. For example, if a person has a negative attitude towards the job, he may absent himself from the work more often. If punishment is planned for absenteeism, the person may become more regular but may express his attitude in some other manner. He may slow down the work. Thus, the attempt to change behavior requires close watch because the undesirable attitude may not have changed at all and the undesirable behavior accompanying such an attitude may have only gone underground or undesirable behavior may have been replaced by some other undesirable behavior.

Barriers to Attitudinal Change

There exist two basic barriers to attitudinal change in organizational settings: prior commitment and inadequate information. 1) Prior Commitment: People may have prior commitment to a course of activity and thus, reveal reluctance to change. For example: The president of a company recruits an MBA degree holder from the same university from where he himself had obtained a doctorate degree in management. The new entrant fares poorly. His superior brings this fact to the notice of the president. However, the latter is unwilling to accept his mistake. Because of the ego-defensive function of attitude, he tends to distort all negative information relating to the new recruit. He still holds that everything is going smoothly and that he had taken the right decision.

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2) Inadequate Information: People may find no reason for changing their attitude. Suppose that a programmer has a negative attitude towards the company. His supervisor may tell him that it may damage him; hamper his career progress or lead to deprivation of increment. This information may help him in improving his attitude towards the company.

Overcoming Barriers to Attitudinal Change

1) Making Available New Information: People can be provided with new information to change their attitudes. For example: If unionized workers have a negative attitude towards the company management, some of them may be promoted to supervisory positions. While working in these positions, their attitude towards the management changes positively. This is because they realize the steps the management is taking to promote workers interests. This new information changes their belief towards the management resulting in an improved attitude. 2) Using Fear: The use of fear has also been effectively used to change employee attitudes. However, the degree of fear must be moderate rather than mild or strong. Lesser degree of fear may be ignored while a strong dose may appear too threatening to be believed, e.g., smoking. Smokers tend to ignore strong anticigarette smoking commercials. Advertisements showing a patient dying of cancer are so threatening that the smokers tend to shut them out. Only moderate fear arousal has been found to be an effective measure. 3) Removing Discrepancies: An attempt is also be made to generate attitudinal change by removing discrepancies between attitudes and behavior. Suppose an individual has three job offers. He may be in conflict as to which he should accept. In course of time, he is likely to resolve the conflict by changing his attitude and behavior. As he starts working in a chosen job, he may develop negative feelings towards the two he did not accept. Accordingly, he may conclude that he had made the right choice by accepting his present job. 4) Impact Exerted by Friends or Peers: Friends or peers may also play an active role in effectuating attitudinal change in an individual. They do so by persuasion. Suppose most workers have opted for the pension scheme rather than the PF-cum-gratuity scheme. An individual worker is then likely to change his attitude towards the former scheme taking an example from his colleagues and may also opt for it. However, this attitudinal change may not occur in extreme cases where his personal interest is likely to be involved. 5) Co-opting Approach: People can also be involved in issues towards which they display negative attitudes. Suppose an individual has negative attitudes towards fringe benefits. The management may induct him in a committee constituted to make suggestions for the improvement of these benefits. Thus, the process of coopting him in the decision-making process concerning fringe benefits may change his attitude. This may occur when he understands how these benefits are determined and how much the committee worked to improve them. 6) Removing Discrepancies: An attempt is also be made to generate attitudinal change by removing discrepancies between attitudes and behavior. Suppose an individual has three job offers. He may be in conflict as to which he should accept. In course of time, he is likely to resolve the conflict by changing his attitude and behavior. As he starts working in a chosen job, he may develop negative feelings towards the two he did not accept. Accordingly, he may conclude that he had made the right choice by accepting his present job. 7) Impact Exerted by Friends or Peers: Friends or peers may also play an active role in effectuating attitudinal change in an individual. They do so by persuasion. Suppose most workers have opted for the pension scheme rather than the PF-cum-gratuity scheme. An individual worker is then likely to change his attitude towards the former scheme taking an example from his colleagues and may also opt for it. However, this attitudinal change may not occur in extreme cases where his personal interest is likely to be involved. 8) Co-opting Approach: People can also be involved in issues towards which they display negative attitudes. Suppose an individual has negative attitudes towards fringe benefits. The management may induct him in a committee constituted to make suggestions for the improvement of these benefits. Thus, the process of coopting him in the decision-making process concerning fringe benefits may change his attitude. This may occur when he understands how these benefits are determined and how much the committee worked to improve them.

Developing Positive Attitudes by Individuals

In an organizational setting, managers may help employees to develop positive attitudes in them. However, employees as individuals may develop positive attitudes on their own within the organization as well as outside it. Developing of positive attitudes is necessary for the betterment of the life because negative attitudes often result into bitterness, resentment, high stress, ill health, and purposeless life. As against these, positive attitudes lead to better personality development, meaningful life, feeling of being important, and contribution to self and society. Though, there may be several methods for developing positive attitudes, following actions on the part of individuals may be more relevant for developing positive attitudes:

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1) Identification of Attitudes: Before developing positive attitudes, it is essential that the existing attitudes, both positive and negative, should be identified. Identification of ones own attitudes helps in locating the attitudes that are negative and need change. For identifying attitudes, attitude measurement test can be self-administered. There are several such tests available. These tests give results upto satisfactory level. Alternatively, an individual may identify his attitudes by analyzing what attitudes are contributing positively towards the realization of ones life objective and which attitudes are contributing negatively. Those attitudes that contribute negatively need change. If there are several such attitudes, each of these can be taken turn-by-turn. 2) Looking for Positive: For developing positive attitudes, it is essential that one must look for positive and avoid negative persons, things, and happenings. Every person or object may have a combination of both positive and negative. Therefore, if one wants to look for only negative, he may find fault with everything. Fault finders may even locate faults in paradise because people find what they are looking for. Therefore, if one looks for positive, he may find plenty of positive. However, looking for positive does not mean overlooking faults with any thing. For looking for positive, it is necessary that one must analyze the situation critically. This critical analysis gives better picture of the situation and helps in understanding the positive aspect of the situation. 3) Building Positive Self-Esteem: Self-esteem denotes the extent to which people consistently regard themselves as capable, successful, important, and worthy individuals. Therefore, developing positive selfesteem helps in inculcating positive attitudes. For building positive self-esteem, one must adopt the practice of doing something for others who cannot repay back in cash or kind. 4) Setting Challenging Targets: For developing positive attitudes and being successful at work, it is essential that one must set for himself challenging targets to be achieved. Challenging targets always help in motivating an individual to do something better because he feels that he has to achieve something. Achieving something is a source of satisfaction which is essential for meaningful life. However, while setting challenging targets, one must avoid building castles in air. Challenging targets must be based on reality. 5) Avoiding Procrastination: In order to achieve challenging targets, it is essential that procrastination should be avoided. Procrastination is the act or habit of putting off work till some future time, that is, the habit of doing todays work tomorrow. Once this habit is developed, tomorrow never comes and the work remains incomplete. For avoiding procrastination, it is desirable that one must set the plan for days work in the morning itself and that plan must be adhered too. Sometimes, it is possible that time-wasting things may happen and the target for the days work is not achieved. In such a situation, it is desirable that one should work for extra time to complete the days work. Further, one should spot out the time wasters and try to overcome these because time once wasted cannot be regained. 6) Continuous Learning: For developing positive attitudes, it is essential that continuous learning must be made a part of total personality development. Learning is the process by which new behaviors are acquired. These new behaviors are based on new information with which an individual might have not interacted in the past. Since attitude formation starts from the early stage of life, it may be possible that an individual might have formed his attitudes based on incomplete information or even wrong information.

JOB SATISFACTION
Meaning and Definition of Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction refers to the general attitude of employees towards their jobs. Job satisfaction probably is the most widely studied variable in OB. When the attitude of an employee towards his or her job is positive, there exists job satisfaction. Dissatisfaction exists when the attitude is negative. According to Feldman and Arnold, Job satisfaction is the amount of overall positive effect or feelings that individuals have towards their jobs. Job satisfaction often is a collection of attitudes about specific factors of the job. Employees can be satisfied with some elements of the job while simultaneously dissatisfied with others. For example, a lecturer may be dissatisfied with the management of the institution but may derive satisfaction while handling a course on OB in the class. Different types of satisfaction will lead to different intentions and behavior. An employee might complain to the supervisor when dissatisfied with low pay but not with co-worker satisfaction. Job satisfaction is important for management as it has impact on turnover, productivity, absenteeism and other job related aspects.

Determinants of Job Satisfaction

While analyzing the various determinants of job satisfaction, we have to keep in mind that: all individuals do not derive the same degree of satisfaction though they perform the same job in the same job environment and at

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the same time. Therefore, it appears that besides the nature of job and job environment, there are individual variables which affect job satisfaction. Thus, all those factors which provide a fit among individual variables, nature of job, and situational variables determine the degree of job satisfaction. Let us see what these factors are: 1) Individual Factors: Individuals have certain expectations from their jobs. If their expectations are met from the jobs, they feel satisfied. These expectations are based on an individuals level of education, age and other factors: i) Level of Education: Level of education of an individual is a factor which determines the degree of job satisfaction. For example, several studies have found negative correlation between the level of education, particularly higher level of education, and job satisfaction. The possible reason for this phenomenon may be that highly educated persons have very high expectations from their jobs which remain unsatisfied. In their case, Peters principle which suggests that every individual tries to reach his level of incompetence, applies more quickly.
Determinants of Job Satisfaction

Individual factor 1) Level of education 2) Age

Nature of Job 1) Occupation Level 2) Job Content

Situational variables 1) Working conditions 2) Supervision 3) Equitable rewards 4) Opportunity for promotion 5) Work group

ii)

Age: Individuals experience different degree of job satisfaction at different stages of their life. Job satisfaction is high at the initial stage, gets gradually reduced, starts rising up to certain stage, and finally dips to a low degree. The possible reasons for this phenomenon are like this. When individuals join an organization, they may have some unrealistic assumptions about what they are going to derive from their work. These assumptions make them more satisfied. However, when these assumptions fall short of reality, job satisfaction goes down. It starts rising again as the people start to assess the jobs in right perspective and correct their assumptions. At the last, particularly at the fag end of the career, job satisfaction goes down because of fear of retirement and future outcome.

iii) Other Factors: Besides the above two factors, there are other individual factors which affect job satisfaction. If an individual does not have favorable social and family life, he may not feel happy at the workplace. Similarly, other personal problems associated with him may affect his level of job satisfaction. 2) Nature of Job: Nature of job determines job satisfaction, which is in the form of occupation level and job content: i) Occupation Level: Higher level jobs provide more satisfaction as compared to lower levels. This happens because high level jobs carry prestige and status in the society which itself becomes source of satisfaction for the job holders. For example, professionals derive more satisfaction as compared to salaried people; factory workers are least satisfied. ii) Job Content: Job content refers to the intrinsic value of the job which depends on the requirement of skills for performing it, and the degree of responsibility and growth it offers. A higher content of these factors provides higher satisfaction. For example, a routine and repetitive job provides lesser satisfaction; the degree of satisfaction progressively increases in job rotation, job enlargement, and job enrichment.

3) Situational Variables: Situational variables related to job satisfaction lie in organizational contextformal and informal. Formal organization is created by the management and informal organization emerges out of the interaction of individuals in the organization. Some of the important factors which affect job satisfaction are given below: i) Working Conditions: Working conditions, particularly physical work environment, like conditions of workplace and associated facilities for performing the job determine job satisfaction. These work in two ways. First, these provide means for job performance. Second, provision of these conditions affects the individuals perception about the organization. If these factors are favorable, individuals experience higher level of job satisfaction. ii) Supervision: The type of supervision affects job satisfaction as in each type of supervision, the degree of importance attached to individuals varies. In employee-oriented supervision, there is more concern for people which is perceived favorably by them and provides them more satisfaction. In job oriented supervision, there is more emphasis on the performance of the job and people become secondary. This situation decreases job satisfaction.

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iii) Equitable Rewards: The type of linkage that is provided between job performance and rewards determines the degree of job satisfaction. If the reward is perceived to be based on the job performance and equitable, it offers higher satisfaction. If the reward is perceived to be based on considerations other than the job performance, it affects job satisfaction adversely. iv) Opportunity for Promotion: It is true that individuals seek satisfaction in their jobs in the context of job nature and work environment but they also attach importance to the opportunities for promotion that these jobs offer. If the present job offers opportunity of promotion in future, it provides more satisfaction. If the opportunity for such promotion is lacking, it reduces satisfaction. v) Work Group: Individuals work in group either created formally or they develop on their own to seek emotional satisfaction at the workplace. To the extent such groups are cohesive, the degree of satisfaction is high. If the group is not cohesive, job satisfaction is low. In a cohesive group, people derive satisfaction out of their interpersonal interaction and workplace becomes satisfying leading to job satisfaction.

Effect of Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction has a variety of effects. These effects may be seen in the context of an individuals physical and mental health, productivity, absenteeism, and turnover. 1) Physical and Mental Health: The degree of job satisfaction affects an individuals physical and mental health. Since job satisfaction is a type of mental feeling, its favorableness or unfavorableness affects the individual psychologically which ultimately affects his physical health. For example, Lawler has pointed out that drug abuse, alcoholism and mental and physical health result from psychologically harmful jobs. Further, since a job is an important part of life, job satisfaction influences general life satisfaction. The result is that there is spillover effect which occurs in both directions between job and life satisfaction. 2) Productivity: There are two views about the relationship between job satisfaction and productivity: i) A happy worker is a productive worker. ii) A happy worker is not necessarily a productive worker. The first view establishes a direct cause-effect relationship between job satisfaction and productivity; when job satisfaction increases, productivity increases; when job satisfaction decreases, productivity decreases. The basic logic behind this is that a happy worker will put more efforts for job performance. However, this may not be true in all cases. For example, a worker having low expectations from his jobs may feel satisfied but he may not put his efforts more vigorously because of his low expectations from the job. Therefore, this view does not explain fully the complex relationship between job satisfaction and productivity. Another view that is a satisfied worker is not necessarily a productive worker explains the relationship between job satisfaction and productivity. Various research studies also support this view. This relationship may be explained in terms of the operation of two factors: a) Effect of Job Performance on Satisfaction: Job performance leads to job satisfaction and not the other way round. The basic factor for this phenomenon is the rewards (a source of satisfaction) attached with performance. There are two types of rewards-intrinsic and extrinsic. The intrinsic reward stems from the job itself which may be in the form of growth potential, challenging job, etc. The satisfaction on such a type of reward may help to increase productivity. The extrinsic reward is subject to control by management such as salary, bonus, etc. Any increase in these factors does not help to increase productivity though these factors increase job satisfaction. b) Organizational Expectations from Individuals for Job Performance: A happy worker does not necessarily contribute to higher productivity because he has to operate under certain technological constraints and, therefore, he cannot go beyond certain output. Further, this constraint affects the managements expectations from the individual in the form of lower output. Thus, the work situation is pegged to minimally acceptable level of performance. However, it does not mean that the job satisfaction has no impact on productivity. A satisfied worker may not necessarily lead to increased productivity but dissatisfied worker leads to lower productivity. 3) Absenteeism: Absenteeism refers to the frequency of absence of a job holder from the workplace either unexcused absence due to some avoidable reasons or long absence due to some unavoidable reasons. It is the former type of absence which is a matter of concern. This absence is due to lack of satisfaction from the job which produces a lack of will to work and alienate a worker from work as far as possible. Thus, job satisfaction is related to absenteeism. 4) Employee Turnover: Turnover of employees is the rate at which employees leave the organization within a given period of time. When an individual feels dissatisfaction in the organization, he tries to overcome this through the various ways. If he is not able to do so, he opts to leave the organization. Thus, in general

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case, employee turnover is related to job satisfaction. However, job satisfaction is not the only cause of employee turnover, the other cause being better opportunity elsewhere. For example, in the present context, the rate of turnover of computer software professionals is very high in India. However, these professionals leave their organizations not simply because they are not satisfied but because of the opportunities offered from other sources particularly from foreign companies located abroad. 5) Improving Job Satisfaction: Job satisfaction plays significant role in the organization. Therefore, managers should take concrete steps to improve the level of job satisfaction. These steps may be in the form of job redesigning to make the job more interesting and challenging, improving quality of work life, linking rewards with performance, and improving overall organizational climate.

Job Satisfaction Model

Figure below shows the causes and consequences of job satisfaction. Causes for job satisfaction comprise organizational factors, group elements and individual needs. All these factors contribute to satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Between the causes and consequences of job satisfaction, there are two variables, namely outcomes valued/expected and outcomes received.
Organizational Factors Outcomes Expected/Valued Groups Factors Outcomes Expected/Valued Individual Factors
Job Dissatisfaction

Low turnover Job Satisfaction Low absenteeism High turnover High absenteeism Figure: Job Satisfaction Model

Theories of Job Satisfaction

There are vital differences among experts about the concept of job satisfaction. Basically, there are four approaches/theories of job satisfaction. 1) Fulfillment Theory: The proponents of this theory measure satisfaction in terms of rewards a person receives or the extent to which his needs are satisfied. Further they thought that there is a direct/positive relationship between job satisfaction and the actual satisfaction of the expected needs. The main difficulty in this approach is that job satisfaction as observed by willing, is not only a function of what a person receives but also what he feels he should receive as there would be considerable difference in the actual and expectations of persons. Thus, job satisfaction cannot be regarded as merely a function of how much a person receives from his job. Another important factor/variable that should be included to predict job satisfaction accurately is the strength of the individuals' desire of his level of aspiration in a particular area. This led to the development of the discrepancy-theory of job satisfaction. 2) Discrepancy Theory: The proponents of this theory argue that satisfaction is the function of what a person actually receives from his job situation and what he thinks he should receive or what he expects to receive. When the actual satisfaction derived is less than expected satisfaction, it results in dissatisfaction. As discussed earlier, "Job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are functions of the perceived relationship between what one wants from one's job and what one perceives it is offering. This approach does not make it clear whether or not over satisfaction is a part of dissatisfaction and if so, how does it differ from dissatisfaction. This led to the development of equity-theory of job satisfaction. 3) Equity Theory: The proponents of this theory are of the view that a person's satisfaction is determined by his perceived equity, which in turn is determined by his input-output balance compared to his comparison of others, input-output balance. Input-output balance is the perceived ratio of what a person receives from his job relative to what he contributes to the job. This theory is of the view that both under and over rewards lead to dissatisfaction while the under-reward causes feelings of unfair treatment, over-reward leads to feelings of guilt and discomfort. 4) Two-Factor Theory: This theory was developed by Herzberg, Manusner, Peterson and Capwell who identified certain factors as satisfiers and dissatisfies. Factors such as achievement, recognition, responsibility etc., are satisfiers, the presence of which causes satisfaction but their absence does not result in dissatisfaction. On the other hand, factors such as supervision, salary, working conditions etc., are dissatisfiers, the absence of which causes dissatisfaction. Their presence, however, does not result in job

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Thakurs MBA First Semester HB (Organizational Behavior)

satisfaction. The studies designed to test their theory failed to give any support to this theory, as it seems that a person can get both satisfaction and dissatisfaction at the same time, which is not valid.

Job Satisfaction and Productivity

The old view that 'a happy worker is a productive worker' does not clarify the complex relationship between job satisfaction and productivity. It was traditionally said that high job satisfaction leads to improved productivity, decreased turnover, reduced accidents and less job stress in the long-run. But the relationship between job satisfaction and productivity is not definitely established. Porter and Lawler found that job performance leads to job satisfaction and not the other way round. They argued that performance leads to two kinds of rewards-intrinsic and extrinsic. The intrinsic rewards such as growth, challenging job, etc, stem from the job itself and extrinsic rewards are under the control of management such as salary, bonus, etc. Intrinsic rewards are more closely related to satisfaction. For instance, if a person performs well on a challenging assignment, he gets an immediate feeling of satisfaction.
Perceived equity of rewards

Extrinsic rewards Performance Intrinsic rewards

Satisfaction

Figure: Lawler-Porter Model of Performance and Satisfaction

The lack of correlation between job satisfaction and performance can be explained as follows. If a job holds little potential for intrinsic rewards and if extrinsic rewards bear a very little relationship to the performance level of the individual, the resultant connection between satisfaction and performance tends to be weak. In such a situation, management should do two things: 1) Modify the job so that it becomes capable of yielding intrinsic rewards for performance. 2) Correct the reward system so that it acts as an incentive for higher performance, i.e., higher performance receives proportionally higher extrinsic rewards. In practice, there may not be a direct cause and effect relationship between job satisfaction and productivity at lower levels because productivity is determined by outside factors like speed of machine, quality of materials, type of supervision, etc. However, the satisfaction performance correlation may be stronger for people working as professionals, or in supervisory and managerial positions.

Job Satisfaction and Absenteeism

There is a negative relationship between satisfaction and absenteeism, though the correlation is not high. It makes sense that dissatisfied workers are more likely to abstain from work as compared to the satisfied workers. But even the satisfied workers may absent themselves from the workplace to enjoy a three day weekend or to watch a five-day cricket match. That means outside factors can act to reduce the correlation between dissatisfaction and absenteeism.

Job Satisfaction and Employee Turnover

High employee turnover is of considerable concern for the management because it disrupts normal operations, causes morale problems for those who stick on, and increase the cost involved in selecting and training replacements. The employer must do whatever possible to minimize turnover, making the employees feel satisfied on their jobs, being one such. Unlike the relationship between satisfaction and productivity, the connection between job satisfaction and employee turnover is established beyond doubt. It has been demonstrated that workers who have relatively low levels of job satisfaction are the most likely to quit their jobs and that organizational units with the lowest average satisfaction levels tend to have the highest turnover rates. However, the withdrawal behavior of employees is modified by certain factors. Loyalty to the organization is one such. Some employees cannot imagine themselves working elsewhere, however dissatisfied they are in their present jobs. Availability of other places of employment also influences turnover. If better avenues are available, an employee may not mind going in search of them, notwithstanding the present level of job satisfaction he enjoys.