WORK ATTITUDES

©Nancy Brown Johnson 2000

JOB SATISFACTION

• pleasurable feeling

• perception of fulfillment of job values

• varies by values

• varies by employee

Surveying Satisfaction

• worker’s self reports

• helps understand worker frustrations

• employer needs to give feedback

• employer needs to address concerns

Job Withdrawal

Dissatisfaction Job

Withdrawal

Behavior change

• grievances

• union

• whistle-blowing

• law suits

Physical Withdrawal

• Quits– costly– likely to be good employees

• Absenteeism

• Tardiness

Mental Withdrawal

• Low job involvement– poor performance doesn’t matter

• Low organizational commitment– difficult to motivate

• Health problems– stress– mental disorders

Sources of Job Dissatisfaction

• Physical environment

• Social environment– supervisors– co-workers

• Behavioral settings– crowding & privacy– monitoring

Characteristics of the Person

• Individual propensity for dissatisfaction– negative affectivity– low negative affectivity when dissatisfied really

likely to quit

• Selection important

• Dissatisfaction with other aspects of life

Task Characteristics

• Task complexity– boring

• dissatisfaction

• lower concentration

• Physical strain– undesirable

• Value employee places on task

Initiatives to Improve Tasks

• Job enrichment

• Employee empowerment

• Teamwork

• Job rotation

Organizational Roles

• Role Ambiguity– uncertainty about job expectations

• Role Conflict– incompatible demands

• Role Overload/Underload

Summary

• Job dissatisfaction associated with negative outcomes

• Job dissatisfaction comes from problems with people, places, things

• Can be improved – listening to concerns – acting upon concerns