CH-3-4 Organizational Commitment – Organizational Behaviour: Improving Performance and Commitment in the Workplace : Book Guide

This Document Contains Chapters 3 to 4 Chapter 3 Organizational Commitment CHAPTER OVERVIEW The chapter opens with a discussion of three different forms of organizational commitment – affective, continuance, and normative. Responses to negative events are also examined, including exit, voice, loyalty and neglect, with exit and neglect also described as physical and psychological withdrawal. Finally the chapter covers workplace trends such as diversity and employee-employer relationships, which can influence organizational commitment, and gives suggestions for fostering a sense of commitment among employees. LEARNING OUTCOMES After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions: 3.1 What is organizational commitment? What is withdrawal behaviour? How are the two connected? 3.2 What are the three forms of organizational commitment, and how do they differ? 3.3 What are the four primary responses to negative events at work? 3.4 What are some examples of psychological withdrawal? Of physical withdrawal? How do the different forms of withdrawal relate to each other? 3.5 What workplace trends are affecting organizational commitment in today’s organizations? 3.6 How can organizations foster a sense of commitment among employees? CHAPTER OUTLINE I. Organizational Commitment A. Organizational commitment is defined as the desire on the part of an employee to remain a member of the organization B. Employees who are not committed to their organizations engage in withdrawal behaviour – actions that help the employee to avoid the work situation II. What Does It Mean to Be a “Committed” Employee? Try This! Open the class by asking students to picture a scenario where they’ve worked for their first employer for a number of years and have been approached by a competitor. Ask them what factors would cause them to stay and list those factors on the board, subtly grouping them into affective, continuance, and normative factors (without using those terms). Allow the students to guess what the groupings reflect. This process will result in a table similar to Table 3-1. A. Forms of Commitment 1. Affective Commitment – a desire to remain a member of an organization due to an emotional attachment to, and involvement with, that organization a. Research shows that people with affective commitment engage in more interpersonal and organizational citizenship behaviours, such as helping, sportsmanship, and boosterism b. Affective behaviour is influenced by the bonds between employees i. Erosion model says that employees with fewer bonds will be more likely to quit the organization ii. Social influence model says that employees who have direct linkages with “leavers” will themselves be more likely to leave OB Assessments: Affective Commitment. This brief survey can be used to give students a feel for their affective commitment levels, if they are currently working (or have recently worked). Use a show of hands to see how many students fell above and below the average level, and see if students will volunteer any extremely high or low scores. Ask students with particularly high scores what explains their levels, and do the same for students with particularly low scores. Do the part-time employees in the class feel less committed than the full-time employees? Why might that be? 2. Continuance Commitment – a desire to remain a member of an organization because of awareness of the costs associated with leaving it a. Continuance commitment is increased by the investment an employee has in an organization, as well as lack of employment alternatives b. Embeddedness summarizes an individual’s links to the organization and community, and what he or she would have to sacrifice for a job change. The more embedded a person is, the more likely he or she will stay in his or her current position. OB on Screen: The Incredibles. If you have access to this movie, please play it for your students during class. This scene depicts Bob Parr (once a superhero named Mr. Incredible) as he tries to adjust to life at Insurance—the insurance company in which he’s been placed as part of the Superhero Relocation Program. Ask the students why Bob remains committed to Insurance—what form of commitment does he feel and why does he feel it? Does Insurance benefit from Bob’s commitment? Why or why not? Note that this discussion could take a broad view on the consequences of commitment—including not only voluntary turnover but also behaviours that are counterproductive to the firm. Try This! Use the Incredibles clip for a different chapter. The clip provides a good demonstration of low job satisfaction in Chapter 4-in terms of both a poor supply of relevant values (such as altruism) in value-percept theory and low levels of significance in job characteristics theory. The clip also illustrates low levels of psychological empowerment in Chapter 6 on Motivation. Bob’s “bending” of the rules can also be discussed from the perspective of the moral principles in Chapter 7 on Trust, Justice, and Ethics. Finally, the boss’s behaviour is indicative of a number of ineffective leadership styles in Chapter 12 on Leader Styles and Behaviours, including passive management-by-exception. Bonus OB on Screen: The Firm. Chapters 2-3 of the DVD (beginning at 2:34 and ending at 13:25 for a total running time of 10 minutes, 51 seconds) depict Mitch McDeere, a Harvard law student, as he interviews with Bandini, Lambert, and Locke, a small law firm in Memphis. The scenes reveal a firm that encourages marriage and children to its employees, because children bring stability. The firm seems charming, if old fashioned, until the end of the second chapter, when a somewhat sinister-looking man meets with the senior partners to detail the phone calls Mitch’s wife made from their hotel. That scene hints at the true nature of the firm, which has the mob as its primary client. One topic for class discussion is whether the firm is really taking the right approach in building commitment among its lawyers—is it smart for them to focus on building continuance commitment and embeddedness? Is there anything else they could do to build commitment instead, considering the illegal nature of their activities? 3. Normative Commitment – a desire to remain a member of an organization due to a feeling of obligation a. Two ways to build a sense of obligation-based commitment among employees: i. create a feeling that the employee is in the organization’s debt ii. become a charitable organization B. Withdrawal Behaviour 1. Withdrawal behaviour (a set of actions performed to avoid the work situation) is particularly important in times of organizational crisis 2. Employees respond to negative work events in one of four ways: a. Exit – an active, destructive response where the employee removes him/herself from the situation b. Voice – an active, constructive response, where the employee tries to change the status quo c. Loyalty – a passive, constructive response, where the employee maintains public support for the company, but privately hopes for an improvement d. Neglect – a passive, destructive response, leading to a decline in interest and effort on the job 3. Types of Withdrawal a. Psychological (Neglect) i. actions that provide a mental escape from work environment, including: a.) daydreaming b.) socializing c.) looking busy d.) moonlighting e.) cyberloafing Try This!: Have an in-class debate about whether managers should actively monitor internet usage, and punish employees who seem to be engaging in too much cyberloafing. Assign one side of the class to be the “yes” side and the other to be the “no” side, writing the arguments on the board. Then allow students to switch sides to make additional arguments. Then take a vote to see if the class as a whole is in favor of monitoring internet usage. b. Physical (Exit) i. actions that provide a physical escape from the environment a.) tardiness b.) long breaks c.) missing meetings d.) absenteeism e.) quitting 4. Models of Withdrawal Try This! After going through all of the psychological and physical forms of withdrawal, ask students whether they think they are positively, negatively, or uncorrelated with respect to their frequency. Try to direct discussion in such a way that students provide logic for all three positions, because all are somewhat intuitive in their own way. a. Independent forms model i. Argues that various withdrawal behaviours are uncorrelated with one another, occur for different reasons, and fulfill different needs on the part of employees b. Compensatory forms model i. Argues that various withdrawal behaviours negatively correlate with one another – doing one means you are less likely to do another c. Progression model i. Argues that various withdrawal behaviours are positively correlated with each other – exhibiting one behaviour increases the tendency of exhibiting other behaviours ii. This is the model that has received the most research support C. Summary: What Does It Mean to Be a “Committed” Employee? III. Workplace Trends That Affect Commitment A. Diversity of the Workforce 1. Canadian workforce is becoming increasingly diverse in terms of ethnicity, age, and nationality 2. As workgroups become more diverse, there is a danger that minority employees will find themselves on the fringe of work networks, which can reduce affective commitment. Foreign born nationals are less likely to have continuance commitment, since they are less embedded in the communities in which they work. OB Internationally. This text box discusses the difficulty multinational organizations may have in keeping employees committed to the organization, especially when they are given expatriate assignments. When teaching classes with a significant foreign-born population, you may ask students to think about whether they are more committed to their home country or to the country in which they are currently residing. Their answers will give them a feeling for the kind of ambivalence often felt by expatriate employees. B. The Changing Employee-Employer Relationship 1. Downsizing, or involuntary turnover, and the associated practices of outsourcing and using temporary workers, are fundamentally altering the way employees view their relationships with their employers today Try This! Ask students, by show of hands, how many have had a family member who was downsized. Allow any students who are willing to share their anecdotes. Then ask, again by show of hands, how many students feel they will work for 1 employer their whole career. Two employers? Three? Four? More than four? Ask them whether their answers to the question are somehow influenced by growing up amid decades of downsizing. Has downsizing impacted their expectations of their own commitment levels? 2. But downsizing typically doesn’t make companies more profitable – one study shows that it takes companies two years to return to their former levels of profitability post downsizing 3. Employees who remain with an organization after a downsizing tend to have “survivor syndrome”, and they have feelings of anger, depression, fear, distrust, and guilt 4. These trends have changed the psychological contracts that employees have with their employers. Those contracts are now more likely to be transactional in nature (reflecting a narrow set of specific monetary promises and obligations) and less likely to be relational in nature (reflecting a broader set of open-ended and subjective promises and obligations). IV. Application: Commitment Initiatives A. In general, organizations can foster commitment by being high in perceived organizational support, which can be viewed as an employer’s commitment to its employees. Organizations can show support by: 1. Providing bonding activities and mentoring activities designed to increase affective commitment 2. Providing a salary and benefits package, and advancement and promotion opportunities, to increase continuance commitment 3. Providing training and development opportunities to increase normative commitment 4. Identify the root source of even minor withdrawal as soon as possible, to try and stop its progression DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 3.1 Which type of organizational commitment (affective, continuance, or normative) do you think is most important to the majority of employees? Which do you think is most important to you? Answer: Responses to this question will vary from student to student, but most will point to affective as being the most ideal form. In your discussion of their responses, it may be useful to consider whether we really know what keeps us on the job. Normative commitment effects are subtle, and may not be recognized by the people they affect. In addition, continuance commitment factors may trump affective factors at times, with employees staying with a company that makes them unhappy due to a sense of practical or financial need. It is often interesting to consider profiles of the three components, and how these different profiles may lead to different experiences and outcomes. Propose a few different profiles and ask students how each would feel (e.g., high AC, low CC, high NC versus low AC; high CC; high NC). Affective commitment is likely the most important to the majority of employees as it reflects an emotional attachment and identification with the organization, leading to higher job satisfaction and engagement. For me, the most important type of commitment is also affective, as feeling valued and connected to the organization's goals and culture motivates me to contribute more effectively. 3.2 Describe other ways that organizations can improve affective, continuance, and normative commitment, other than the strategies suggested in this chapter. How expensive are those strategies? Answer: Organizations might improve affective commitment by giving employees a reason for their work, thus making employees think that the work has meaning and is important. Genetech does this by putting up large pictures of the people helped by Genetech drugs around their campus – it is a low-cost way to engage people and make them more committed to the organization. Continuance commitment might be increased through bonuses or other rewards, but also through the acquisition of competing companies in the area, thus removing employee options for work. Both of these approaches can be expensive, although obviously the latter is more expensive than the former. Normative commitment can be fostered by fostering a sense of trustworthiness in top management. Being open and honest about key events can build a sense of integrity regarding top management, which can create a sense of obligation among employees. 3.3 Consider times when you’ve reacted to a negative event with exit, voice, loyalty, or neglect. What was it about the situation that caused you to respond the way you did? Do you usually respond to negative events in the same way, or does your response vary across the four options? Answer: Each student will have an individual response, but this question offers a good opportunity to reinforce the concepts that differing levels of performance and commitment lead to different responses to negative events in the organization. It may also be helpful to point out to students that performance and commitment are interrelated and that both are influenced by environmental factors within the organization. 3.4 Can organizations use a combination of monitoring and punishment procedures to reduce psychological and physical withdrawal? How might such programs work from a practical perspective? Do you think they would be effective? Answer: Monitoring and punishment programs may decrease physical withdrawal, but they are likely to increase psychological withdrawal, since most employees respond to coercive management efforts with resistance, rather than compliance or commitment. 3.5 Can you think of reasons the increased diversity of the workforce might actually increase organizational commitment? Why? Which of the three types of commitment might explain that sort of result? Answer: Increased diversity brings with it an opportunity to learn and experience new things, which can make work more meaningful and enjoyable and increase affective commitment. If the increased diversity winds up improving organizational performance, then affective commitment could be further increased as employees identify more with “a winner.” In addition, employees who view increased diversity as “the right thing to do” could respond to such initiatives with increased normative commitment. 3.6 Studies suggest that decades of downsizing have lowered organizational commitment levels. Can you think of a way that an organization can conduct layoffs without harming the commitment of the survivors? How? Answer: One way is to handle the layoffs in an exceptionally fair manner—by providing notice of the layoffs in an honest and sincere way, by carefully explaining the business reasons for the layoffs, and by providing extensive severance and placement assistance (for more on this, see Chapter 7 on Trust, Justice, and Ethics). Survivor commitment will also be more protected if the remaining employees get the sense that the layoffs are truly helping the long term financial performance of the firm. CASE: ACCENTURE Questions: 3.1 Assess the companies approach to attracting, developing, and retaining women. Do you have any concerns? Explain. Answer: Accenture creates a work context that is particularly attractive to women. The nature of the work is hectic and high-pressure, but employees appear to have some degree of flexibility with regard to when, how, and where work in accomplished. An immediate benefit of flexible work arrangements is that it can be easier to achieve work-life balance/work family balance. Other attractive features would the opportunity to work with many different clients in different industries on different problems. It would appear that many of the projects are collaborative in nature, offering the chance to work with interesting and informative colleagues. For people who like lots of change, growth opportunities, and challenge of excelling and the rewards that flow from high performance, Accenture would be an attractive destination. From a development perspective, the company appears to invest heavily in training, not just on the technical side but in the softer skills, such as leadership. In terms of retention, one way the company builds commitment is to do things to strengthen emotional ties and bonds (e.g., face-to-face social events; active mentoring; organization support through its on-line forums). Possible concerns might be that high-pressure, high-pace work may increase the likelihood of emotional exhaustion and burnout (see Chapter 5 on Stress). Consulting work is also a lifestyle and may not be for everyone, or it might work for a time in your life. Another concern is that if strong emotional connections and social ties are not developed, there is a real risk that talented consultants may leave the company to work with a client firm. 3.2 What could Accenture do to reduce the number of consultants who leave to work for client firms? Would those strategies have any unintended drawbacks? Answer: One obvious approach is to create some sort of contractual agreement that states that consultants cannot join a client firm for some specified period of time. That strategy would have two unintended drawbacks. First, it might lower the performance of Accenture consultants to some degree, as some consultants might go “above and beyond” when performing their tasks partly because they see a client firm as a good long-term destination. Second, consultants might wind up feeling trapped to some extent, creating resentment toward Accenture. The best approach is to be supportive enough of consultants’ needs that a sense of affective and normative commitment develops. 3.3 What form(s) of organizational commitment do you think Accenture is trying to instil in its employees, and why? What forms(s) of commitment do you think are actually being experienced, and why? Ideally, what advice would you give the company? Answer: By creating opportunities to grow and achieve, Accenture is trying to foster affective commitment. This is also fortified by its initiatives to strengthen emotional and social bonding (e.g., mentoring; social activities; work teams). By providing a context that allows employees to meet their personal and social needs, and by providing generous job-specific training opportunities, the company may also be strengthening continuance commitment and normative commitment. Ideally, all three forms of commitment will be strong. In terms of the overall level of commitment experienced, or the strength of the three commitment forms, it would depend on each consultant. The best advice for the company would be to ensure that affective commitment is strong. Research has showed that continuance commitment, and to a lesser extent normative commitment, feels differently depending if affective commitment is high than when it is low. When desire or emotional attachment is absent, people who are committed because they “have no other choice” or “feel obligated” can feel stuck or trapped in the relationship! People may stay but they are not happy about it, and it shows in terms of their on-the-job behaviours. However, when desire is strong “being committed” can feel very positive, even if continuance and normative commitment is strong. The payoff for high affective commitment is not just retention, but in higher levels of citizenship behaviours and lower counterproductive behaviours (See Chapter 2). 3.4 Can you think of any “silver linings” for Accenture when consultants do leave to work for clients? Can such situations benefit the firm in some way? Answer: Such exits wind up broadening and deepening Accenture’s professional network. Assuming the exiting consultants feel good about Accenture and their time there, they might deepen their new firm’s professional relationship with Accenture. They may also be in a position where they can recommend Accenture to supplier firms or partner firms. 3.5 What do you think Margaret with do – will she stay or leave? Answer: Student answers will vary. Try to get them to explain the reasons behind Margaret’s decision, and what this says about the kind of commitment she experiences (or not). Without additional context about Margaret's specific situation, it's difficult to predict her decision definitively. Generally, if Margaret has strong affective commitment and feels emotionally attached to the organization, she is more likely to stay. However, if her decision is driven by continuance or normative commitment factors, such as lack of alternatives or perceived obligation, her choice might be more uncertain. BONUS CASE: MICROSOFT (from 1st ed) When was the last time you used a Microsoft product? Chances are, it was within the past few hours, whether you were surfing the Web using Internet Explorer, answering e-mail using Outlook Express, writing a paper or memo using Word, using a computer running Windows, or playing a videogame on an Xbox. How did Microsoft become successful enough to attain this presence in our day-to-day lives? If you were to ask the chairman of the company, Bill Gates, or the CEO of the company, Steve Ballmer, they’d likely explain that Microsoft hires the best computer science students from the best universities, year in and year out. After all, if a company wants to have the best products in a given market, it helps to have the best people. Microsoft has been able to hire the best people in part by being known as a great place to work. For example, Microsoft placed 50 on Fortune’s list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” in 2007.1 However, for the first time in its history, Microsoft is having trouble holding on to its best and brightest.2 Microsoft’s annual rate of voluntary turnover, which captures the percentage of the workforce that decides to quit in a given year, is just 9 percent—still below the industry average.3 But many of Microsoft’s most respected software developers, engineers, managers, and marketers have recently left to go work for competing firms in the high-tech industry.4 For example, Kai-Fu Lee, one of Microsoft’s foremost experts on speech recognition, left for Google, as did Mark Lucovsky, Joe Beda, and Gary Burd, three of the company’s most distinguished engineers.5 The employees who have quit their jobs at Microsoft voice a wide range of complaints about the company, including a swelling bureaucracy, sagging morale among the rank-and-file employees, a lack of innovative spark, cuts in compensation and benefits, and an unfair performance evaluation system.6 Many of these complaints are echoed on Web sites and blogs run by current Microsoft employees, which reinforce a culture of criticism within the company. The challenge for Microsoft is to find a way to reverse these trends so that it can retain the most talented employees. After all, what could be more damaging than losing one of your best and brightest to a major competitor? Not only do you no longer have access to that employee’s knowledge and experience, but now your competitor can draw on his or her wisdom to find a way to beat you. Microsoft is already taking steps to combat some of the complaints raised by former employees, including a reorganization of its business units designed to make the company more nimble and innovative.7 Of course, there isn’t likely to be a “magic bullet” that will single-handedly prevent further exit of more and more talented and valuable employees. Microsoft has one of the lowest employee turnover rates in the IT industry; however, there is room for improvement. Top talent is currently leaving Microsoft to pursue Internet start-ups or jumping ship to Google. The loss of these key employees represents a serious threat to the success of the company in the future. Recognizing this problem, Microsoft is actively identifying its top talent and developing ways to make jobs more attractive. Employee engagement appears to be the buzz today. Studies show that employees who are engaged are more productive, profitable, and customer focused and less likely to leave the organization. According to Dr. Beverly Kaye, an expert on career issues in the workplace, what employees want is a relationship with their managers, so managers have to act more like coaches, not bosses. Some of the factors that always rank at the top with regard to what gets employees engaged and what they value in a job include career opportunities and development, great people to work with, and a great boss. Microsoft is meeting the challenge of improving worker morale head on to retain its employees. My Microsoft is a program introduced by the company to provide some of the attractive amenities that other IT companies offer employees. This program will include a wide range of incentives focused on improving the working conditions and culture of the company, such as a set of lifestyle perks and a management development program. Microsoft’s new program is an initial step to improve the morale of employees, but only time will tell if this program is attractive enough to retain employees. Sources: S. Harvey, “Getting the Stars Aligned at Microsoft,” Strategic HR Review, March 2002; M. Goldsmith, “Engaging Employees,” BusinessWeek, July 3, 2007; “Microsoft Struggles to Improve Worker Morale,” eweek, June 5, 2006; M. Moeller and V. Murphy, “Outta Here at Microsoft,” BusinessWeek, November 29, 1999; J. Persaud, “Keep the Faithful,” People Management, June 12, 2003. Questions: 3.1 What are the factors causing the brain drain at Microsoft? Explain. Answer: Employees at Microsoft are leaving because of organizational factors that have decreased their affective, continuance and normative commitment. For example, a swelling bureaucracy and sagging morale are both indicators of low affective commitment, while cuts in compensation and benefits are likely to affect continuance commitment. An unfair performance evaluation system is likely to cause problems both in terms of affective and normative commitment, as employees who believe they are treated unfairly are likely to withdraw. The complaints on blog sites also reduce normative commitment because they reduce faith in the company. 3.2 Is Microsoft’s organizational structure having an impact on creating organizational commitment? Explain. Answer: Microsoft’s organizational structure does have an impact on creating organizational commitment. As companies get larger, they tend to become both more autocratic and more bureaucratic – and this is what is happening at Microsoft, leading to a decrease in affective commitment. It is only when large organizations are structured to run as smaller groups that employees have the autonomy they need to be fully engaged. EXERCISE: REACTING TO NEGATIVE EVENTS Instructions: Ask students to read the three vignettes and write down two specific behaviours that they would engage in as a result of the work situation. Emphasize that they should write down what they actually would do, as opposed to what they wish they would do. This is meant to encourage them to write “nothing” if they would indeed to nothing in response to one of the situations. This is important because responses like loyalty and neglect in the Exit-Voice-Loyalty-Neglect framework are very passive responses to negative events that largely involve doing nothing. Then put the students in groups, have them come to a consensus on the most likely behaviours for each scenario, and have them share those behaviours with the class. Sample Behaviours: Here’s an example of the kinds of behaviours students might come up with for each of the three scenarios: Questions: Personal factors that might cause one to adopt voice or loyalty over exit or neglect include how patient an employee is, how much he/she likes colleagues and coworkers, as well as marketability. Situational factors that might drive the same sort of choice include the prestige of the company and the general labor market conditions. There are responses that do not fit into the Exit-Voice-Loyalty Neglect framework. For example, it’s not clear where the “venting” response above would fit. In general, actions that fall under the “counterproductive behaviour heading (discussed in Chapter 2) do not really fall into any of the Exit Voice-Loyalty-Neglect categories. OMITTED TOPICS The field of organizational behaviour is extremely broad and different textbooks focus on different aspects of the field. A brief outline of topics that are not covered in this text, but which the professor might want to include in his or her lecture, is included below. In cases where these topics are covered in other chapters in the book, we note those chapters. In cases where they are omitted entirely, we provide some references for further reading. • Attitudes – Organizational commitment is part of a larger family of work-related attitudes. Attitudes have an associated attitude object, which may be the organization, the job, a coworker, or the leader. They also have an evaluative component (what is felt toward the object), a cognitive component (what is thought about the object), and a behavioural component (a predisposition to act a particular way towards the object). For more on this, see: McGuire, W. J. “Attitudes and Attitude Change.” In Handbook of Social Psychology, Vol. 2, eds. G. Lindzey and E. Aronson. New York: Random House, 1985, pp. 233-346. • Job Satisfaction – Along with organizational commitment, job satisfaction is the most commonly discussed job attitude. It reflects a pleasurable emotional state resulting from an appraisal of one’s job and is covered in Chapter 4. • Unfolding Model of Turnover – Describes the process by which employees decide to leave the organization, including the roles of “shocks to the system” (a critical event) and “decision frames” (lenses based on past experience that color perceptions). For more on this, see: Lee, T. W.; and T. R. Mitchell. “An Alternative Approach: The Unfolding Model of Employee Turnover.” Academy of Management Review 19 (1994), pp. 51-89. Chapter 4 Job Satisfaction CHAPTER OVERVIEW This chapter gives an overview of job satisfaction, or the feelings employees have about their jobs. Precursors to job satisfaction are examined, including the value-percept theory, job satisfaction facets, job characteristics, and mood fluctuations. The impact of job satisfaction on job performance, organizational commitment, and life satisfaction is considered, along with techniques that organizations can use to improve job satisfaction. LEARNING OUTCOMES After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions: 4.1 What is job satisfaction? 4.2 What are values, and how do they affect job satisfaction? 4.3 What specific facets do employees consider when evaluating their job satisfaction? 4.4 Which job characteristics can create a sense of satisfaction with the work itself? 4.5 How is job satisfaction affected by day-to-day events? 4.6 What are mood and emotions, and what specific forms do they take? 4.7 How does job satisfaction affect job performance and organizational commitment? How does it affect life satisfaction? 4.8 What steps can organizations take to assess and manage job satisfaction? CHAPTER OUTLINE I. Job Satisfaction A. Job satisfaction is defined as a pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences II. Why Are Some Employees More Satisfied Than Others? A. Employees are satisfied when their job provides the things they value, or things they consciously or subconsciously want to seek or attain Try This! Open the class by asking students what they want their ideal job to supply for them—what values do they want that job to fulfill? List the values they describe on the board, grouping similar values into columns. This process will result in a table similar to Table 4-1. B. Value Fulfillment: Value-Percept Theory 1. Job satisfaction depends on whether you perceive that your job supplies the things that you value a. Dissatisfaction = (Vwant – Vhave) x (Vimportance) 2. People evaluate job satisfaction according to specific facets of the job a. Pay satisfaction b. Promotion satisfaction c. Supervision satisfaction d. Coworker satisfaction e. Satisfaction with the work itself Try This! Before you discuss which of the specific facets is the strongest driver of overall job satisfaction, ask students to guess which one is the strongest driver. Students who have not yet read the book will likely guess pay satisfaction, but some other students will correctly guess satisfaction with the work itself. Encourage the two students to debate each other’s position before revealing the results. 3. Research results show that satisfaction with the work itself is the strongest driver of overall job satisfaction, followed by satisfaction with coworkers and supervision. Satisfaction with promotions and pay have weaker relations to overall job satisfaction. C. Satisfaction with the Work Itself: The Job Characteristics Model 1. Work is more satisfying when it provides three “critical psychological states” a. Meaningfulness of work b. Responsibility for outcomes c. Knowledge of results 2. Five core job characteristics are linked to these psychological states a. Variety – the extent to which the job requires different activities requiring different skills and talents b. Identity – the degree to which the job allows an employee to complete a whole, identifiable piece of work c. Significance – the degree to which the job has an impact on the lives of other people d. Autonomy – the degree to which the job provides freedom, independence and discretion to the individual performing the work e. Feedback – the degree to which the job itself provides clear information about how well the individual is performing the work OB Assessments: Core Job Characteristics. The assessment at the end of the chapter measures the extent to which a student’s job contains core job characteristics. If you have students who are not working, tell them to think of being a student as their job, and to answer the questionnaire accordingly. Use a show of hands to see how many students fell above and below the average level, and see if students will volunteer any extremely high or low scores. Ask students with particularly high scores what explains their levels, and do the same for students with particularly low scores. 3. Relation between core job characteristics and job satisfaction a. Each of the five core job characteristics is related to job satisfaction – either moderately or strongly b. The relationship between core job characteristics and job satisfaction is moderated by knowledge and skill and growth need strength – the relationship is stronger when these variables are present Try This! Run the Exercise on Job Satisfaction across Jobs here, at this point in the lecture. You will have just gone over the core job characteristics and the OB Assessment, so both will be fresh in students’ minds. D. Mood and Emotions 1. Job satisfaction levels fluctuate over time, with the fluctuations caused primarily by mood and emotions a. Moods – states of feeling that are mild in intensity, last for an extended period of time, and are not explicitly directed at or caused by anything i. Moods are categorized in two ways a.) pleasantness – is the mood good or bad? b.) engagement – to what extent does the mood cause you to feel activated and aroused? ii. Some organizations offer perks that are designed to improve an employee’s mood – things such as an onsite gym or even strolling musicians b. Emotions – states of feeling that are often intense, last for only a few minutes, and are clearly directed at (and caused by) someone or some circumstance i. Positive emotions include things like joy, pride, relief, etc. ii. Negative emotions include things like anger, anxiety, fear, etc. iii. Some jobs require “emotional labor” in which employees must manage their emotions to complete their job duties successfully a.) “Emotional contagion” can occur when one person “catches” the emotions of another person – this phenomenon can explain why customers are less likely to purchase from a dissatisfied salesperson, for example Try This! Ask students in the class if any of them work in retail or other customer service types of settings. Ask those students to explain the kinds of emotions they often feel during the work day, and the kinds of emotions they need to project to customers. Do they struggle with issues of emotional labor or emotional contagion? If some students are more easily able to cope with such work contexts, why might that be? You could draw a bridge to Chapter 9 where emotional intelligence is discussed. E. Summary: Why Are Some Employees More Satisfied than Others? III. How Important Is Job Satisfaction? A. Research Results 1. Job satisfaction has a moderate positive effect on job performance. People who experience higher levels of job satisfaction tend to have higher levels of task performance and citizenship behaviour, and lower levels of counterproductive behaviour. 2. Job satisfaction has a strong positive effect on organizational commitment. People who experience higher levels of job satisfaction tend to feel higher levels of affective and normative commitment, but not necessarily of continuance commitment. B. Life Satisfaction 1. Job satisfaction is strongly related to life satisfaction, or the degree to which employees feel a sense of happiness with their lives OB on Screen: Michael Clayton. If you have access to this movie, please play it for your students during class. This scene depicts Michael Clayton dealing with a client of his law firm—a client who has fled the scene of a hit and run at a rural road. Ask the students why Michael seems do dissatisfied with his job—what is he missing? From the perspective of the value-percept theory, what values are not being fulfilled? From the perspective of job characteristics theory, what core job characteristics are missing? In addition, ask the students what emotions are being triggered by the conversation with the client, both in the kitchen and on the drive back home. Try This! Use the Michael Clayton clip for a different chapter. The clip provides a good demonstration of low levels of psychological empowerment in Chapter 6 on Motivation. Ask the students which facet of psychological empowerment is missing from Michael’s job. It also provides a good demonstration of hindrance stressors in Chapter 5 on Stress. Ask the students which specific stressors Michael is experiencing, and have them explain his reaction to the horses using the forms of strain. Bonus OB on Screen (from 1st ed): The Island. Chapter 1 of the DVD (beginning at 0:00 and ending at 10:34 for a total running time of 10 minutes, 34 seconds) depicts the beginning of a typical day for Lincoln Six Echo—a typically boring and monotonous day. As the scene begins, ask students to keep track of the various moods in Figure 4-6 and the various emotions in Table 4-2. Which of them are illustrated in the clip? Which moods do the authorities at the facility most explicitly try to encourage and discourage? Which emotions are triggered by the daily “Island” announcement, on the part of both the winners and the losers? 2. Increases in job satisfaction have a stronger impact on life satisfaction than do increases in salary or income OB Internationally. This feature shows that money is not necessarily related to happiness, even on a national level. Although countries above the poverty line are generally happier than countries below the poverty line, for countries with an average income of $20,000 or more, additional income is not related to additional satisfaction. Ask students to hypothesize about why this might be so. IV. Application: Tracking Satisfaction A. Attitude surveys tend to be the most accurate and effective way for organizations to track satisfaction levels. B. Although many organizations design their own surveys, there are also benefits to using an existing survey such as the Job Descriptive Index (JDI), which measures satisfaction in five facets: 1. Pay satisfaction 2. Promotion satisfaction 3. Supervisor satisfaction 4. Coworker satisfaction 5. Satisfaction with the work itself C. Recommendations for JDI Administration 1. Survey as much of the company as possible 2. Keep the survey responses anonymous – be careful about collecting demographic information 3. Use JDI results for comparisons – with “neutral levels”, with national norms, and within the organization itself 4. Feedback the results to employees, so that they can be involved in an improvement process DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 4.1 Which of the values in Table 4-1 do you think are the most important to employees in general? Are there times when the values in the last three categories (altruism, status, and environment) become more important than the values in the first five categories (pay, promotions, supervision, coworkers, the work itself)? Answer: In general, employees value the work itself over all of the other values in Table 4.1. However, altruism, status, and environment may become more important depending on individual needs and characteristics. For example, an insecure employee may value a comfortable and safe working environment above all of the other categories on the table. 4.2 What steps can organizations take to improve promotion satisfaction, supervision satisfaction, and coworker satisfaction? Answer: Organizations can offer fair and well-publicized promotion policies, provide supervisors with training to be sure that they are dealing with employees effectively, and offer opportunities for coworkers to socialize to improve promotion satisfaction, supervision satisfaction, and coworker satisfaction. 4.3 Consider the five core job characteristics (variety, identity, significance, autonomy, and feedback). Do you think that any one of those characteristics is more important than the other four? Is it possible to have too much of some job characteristics? Answer: Autonomy and significance are probably the two most important job characteristics. It is possible to have too much of a job characteristic – consider variety, for example. There are times when employees would like to be able to get into a routine and become experts at their job duties, and excessive variety could prevent that. 4.4 We sometimes describe colleagues or friends as “moody.” What do you think it means to be “moody” from the perspective of Figure 4-6? Answer: The “moody” term really probably suggests two things in terms of Figure 46. First it probably suggests frequent displays of intense negative emotions (hostile, nervous, annoyed). However, it also suggests an inconsistency in mood, with the person swinging between those negative emotions and more pleasant sorts of feelings (enthusiastic, happy, serene). 4.5 Consider the list of positive and negative emotions in Table 4-2. Which of these emotions are most frequently experienced at work? What causes them? Answer: The positive emotions most likely to be experienced at work are pride, relief, and hope – these are generally connected to work outcomes or organizational issues. The negative emotions are anger or envy (typically against a boss or coworker), anxiety or guilt (typically linked to not doing work that was assigned), and shame or sadness (typically linked to relations with others in the organization.) 4.6 If you were asked to fill out a satisfaction survey, such as the Job Descriptive Index, at your workplace would you participate? Why or why not? Answer: Student answers will vary. Volunteering to fill out the survey would be an example of citizenship behaviour discussed in Chapter 2. Providing data on the satisfying and dissatisfying aspects of the workplace should help managers and leaders improve conditions. For instance, if managers discover that employees are bored, an idea would be to increase the level of skill variety. Of course employees may decide not to participate. This would be especially true if they didn’t trust the organization or its agents (see Chapter 7 on Trust). If employees felt that it was not “safe” to speak up and provide feedback that might be negative or critical – especially about one’s supervisor or pay. Or they may be reluctant to participate if employees feel like their answers could be singled out. For this reason, it is typical combined the responses of individuals into an average set of scores. This way the feedback is heard, but individual employees are protected. Yes, I would participate in a satisfaction survey like the Job Descriptive Index at my workplace. Providing feedback through such surveys can help improve the work environment, address concerns, and enhance overall job satisfaction for everyone. CASE: ZAPPOS Questions: 4.1 What do you think of “The Offer” as a strategy for maximizing job satisfaction? Answer: Most students will view it as a good idea, assuming the statistics stay where they are. That is, as long as 97% turn down the offer and stay with Zappos, it shows that people aren’t just “gaming the system” to get the $2000 bonus. “The Offer” is the kind of policy that winds up taking on cultural significance-it’s tangible evidence of how much Zappos cares about protecting job satisfaction and morale. From that sense, it’s impact transcends the effect it actually has on who stays or who goes. 4.2 Might that strategy be used at other organizations, or does it require the sort of “quirky environment” that Zappos emphasizes? Answer: It could certainly be used as some other organizations, but perhaps not the majority. It seems to require an organization that doesn’t foster a sense of jaded cynicism among its employees. If employees are cynical, they react to an unusual policy such as “The Offer” with derision and snickers. Those sorts of negative reactions remove the cultural value that the policy has at Zappos. If a company’s leadership and culture inspire trust and commitment, however, an unusual policy like “The Offer” could be similarly effective. 4.3 When you consider your personal values (Table 4-1) and what you perceive Zappos offers, would you experience job satisfaction or dissatisfaction? Would you fit in at Zappos or organizations like this? Why or why not? Answer: Answers will vary widely across students. If students are working in small discussion groups ask them if their individual reactions were influenced by the views of others? The main thing here would be to encourage students to explain the reasons behind their answer. Ultimately, whether someone fits at Zappos may well depend on their personal values and individual characteristics, such as personality (see Chapter 9). If my personal values align with those that Zappos emphasizes, such as customer service, company culture, and employee happiness, I would likely experience job satisfaction and fit in well at Zappos or similar organizations. However, if my values differ significantly, I might experience dissatisfaction and not feel like a good fit. BONUS CASE: PEFORMANCE PLANTS (from 1st ed) What if you could do something that would help prevent the suffering of millions of starving people in the third world? Imagine not having to water your front lawn or flowers, even during the hottest summer months, and still have the grass retain its fresh spring-like look. What if farmers no longer had to irrigate their fields to harvest a bumper crop? Imagine if all mankind’s energy needs could be met from growing grass? Does all of this sound like science fiction? Well, to the 45 dedicated men and women who work at Performance Plants, solving some of the world’s most challenging food supply, energy, and environmental problems is all in a day’s work! Performance Plants Inc., founded by David Dennis in 1995, is Canada’s largest agriculture biotechnology company with office and research facilities in Kingston, Saskatoon, and Waterloo, New York.1 Their mission is to develop science-based technologies for the purpose of enhancing the production of food, feed and biofuel crops. In laymen’s terms, the basic idea is to make small targeted changes to plant genetics that lead to big effects, such as dramatically increasing a plant’s performance (i.e., yield) and/or increasing a plant’s natural ability to withstand periods of short-term drought and extreme heat. “Performance Plants has already demonstrated in field trials the ability of its patented technologies to produce higher yields of canola – even under drought conditions,” says Heather Collins, Investment Director with Investment Saskatchewan. “This technology is currently being tested in other crops such as corn, soybeans, rice, turf grass and ornamental plants.”2 Recently, Performance Plants signed an agreement with the Africa Harvest Biotechnology Foundation International, an international non-profit foundation with a focus to fight poverty, hunger and malnutrition, to use the company's technology in a multi-year project to develop and field test drought tolerant white maize, a staple crop in Africa. This is the first time that a Canadian company's agricultural biotech intellectual property is being transferred to Africa for non-commercial purposes.3 Some of the most technically-demanding work is performed at the company’s research facility, located in the heart of Innovation Place at the University of Saskatchewan.4 Here a team of scientists perform a variety of highly specialized and interdependent activities. The role of laboratory workers is to make the targeted changes to the plant DNA and then to ensure that the resulting plant tissues can re-generate with the new genetic instructions. Walking through the laboratory one is reminded of the popular CSI television show, with characters such as Nick Stokes or Warrick Brown performing DNA analyses on hair samples found at a crime scene.5 And just like the characters on the CSI television series, it is critical for the technical experts to communicate and coordinate their activities with respect to several different projects. People not assigned to the laboratory, work as greenhouse technicians in the plant nursery or outside the facility managing any number of field trials. Day-to-day supervision is shared within the team, in consultation with a respected team leader. Everyone is expected to perform a variety of different tasks in their area of expertise, which in turn, affords them an opportunity to develop and master a wide range of skills and use the “latest-and-greatest” technology and tools. Although team members perform their specialized work, frequent team meetings helps everyone to see and track the fruits of their labour (e.g., finding out that three of your transgenic plants provided a yield boost in the field trial). Often faced with unique challenges, team members often use their discretion to come up with innovative solutions. Historically, turnover rate within the Saskatoon facility has been low. In the past year or two, the economy in Saskatchewan has been strengthening which, in turn, has increased the demand for a relatively small pool of talented people. A particular concern for Performance Plants is the growing presence of several large multinational corporations (e.g., Dow AgroSciences; Bayer Crop Science), and the effect of these companies on the overall satisfaction felt by members of the team. Although Performance Plants pays its employees competitive salaries for the region, the multinational corporations have a more competitive total compensation package (salary, benefits, bonus system, company vehicle, etc..,). Moreover, the opportunity for promotion and career advancement in one’s technical specialty tends to be higher in the larger, more complex multinational organizations. A challenge now facing the company is holding on to its best and brightest. People who have the talent and creativity needed to help the company realize its mission, unfortunately, are in short supply. Although Performance Plants has a core of dedicated employees across its three locations, the size of this organization pales in comparison to the big multinational corporations that can do, essentially, the same or similar work. With employees able to change jobs any time they want (i.e., suitable alternatives do exist), and, in many cases, do so without having to change their address or their morning commute, overall satisfaction and commitment play a critical role in decisions to stay or leave. At this time, satisfaction is high and turnover has been, historically, low. But it is a very fragile situation. The majority of employees who work at the Saskatoon facility are females in their early to mid-30s. There is growing pressure to satisfy their need for career advancement and development. Sources: 1 Performance Plants Inc. Homepage, http://www.performanceplants.com/media.html (accessed June 20, 2008) 2 News release (Kingston, June 19, 2006). Performance Plants receives largest private investment in Canadian AgBiotech. Company to increase capacity, advance drought resistance technology to market. 3 News release (Calgary, September 24th, 2007) Leading Canadian Biotechnology Company, Performance Plants Inc. (PPI) and Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International (AHBFI) agree to use drought tolerance biotechnology developed in Canada to help ensure sustainable food production in Africa. 4 Innovation Place. http://www.innovationplace.com/ 5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSI:_Crime_Scene_Investigation Questions: 4.1 Put yourself in the shoes of a typical scientist at the Saskatoon facility. What might you be thinking or feeling with respect to job satisfaction, and the consequences of these thoughts and feelings. Explain. Answer: Although the employees at the Saskatoon facility are likely satisfied, we can learn more by considering facet satisfaction. We know that employees at the Saskatoon facility have ample opportunity to acquire and use a variety of different skills in their day-to-day activities. Moreover, in a tightly integrated unit with a high level of co-ordination, individual employees have an opportunity to follow and track their efforts – increasing their sense of task identity. The work is cutting-edge that promises to have a significant effect on the lives of others. Together, high skill variety, high task identity, and high task significance should lead strong feelings of meaningfulness. When meaningful, high-discretion roles are performed in a context where feedback is constantly provided, work satisfaction should be high (assuming that growth needs are strong). In addition to high work satisfaction, we can infer from case that satisfaction with coworkers and supervision is likely high too. However, promotion opportunities at Performance Plants are limited. Satisfaction with pay and benefits might be lower when comparisons are made with their peers who work “next door” in the multinational corporations (see Chapter 6 for a more in-depth discussion of equity theory and how perceptions of referent others affect attitudes and motivation). When we consider the facets of pay and promotion opportunities along with the other facets mentioned above, the level of overall job satisfaction is likely to be moderate. A consequence of moderate overall satisfaction is that employees will likely keep their eyes open for suitable alternatives. It is unlikely that motivation will suffer because the work itself is interesting and challenging, however, turnover is definitely possible. Whether or not an individual leaves the facility would like depend on the nature of the opportunity, and one’s sensitivity to economic concerns. What exacerbates the risk here is the fact that employees can change jobs without disrupting their non-work lives. 4.2 If you did decide to move, what job satisfaction issues might you have to deal with in a larger, multinational corporation? Answer: To appreciate job satisfaction issues in a larger, multinational corporation, a good place to start is with organizational structure (see Chapter 13), and how this reality shapes the perceptions that we know are linked to work satisfaction. In order to co-ordinate the activities of individuals and teams within a larger organization, it is typical to see a higher degree of job specialization, formalization, and centralization. Job specialization allows highly trained employees to focus and develop their technical expertise in a few rather than many areas. Formalization refers to the degree of policies, rules and procedures that govern a wide range of organizational behaviours. Formalization might also filter into the work itself, where employees are expected to follow standardized processes and outcomes. Centralization refers to the degree that decision-making authority is centred at higher rather than lower levels of the organization. In this context, it might be more difficult for employees to experience the level of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback than they would have in a small organization, like Performance Plants. Thus satisfaction with the work itself will likely be an issue for employees in the multinational corporation, especially if growth needs are strong. EXERCISE: JOB SATISFACTION ACROSS JOBS Instructions: Put students into groups and make sure they each have a copy of the OB Assessment for this chapter. Instruct them to come to consensus on each of the questions on the OB Assessment in reference to the four jobs (lobster fisherman, standup comedian, computer programmer, and leader of a political party in Canada). Typical Scores: The Satisfaction Potential Scores for a stand-up comedian and a lobster fisherman will typically be highest, possibly even in the upper 100’s or even the lower 200’s. This is because those jobs have high levels of autonomy and feedback, will receive more weight in the formula used in the OB Assessment (because they get multiplied). The political leader’s score will usually come next, in the 50-100 range. That score is lower because the “checks and balances” created by the parliament and the party itself. In addition, feedback may be lacking because it’s often not known for a period of several years whether a given decision was “right.” The computer programmer will usually be lowest, struggling on all five job characteristics. Have a representative of each group share their scores with the class. Questions: The Satisfaction Potential Score is indeed meant to capture the job that is most enjoyable day-in and day-out. That does mean that being a lobster fisherman or a stand-up comic may usually be more enjoyable than being the political leader (a job that brings with it a great deal of responsibility and frustration). However, students would probably not pick being a lobster fisherman or stand-up comic if they could snap their fingers and magically attain one of the jobs covered in the exercise. That’s because there’s more involved in picking a job than what’s enjoyable. Being a political leader would allow students to fulfill many other values, beyond just having satisfactory work tasks, making value-percept theory relevant to this issue. From Table 4-1, those values might include good pay, a sense of status, and the ability to engage in altruistic work. OMITTED TOPICS The field of organizational behaviour is extremely broad and different textbooks focus on different aspects of the field. A brief outline of topics that are not covered in this text, but which the professor might want to include in his or her lecture, is included below. In cases where these topics are covered in other chapters in the book, we note those chapters. In cases where they are omitted entirely, we provide some references for further reading. Attitudes – Job satisfaction is part of a larger family of work-related attitudes. Attitudes have an associated attitude object, which may be the organization, the job, a coworker, or the leader. They also have an evaluative component (what is felt toward the object), a cognitive component (what is thought about the object), and a behavioural component (a predisposition to act a particular way towards the object). For more on this, see: McGuire, W. J. “Attitudes and Attitude Change.” In Handbook of Social Psychology, Vol. 2, eds. G. Lindzey and E. Aronson. New York: Random House, 1985, pp. 233-346. Job Involvement – Represents another commonly discussed job attitude, reflecting the degree to which one is cognitively engaged in and concerned about one’s present job. Job involvement can be viewed as a blend of job satisfaction and motivation (motivation concepts are covered in Chapter 6). For more on this, see: Lodahl, T. M.; and M. Kejner. “The Definition and Measurement of Job Involvement.” Journal of Applied Psychology 49 (1965), pp. 24-33. Dispositional Influences – Studies of identical twins raised apart have revealed that job satisfaction has a significant genetic component. Specifically, personality and dispositional variables like neuroticism and negative affectivity make some individuals dissatisfied by nature. Such effects are covered in our discussion of personality in Chapter 9. Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory – This widely known (but scientifically unsupported) theory describes satisfaction and dissatisfaction as two separate concepts. Satisfaction is said to be driven by “motivators” such as promotion opportunities, recognition, and growth opportunities. Dissatisfaction is said to be driven by “hygiene factors” such as pay and the quality of supervision. The hygiene factor classification significantly underestimates the importance of pay and supervision, which are important factors in job satisfaction and motivation. For more on this, see: Herzberg, F. Work and the Nature of Man. Cleveland, OH: World, 1966. Emotional Intelligence – Includes a set of competencies that allow some individuals to accurately identify and express emotions. Individuals who are high on emotional intelligence may be more able to succeed in jobs that are high in emotional labor requirements. The competencies that underlie emotional intelligence are covered in our discussion of ability in Chapter 9. Solution Manual for Organizational Behaviour: Improving Performance and Commitment in the Workplace Jason A Colquitt, Michael J. Wesson, Jeffery A LePine, Ian Gellatly 9780071051620, 9781259066566