Attitudes, Values, and Job Satisfaction

An employee with deep technical knowledge who possesses a negative, cynical attitude will poison team morale, miss deadlines, and alienate clients. Conversely, an enthusiastic employee with positive attitudes accelerates team velocity and lifts company culture.

This makes the study of Attitudes, Values, and Job Satisfaction central to Organizational Behavior.

1. What are Attitudes? The ABC Model

Attitudes are evaluative statements—either favorable or unfavorable—concerning objects, people, or events. They reflect how an individual feels about something.

The ABC Model of Attitudes

Attitudes consist of three closely interrelated components:

   ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
   │ 1. Cognitive Component (Belief / Opinion / Fact)       │
   │    "My company pays salaries below the market rate."   │
   └───────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┘
                               │ leads to
                               ▼
   ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
   │ 2. Affective Component (Feelings / Emotions)           │
   │    "I feel angry, frustrated, and unappreciated."      │
   └───────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┘
                               │ leads to
                               ▼
   ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
   │ 3. Behavioral Component (Action / Intent to Act)       │
   │    "I will send my resume to competitors and resign."  │
   └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

1. Cognitive Component: The opinion, knowledge, or belief segment of an attitude (“Working overtime without extra pay is unfair”).
2. Affective Component: The emotional or feeling segment (“I dislike my current team lead”).
3. Behavioral Component: An intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something (“I will look for another job”).

2. Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Leon Festinger)

Cognitive Dissonance refers to any incompatibility or mental discomfort that an individual perceives between two or more attitudes or between their behavior and their attitudes.

• Example: An executive strongly values environmental protection (attitude), yet their job requires signing off on factory chemical waste discharge into a river (behavior).
• Humans naturally seek mental harmony. To reduce cognitive dissonance, people:
  1. Change their behavior (refuse to sign the permit).
  2. Change their attitude (“The chemicals are not really that toxic”).
  3. Introduce new cognitive justifications (“If I don’t sign it, 500 factory workers will lose their jobs”).

3. Values: Foundation of Attitudes and Ethics

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.

Milton Rokeach’s Value Survey (RVS)

Rokeach divided values into two categories:

   ┌───────────────────────────────┐     ┌───────────────────────────────┐
   │       Terminal Values         │     │      Instrumental Values      │
   │ (Desirable End-States / Goals)│     │(Modes of Conduct / Means)     │
   ├───────────────────────────────┤     ├───────────────────────────────┤
   • A comfortable, secure life    │     • Honesty & Integrity           │
   • Freedom and independence      │     • Hard work & Ambition          │
   • Self-respect and wisdom       │     • Open-mindedness & Tolerance   │
   • National peace and prosperity │     • Responsibility & Reliability  │
   └───────────────────────────────┘     └───────────────────────────────┘

• Terminal Values: The ultimate life goals a person desires to achieve during their lifetime (e.g., happiness, world peace, financial freedom).
• Instrumental Values: Preferable modes of behavior or means used to achieve those terminal goals (e.g., honesty, persistence, polite manners, courage).

4. Job Satisfaction and Work-Related Attitudes

Organizational behavior measures three major job-related attitudes:

1. Job Satisfaction: A positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job experiences.
2. Job Involvement: The degree to which an employee identifies psychologically with their job and considers performance critical to self-worth.
3. Organizational Commitment: The degree to which an employee identifies with the organization and wishes to maintain membership (Affective, Continuance, and Normative commitment).

5. Employee Responses to Job Dissatisfaction (The EVLN Model)

When employees are dissatisfied with their working conditions or compensation, how do they respond? C. Rusbult outlined the EVLN Model:

                       Constructive              Destructive
                  ┌───────────────────────┬───────────────────────┐
         Active   │       VOICE           │        EXIT           │
                  │ (Suggest improvements,│ (Resign, quit,        │
                  │  file grievance)      │  look for new job)    │
                  ├───────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
        Passive   │       LOYALTY         │       NEGLECT         │
                  │ (Wait optimistically, │ (Chronic lateness,    │
                  │  defend company)      │  poor quality, absent)│
                  └───────────────────────┴───────────────────────┘

1. Exit (Active & Destructive): Leaving the organization, searching for a new position, or resigning.
2. Voice (Active & Constructive): Actively attempting to improve conditions by discussing problems with management, suggesting solutions, or participating in union activities.
3. Loyalty (Passive & Constructive): Passively waiting for conditions to improve, defending the company against external criticism, and trusting management to do the right thing.
4. Neglect (Passive & Destructive): Allowing conditions to deteriorate through chronic absenteeism, late arrival, reduced effort, and increased errors.

6. Key Takeaways & Exam Summary

• An attitude has 3 components (ABC): Affective (feelings), Behavioral (action intent), and Cognitive (beliefs).
• Cognitive Dissonance is the psychological tension experienced when beliefs clash with actions.
• Values represent fundamental life guides, split into Terminal values (ultimate goals) and Instrumental values (means to reach them).
• Dissatisfied employees respond along two dimensions (Active vs. Passive, Constructive vs. Destructive) producing four behaviors: Exit, Voice, Loyalty, and Neglect (EVLN).