What is the influence of personal thoughts and feelings about work on organizational behavior? - Chapter 3

This chapter discusses the thoughts and feelings (the work values, work attitudes, moods, and emotions) that people have about work, their job, the organization in which they work and how these thoughts and feelings influence the organizational behavior. Study of the thoughts and feelings contribute to a better understanding and better management of organizational behavior.

What are work values?

work values are the personal views of an employee about what one expects to get from work and how one should behave at work. Expected rewards (outcomes) can be self-respect, money or status. These values are relatively static and are guidelines for behavior. work values can be divided into two categories, namely intrinsic and extrinsic work values.

Intrinsic work values are the values that are related to the nature of the work itself, for example, learning new things, being challenged or being creative.

Extrinsic values are values that are related to the impact of work, for example, a high reward, social contacts or time for your hobbies.

The importance of intrinsic values in relation to the extrinsic work values differs per person. Managers must take into account the work values of the employees if changes are made with regard to working hours, etc.

In addition to work values, there are also other values such as ethical values, moral rights values, utilitarian values, and justice values. Ethical values mean one's beliefs about what is right and wrong. Moral rights values are values that dictate that decisions must be made in such a way that the rights of the person affected by the decision are protected. Utilitarian values are values that dictate that decisions have to be made in such a way that the greatest number of people possible benefit from it. Justice values command that the consequences (both positive and negative) must be fairly distributed among all people who make the decision.

Codes of ethics consist of formal rules that are based on ethical values and beliefs about what is good and what is bad. Employees can use this code to make the right decision.

A whistleblower is a person who informs people with authority positions about illegal or unethical behavior in an organization.

What is meant by work attitudes?

Work attitudes are a collection of feelings, beliefs, and thoughts about how to behave in the workplace and within the organization. These attitudes are not as static as the work values.

This is because people's jobs often change. Two work attitudes that influence organizational behavior are job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

Job satisfaction, the set of feelings and beliefs that people currently have about their job. People can have attitudes about their job as a whole, but also about certain aspects of it. Organizational commitment is the collection of feelings and beliefs that people have about the organization as a whole.

Work attitudes consist of three components: firstly an affective component (feelings), secondly a cognitive component (convictions about the job) and thirdly a behavioral component (ideas about expected behaviors).

What is the influence of certain moods and emotions during work?

Work moods indicate how people feel when they are actually working. Moods can change but can generally be categorized as positive or negative. This mainly affects the personality of the employee and the specific situation. Large life events, such as a marriage, but also small conditions, such as ambient noise, can affect someone's mood.

Workplace incivility is rude social interactions which reflect a lack of respect toward others. This can create a negative mood on the work floor, which in turn can result in reduced performance. Examples include: ignoring a colleague, refusing to help, sarcasm or negative comments.

Research shows that moods influence different aspects of organizational behavior, such as creativity and decision-making, and that they also depend on the situation in which the behavior occurs.

Emotions are short-lived intense feelings as a result of an event. Emotions can change into moods over time. Emotional labor is the work employees do in order to keep their feelings and experiences under control (think of a stewardess who has had a bad day, she will have to do her very best not to show this to the customers). The extent to which people experience positive, negative or neutral moods at work depends on their personality and the situation. A positive state of mind has a good influence on various issues, such as decision-making.

Emotional dissonance happens when employees are expected to express a certain emotion that they actually do not feel at that moment. For example, if an employee has to help a customer in a store, he is expected to behave in a friendly manner towards the customer, whatever his mood. 

When employees of an organization share important values, have positive attitudes and experience positive moods, it is more likely that they will trust each other. Trust is a sign of belief in a certain person or group that it will never hurt you or harm you. Trust can improve collaboration between employees and so also the exchange of information needed for creativity and innovation.

How is job satisfaction influenced?

There are four factors that influence the level of job satisfaction:

1. Personality; the sustainable way in which a person thinks, feels and behaves. Personality is very important when answering the question of whether someone is happy with his work. It is also true that your genetics account for 30% of job satisfaction.

2. The work situation; this means the work itself, the working conditions, the way in which the organization treats its employees and all other aspects concerning the work and the organization.

3. Values: these have an impact on the level of job satisfaction because they reflect the employees' beliefs about the expected rewards of their work and how they should behave at work. For example, someone with strong intrinsic work values will be more satisfied with his poorly paid job than someone with low intrinsic labor values, because that person gets satisfaction from the work itself.

Conversely, someone with strong extrinsic labor values is more satisfied than someone with weak extrinsic labor values with a well-paid job, even if it is boring work.

4. Social influence; the influence that individuals or groups have on a person's behavior or attitudes. Coworkers, the group one belongs to and the culture in which someone grows up, all have the potential to influence the level of job satisfaction. Colleagues have a large influence on job satisfaction. Dissatisfied colleagues can especially influence the job satisfaction of newcomers. The group to which someone belongs is also of influence. For example, if you belong to a prosperous family, you are less satisfied with a job that pays less well. The job satisfaction is also determined by the culture. America is very individualistic, while Japan has a much more social attitude. The culture you come from gives you a certain view of yourself and thus also your job satisfaction.

Which theories about job satisfaction are there?

There are several theories about job satisfaction. Here are four.

1. The Facet Model of Job Satisfaction

This theory focuses mainly on the work situation by dividing the job into elements, job facets, and then looking at how satisfied an employee is at each job facet. The total job satisfaction of an employee is the sum of satisfaction on the different facets. The job facets differ in importance for each employee. Examples of work facets are creativity, recognition, independence, variation, etc.

2. Herzberg's Motivator-Hygiene Theory of Job Satisfaction

This theory focuses on the effects of certain work facets on job satisfaction. This theory is of the opinion that every employee has two types of needs:

• ' Motivator needs'; these needs have to do with the actual work and how challenging it is. If these needs are met then the employee will be satisfied, will not be satisfied than not.

• ' Hygiene needs'; these needs have to do with the physical and psychological context in which the work is carried out (eg salary, environment, etc.). If the hygiene needs are met, the employee will be satisfied. 

According to Herzberg, an employee may be both satisfied and dissatisfied with their job at the same. For example, the employee might be satisfied because their motivator needs are being met but their hygiene needs are not.

Herzberg was also convinced that satisfaction and dissatisfaction are two different dimensions. One dimension is from satisfied to not satisfied and the other is dissatisfied to not dissatisfied.

3. The Discrepancy Model of Job Satisfaction

In order to determine how satisfied employees are with their jobs, employees compare their jobs with their ideal job. If the expectations of their ideal job are very high and these expectations do not match the job they currently have, then employees are dissatisfied.

4. Steady-State Theory of Job Satisfaction

According to this theory, every employee has a typical, characteristic and fixed level of job satisfaction, called steady-state/equilibrium.

Imagine you get a promotion, then you are more satisfied than before, but you always fall back into the equilibrium levels.

What are the consequences of job satisfaction?

No strong relationship has been demonstrated between job satisfaction and work performance. Research has shown that attitudes towards work such as job satisfaction, only affect work behavior when employees have the freedom to vary their behavior and when the worker's attitude is relevant to the behavior in question.

Satisfied employees are absent less often. Motivation to go to work can be influenced by the level of satisfaction, whether the organization has a very strict absence procedure, whether the work is interesting, etc. Whether you can go to work, is influenced by illness, accidents, transport problems, family problems, etc.

Staff turnover is the permanent withdrawal of an employee from an organization. High job satisfaction leads to low turnover. According to Mobley's model, work dissatisfaction triggers the turnover process and, conversely, people will begin to think about quitting their job.

Quitting a job yourself ('attrition') is a painless way for the organization to reduce the number of employees if, for example, things go badly with the organization.

'Organizational citizenship behavior' (OCB) is behavior that is not mandatory but is very important for an organization, such as helping a colleague, not stealing on the work floor etc. It seems that this behavior is influenced by attitudes such as job satisfaction.

The well-being of an employee means how happy, healthy, satisfied and prosperous the employee is. Job satisfaction contributes to the welfare of the employees.

What is organizational commitment?

Organizational commitment is the commitment of the employees to the organization. There are two types of organizational commitment:

• Affective commitment; this form of bonding occurs when the employee is happy that he/she may be an employee of the organization, when the employee believes in the organization and when the employee feels good about the organization and what it stands for.

They feel connected to the organization and want to do what is right for the organization.

• Continuance commitment; this form of commitment arises when it is very pricey (literally and figuratively) for the employee to leave the organization.

There are many factors that influence affective commitment, such as personality and the situation. After all, it is easier to be proud of your organization if it also does a good job. Affective bonding is more related to OCB than to work performance. Affective bonding also has a negative relationship with turnover: an effective bond with the organization ensures that they do not want to leave the organization; the other way around, the organization prefers not to let a person with a positive attitude go.