Introduction

As discussed in Topic 1, a key concern of any practising manager is to be able to influence other members of the organisation to achieve certain objectives. Along with personal values (which will be covered in the next topic), attitudes play a pivotal role in this outcome. They are sometimes described as a ‘predisposition’ to respond in a particular way (positive or negative) toward something or someone (Wood et al., 2013).

Whether or not there is a ‘causal’ (i.e. strong correlation) relationship between attitudes and behaviour is a topic of great debate in the OB and broader psychological literatures. It is important to recognise that while attitudes contribute to behavioural ‘intentions’, the actual behaviour may not be carried out in any given situation. It is also important to note that like values, attitudes are a concept or construct; i.e. they are not something we can see or touch. Rather, they are inferred from the things people say or do.

In this topic we look closely at the three main components of Attitudes – 1) cognitive, 2) affective, and 3) behavioural. This understanding provides an effective framework for the subsequent examination of several work-related attitudes, including ‘job satisfaction’, ‘job involvement’ and ‘organisational commitment’. As part of this discussion we examine the impact of job satisfaction on several key work-related outcomes, such as job performance and absenteeism.

Objectives

On completion of this topic, you should be able to:

• identify and contrast the three components of an attitude
• discuss the relationship between attitudes, behavioural intentions and actual behaviour.
• explain how attitudes are identified
• compare and contrast the major job attitudes and discuss their influence on workplace outcomes.

Approximate study time required

Actively engaging with the lecture content	2 hrs
Topic readings	2 hrs
Undertake the prescribed learning activities	1 hrs
Self-directed topic review	1 hrs
Total	6 hrs

Attitudes

The study of attitudes is a critical component of any OB syllabus as it provides the foundation for examining and better understanding differences in human behaviour. In turn, this knowledge contributes to a number of critical processes, such as employee recruitment, motivation and performance.

When they are first introduced to the topic of ‘Attitudes’, many students find it difficult to distinguish the concept from other psychological constructs; such as values and personality. It is therefore important to carefully review and consider the following formal definition that is provided on p. 56 of the unit textbook.

Attitudes are evaluative statements – both positive and negative – about objectives, people or events.

There are two key features of this definition that should be noted.

1. Attitudes involve the ‘assessment’ (either positive or negative) of something or someone. When faced with a particular attitude (yours or another person’s), ask yourself ‘why is this assessment being made?’ This may help to identify the individual components of the attitude.
2. Attitudes have a specific focus; i.e. the assessment is toward ‘something or someone’. This is in contrast with values, which have a more general focus.

Work-related Attitudes

As you would no doubt be aware, there are many different types of attitudes. In OB however, we are particularly interested in those that have a direct impact on work-related behaviour. The five prominent attitudes central to OB are: 1) job satisfaction, 2) job involvement, 3) organisational commitment, 4) perceived organisational support and 5) employee engagement. Although it is important to be aware of all five attitudes, Job Satisfaction is perhaps the most important; at least among researchers. For this reason, the following textbook reading provides a ‘general’ overview of all five attitudes, and the subsequent reading covers Job Satisfaction in greater detail.

In terms of the research that has been undertaken in recent years to better understand the relationship between job attitudes and work outcomes, there are still a lot of unanswered questions. One particular intriguing question, which the unit textbook discusses, is whether job satisfaction influences job performance. As you read through this section it is important to recognise that, like so many areas of OB, analysing the particular context is crucial. There are many different job ‘types’ and therefore research findings associated with the investigation of one particular group of workers may not be readily ‘generalised’ to other groups.

Conclusion

The study of Attitudes is an important topic in the OB discipline as they can influence the formation of behavioural intentions among workers. As we discovered early in the topic however, establishing a causal link between attitudes and behaviour is often very difficult. This is because of the substantial number and variety of moderating variables that influence actual behaviour.

The topic introduced students to a number of key job-related attitudes including ‘job satisfaction’, ‘job involvement’ and ‘organisational commitment’. Of the three, ‘job satisfaction’ has received considerable research attention over many decades as investigators have sought to identify the relationship with a number of dominant worker outcomes including ‘Job Performance’, ‘Absenteeism’ and ‘Turnover’. Research has generally supported the positive correlation between levels of job satisfaction with both absenteeism and turnover. However the relationship with job performance is far more contentious.