Attitudes and their impact on behavior and performance
In what circumstances do attitudes determine behaviors at work? Why are attitudes useful for a person? Examine how much is known about what factors determine either job satisfaction or organizational commitment.To what extent does organizational commitment suggests that managers in organization should care about how committed their staffs are?
Organization is made by the people working in it. It is the behavior, the attitude of the employees which determines the success and failure of the organization. Understanding the attitude of a person is of utmost important to make the best use of his abilities to work (Altman, Valenzi and Hodgetts 2013). The perception of a person towards its working environment is the key to its performance. Knowledge of attitude of employees makes it easier to deal with them, make the job interesting and satisfactory in nature and to motivate them to gain higher levels of productivity.
Attitude is termed as the mental state of a person which is created through experience, dynamically induced and directed towards response of a person to handle different situations. It can be simply said that it is the mindset of a person to react in different circumstances guided by his experiences and temperament (Braun, Peus and Frey 2013). Attitude is a complex set of intangible objects which includes the personality, behaviors, beliefs, values and motivations. Attitude is made up of three constituents which are effect (feeling), behavior (action) and cognition (thought). Combining these three aspects we get the attitude of person (Wayne, Casper and Allen 2013). Attitude helps us to define how a person handles a situation and the kind of behavior which is exhibited towards a situation. Attitude formation at workplace is accomplished through learning, direct experiences and modeling peers at work. Attitude of a person at work is mainly determined by two factors. Job Satisfaction and Organizational commitment are the two aspects of attitude demonstrated in work.
Job satisfaction is determines the level of commitment shown by an employee. Job satisfaction is developed through factors such as work environment, how they are treated, relationship among peers and seniors (DuBrin 2013). If an employee is not happy with its working environment or is getting disturbed by his colleague of too much work load is given to him by his senior then the attitude of the person tends to change. The employee will not be willing to do all the work he is allotted as there is a sense of disliking which is developed towards the job. Attitude of that person towards his job starts to change with each hour spent in the office. Mental health of the person starts to degrade and so does its efficiency to work. On the other hand, if the atmosphere at work is congenial and light and the person is in good terms with his peers and his manager gives him optimum workload and appreciation then the attitude of the person changes in a much positive way (Dumdum, Lowe and Avolio 2013). He will be willing to work much harder to complete his work for the incentive of appreciation from his colleague and boss. This will lead to the growth of the company and a healthy working environment will pay good dividends. Attitude of employees much be kept under radar so that proper monitoring and modifications can be done to keep the status quo of the attitude of employees positive for the mutual benefit of him as well as the company.
The importance of Job Satisfaction
Feelings which an employee possesses towards its job are termed as Job Satisfaction. It is considered as the most important job attitude which is required in an organization. There are some characteristics of job satisfaction which is related directly to the efficiency and productivity of the employee (Haslam, van Knippenberg and Ellemers 2014). Workers who are said to be satisfied with their jobs tend to be more productive and more productive workers are observed to be more satisfied. Job Satisfaction and efficiency goes hand in hand. Watching one worker to be more productive others also start to follow which increases both satisfaction as well as productivity of the organization. Job satisfaction is achieved through a number of factors. These factors are:
Interesting Work: Compelling and engaging work decreases the charm of working (Hülsheger, Alberts and Lang 2013). Interesting work which has a variety of things to do and worker gets something new to learn out of it attracts more workers and gives them the satisfaction of working.
Job Security: It is one of the most prominent features of job satisfaction. Anyone who works for a living wants to continue the status quo as per their liking. Security of the job gives utmost satisfaction to a worker and motivates them to grow in their current job (Hülsheger, Alberts and Lang 2013). The quality of work done is significantly increases if the worker knows that he is not going anywhere and will continue to work in the same organization. They create their expectations according to the continuance of the work even take loans and other financial help relying on the fact that their job is secure and will continue to be that way. Job Security has faded in recent years as compared to previous trends where one employee continued to work in the same organization and retired from there itself.
Appreciation of Work: Recognition of the work done and appreciation by the seniors and colleagues is a greater reward than a monetary incentive. If the hard work and hours put in completing the work is recognized and awarded it boots the confidence and motivation of a worker to put in more effort (Hülsheger, Alberts and Lang 2013). It gives him the satisfaction that the work which he is doing is significant and is valued. Apart from appreciation the incentives and appraisals also tend to drive workers to do good work as everyone does job to earn money. So, monetary awards will also have the same weightage as recognition. As it is seen in many organizations that salary is less and incentives are more (Nahavandi, Denhardt and Aristigueta 2013). Payment structure is kept that way to drive workers to work more and earn their worth in the company. In this way, workers will feel content and satisfied that they are getting their worth.
Playing Fair:If an organization or supervisor becomes partial towards one employee or group of employees, then the job satisfaction for rest of the workers will fall drastically (Nelson and Quick 2013). If one feels that no matter how hard he works organization is not going to appreciate his work then job satisfaction dissipated very quickly. Organization should always play fair towards its employees to maintain their job satisfaction.
Factors that influence job satisfaction
Workers feel motivated towards their work, satisfied with their work environment and push themselves harder because they tend to believe that their work is supported by their seniors or managers of the organization. Employees make a perception among themselves that their senior is going to support them in their work and if anything goes wrong they are there to take the rains upon themselves (Park and Shaw 2013). In this way they feel protected and work in a more productive way. Workers go to their immediate senior for approvals, affiliations and other work related stuff. Now it becomes the responsibility of the managers to understand the level of commitment a worker is putting in. Organizational commitment suggests that if the worker is relying on their managers to complete the work then manager should also respond in the same way. There are mainly three types of Organizational Commitment shown by the employees:
Affective Commitment: This is the type of commitment which portrays that how much an employee wants to stay in the same organization. They target their organizational roles and feel free to execute their work (Parris and Peachey 2013). They fit into the working environment and work for the better of the organization. Managers are the ones who get to know at first about this type of commitment of the employee and they should reciprocate with that employee in adequate manner.
Continuance Commitment: This type of commitment shows the need of an employee to stay in the organization. Continuance commitment is seen in employees whose need to stay in the organization weighs more than their other reasons for commitment. Reasons to stay with the same organization varies with employees but some of the main reasons can be lack of alternatives or less option of remuneration available in the market (Tyler 2014). Employees know about the trends of the market and they are aware of the salary ranges and other facilities available in other jobs. If they get convinced that they are not going to get paid higher than the current company they stay committed to the one they are working in. Mangers also play the same game to make them stay in the organization. Time to time they make them realize about the market trend and promise them a raise to make them stay and committed.
Normative Commitment: This type of commitment is driven by the feeling of guilt within an employee. IF the worker feels that leaving the organization will be disastrous for it they tend to stay in it and work with commitment (Wagner and Hollenbeck 2014). Experienced employees who are working in the organization for years have a feeling of care for it and hence stay normatively committed. Managers value them as well and respect their feelings for the organization.
To sum up it can be said that Organizational Behavior is one of the most important subjects to analyses and research for a company to work successfully in the long run. Employees’ attitudes and their commitment matters the most for an organization to grow.
Reference
Altman, S., Valenzi, E. and Hodgetts, R.M., 2013. Organizational behavior: Theory and practice. Elsevier.
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Haslam, S.A., van Knippenberg, D., Platow, M.J. and Ellemers, N. eds., 2014. Social identity at work: Developing theory for organizational practice. Psychology Press.
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