Balance through Fitness

After the birth of her first child, Lisa Druxman was eager to both get in shape and get back to work. She decided to blend her passion for fitness with motherhood and developed a series of exercises she could perform while out walking her baby. As a fitness instructor, it was only natural for her to teach the workouts to other new moms. They liked it–lots–and Stroller Strides was born.

Since then, Druxman's business has grown by leaps and bounds. In its first year, Stroller Strides expanded to coach more than 300 moms in 12 locations.^a Today, the company boasts more than 300 franchisees teaching fitness in over 1,200 locations.^b, ^c

And Druxman hasn't stopped there. She has developed Fit4Baby, BodyBack classes, videos and accessories. She also wrote L.E.A.N. Mommy, a book advising new moms how to maintain physical and emotional fitness.

There's another side to Stroller Strides–the “balance” side of things. Owning a franchise gives working mothers what they want–the chance to succeed at work without losing touch with their families. “The home-based business model has great appeal, as it's both low-cost and lifestyle-friendly.”

Druxman says. “Our franchisees have the flexibility to create their business hours around the needs of their family.”^d

Her tips for success include:

1. You create the vision and the road map of how to get to the goal.
2. Delegate. Hire out everything you can so that there is progress when you are with your family.
3. Partner up. You may be able to get twice as much done if you have a like-minded partner.
4. Work smart. Make sure the time you do have is spent on the Most Important Things.
5. Get spousal support. Get buy-in with parenting as you grow your business.^e

feelings deserve our attention

3 Emotions, Attitudes, and Job Satisfaction

the key point

chapter at a glance

• What Are Emotions and Moods?
• How Do Emotions and Moods Influence Behavior?
• What Are Attitudes and How Do They Influence Behavior?
• What Is Job Satisfaction and Why Is It Important?

Understanding Emotions and Moods

How do you feel when you are driving a car and are halted by a police officer? You are in class and receive a poor grade on an exam? A favorite pet passes away? You check e-mail and discover that you are being offered a job interview? A good friend walks right by without speaking? A parent or sibling or child loses his job? Or, you get this SMS from a new acquaintance: “Ur gr8!”?

These examples show how what happens to us draws out “feelings” of many forms, such as happy or sad, angry or pleased. These feelings constitute what scholars call affect, the range of emotions and moods that people experience in their life context.¹ Affects have important implications not only for our lives in general but also our behavior at work.² Lisa Druxman, featured in the opening example, might have allowed her frustration at having no time to hit the gym turn into a negative affect toward her work and personal life. Instead, she took the initiative and developed a series of exercises she could perform while walking with her baby. She then took it a step further and started Stroller Strides, a company whose franchises provide moms with a chance to succeed—with their career and their families.

• Affect is the range of feelings in the forms of emotions and moods that people experience.

The Nature of Emotions

Anger, excitement, apprehension, attraction, sadness, elation, grief … those are all emotions that appear as strong positive or negative feelings directed toward someone or something.³ Emotions are usually intense and not long-lasting. They are always associated with a source—someone or something that makes us feel the way we do. You might feel positive emotion of elation when an instructor congratulates you on a fine class presentation; you might feel negative emotion of anger when an instructor criticizes you in front of the class. In both situations the object of your emotion is the instructor, but the impact of the instructor's behavior on your feelings is quite different in each case. And your response to the aroused emotions is likely to differ as well—perhaps breaking into a wide smile after the compliment, or making a nasty side comment or withdrawing from further participation after the criticism.

• Emotions are strong positive or negative feelings directed toward someone or something.

Emotional Intelligence

All of us are familiar with the notions of cognitive ability and intelligence, or IQ, which have been measured for many years. A more recent concept is emotional intelligence, or EI. First introduced in Chapter 1 as a component of a manager's essential human skills, it is defined by scholar Daniel Goleman as an ability to understand emotions in ourselves and others and to use that understanding to manage relationships effectively.⁴ EI is demonstrated in the ways in which we deal with affect, for example, by knowing when a negative emotion is about to cause problems and being able to control that emotion so that it doesn't become disruptive.

• Emotional intelligence is an ability to understand emotions and manage relationships effectively.

Goleman's point about emotional intelligence is that we perform better when we are good at recognizing and dealing with emotions in ourselves and others. When high in EI, we are more likely to behave in ways that avoid having our emotions “get the better of us.” Knowing that an instructor's criticism causes us to feel anger, for example, EI might help us control that anger, maintain a positive face, and perhaps earn the instructor's praise when we make future class contributions. If the unchecked anger caused us to act in a verbally aggressive way—creating a negative impression in the instructor's eyes—or to withdraw from all class participation—causing the instructor to believe we have no interest in the course, our course experience would likely suffer.

Figure 3.1 Four key emotional intelligence competencies for leadership success.

If you are good at knowing and managing your emotions and are good at reading others' emotions, you may perform better while interacting with other people. This applies to work and life in general, and to leadership situations.⁵ Figure 3.1 identifies four essential emotional intelligence competencies that can and should be developed for leadership success and, we can say, success more generally in all types of interpersonal situations.⁶ The competencies are self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, and relationship management.

Self-awareness in emotional intelligence is the ability to understand our emotions and their impact on our work and on others. You can think of this as a continuing appraisal of your emotions that results in a good understanding of them and the capacity to express them naturally. Social awareness is the ability to empathize, to understand the emotions of others, and to use this understanding to better relate to them. It involves continuous appraisal and recognition of others' emotions, resulting in better perception and understanding of them.

• Self-awareness is the ability to understand our emotions and their impact on us and others.

• Social awareness is the ability to empathize and understand the emotions of others.

Self-management in emotional intelligence is the ability to think before acting and to be in control of otherwise disruptive impulses. It is a form of self-regulation in which we stay in control of our emotions and avoid letting them take over. Relationship management is an ability to establish rapport with others in ways that build good relationships and influence their emotions in positive ways. It shows up as the capacity to make good use of emotions by directing them toward constructive activities and improved relationships.

• Self-management is the ability to think before acting and to control disruptive impulses.

• Relationship management is the ability to establish rapport with others to build good relationships.

Types of Emotions

Researchers have identified six major types of emotions: anger, fear, joy, love, sadness, and surprise. The key question from an emotional intelligence perspective is: Do we recognize these emotions in ourselves and others, and can we manage them well? Anger, for example, may involve disgust and envy, both of which can have very negative consequences. Fear may contain alarm and anxiety; joy may contain cheerfulness and contentment; love may contain affection, longing, and lust; sadness may contain disappointment, neglect, and shame.

It is also common to differentiate between self-conscious emotions that arise from internal sources and social emotions that are stimulated by external sources.⁷ Shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride are examples of internal emotions. Understanding self-conscious emotions helps individuals regulate their relationships with others. Social emotions like pity, envy, and jealousy derive from external cues and information. An example is feeling envious or jealous upon learning that a co-worker received a promotion or job assignment that you were hoping to get.

• Self-conscious emotions arise from internal sources, and social emotions derive from external sources.

The Nature of Moods

Whereas emotions tend to be short-term and clearly targeted at someone or something, moods are more generalized positive and negative feelings or states of mind that may persist for some time. Everyone seems to have occasional moods, and we each know the full range of possibilities they represent. How often do you wake up in the morning and feel excited and refreshed and just happy, or wake up feeling grouchy and depressed and generally unhappy? And what are the consequences of these different moods for your behavior with friends and family, and at work or school?

• Moods are generalized positive and negative feelings or states of mind.

Figure 3.2 Emotions and moods are different, but can also influence one another.

The field of OB is especially interested in how moods affect someone's like-ability and performance at work. When it comes to CEOs, for example, a Business Week article claims that it pays to be likable, stating that “harsh is out, caring is in.”⁸ Some CEOs are even hiring executive coaches to help them manage their affects to come across as more personable and friendly in relationships with others. If a CEO goes to a meeting in a good mood and gets described as “cheerful,” “charming,” “humorous,” “friendly,” and “candid,” she or he may be viewed as on the upswing. But if the CEO goes into a meeting in a bad mood and is perceived as “prickly,” “impatient,” “remote,” “tough,” “acrimonious,” or even “ruthless,” the perception will more likely be of a CEO on the downslide.

Figure 3.2 offers a brief comparison of emotions and moods. In general, emotions are intense feelings directed at someone or something; they always have rather specific triggers; and they come in many types—anger, fear, happiness, and the like. Moods tend to be more generalized positive or negative feelings. They are less intense than emotions and most often seem to lack a clear source; it's often hard to identify how or why we end up in a particular mood.⁹ But moods tend to be more long-lasting than emotions. When someone says or does something that causes a quick and intense positive or negative reaction from you, that emotion will probably quickly pass. However, a bad or good mood is likely to linger for hours or even days and influence a wide range of behaviors.

How Emotions and Moods Influence Behavior

A while back, former CEO Mark V. Hurd of Hewlett-Packard found himself dealing with a corporate scandal. It seems that the firm had hired “consultants” to track down what were considered to be confidential leaks by members of HP's Board of Directors. When meeting the press and trying to explain the situation and resignation of board chair Patricia C. Dunn, Hurd called the actions “very disturbing” and the Wall Street Journal described him as speaking with “his voice shaking.”¹⁰

We can say that Hurd was emotional and angry that the incident was causing public humiliation for him and the company. Chances are the whole episode resulted in him being in a bad mood for a while. In the short run, at least, Hurd's emotions and mood probably had spillover consequences for those working directly with him and maybe for HP's workforce as a whole. But even further, was this just a one-time reaction on his part or was it an expected pattern that he displayed whenever things went wrong?

Emotion and Mood Contagion

Although emotions and moods are influenced by different events and situations, each of us may display some relatively predictable tendencies.¹¹ Some people seem almost always positive and upbeat about things. For these optimists we might say the glass is nearly always half full. Others, by contrast, seem to be often negative or downbeat. They tend to be pessimists viewing the glass as half empty. Such tendencies toward optimism and pessimism not only influence the individual's behavior, they can also influence other people he or she interacts with—co-workers, friends, and family members.

Researchers are increasingly interested in emotion and mood contagion—the spillover effects of one's emotions and mood onto others.¹² You might think this as a bit like catching a cold from someone. Evidence shows that positive and negative emotions are “contagious” in much the same ways, even though the tendency may not be well recognized in work settings. One study found team members shared good and bad moods within two hours of being together; bad moods, interestingly, traveled person-to-person faster than good moods.¹³ Other research shows that when mood contagion is positive, followers report being more attracted to their leaders and rate the leaders more highly. The mood contagion also has up and down effects on moods of co-workers and teammates, as well as family and friends.¹⁴

• Emotion and mood contagion is the spillover of one's emotions and mood onto others.

Daniel Goleman and his colleagues studying emotional intelligence believe leaders should manage emotion and mood contagion with care. “Moods that start at the top tend to move the fastest,” they say, “because everyone watches the boss.”¹⁵ This was very evident as CEOs in all industries—business and nonprofit alike—struggled to deal with the impact of economic crisis on their organizations and workforces. “Moaning is not a management task,” said Rupert Stadler of Audi: “We can all join in the moaning, or we can make a virtue of the plight. I am rather doing the latter.”¹⁶

Emotional Labor

The concept of emotional labor relates to the need to show certain emotions in order to perform a job well.¹⁷ Good examples come from service settings such as airline check-in personnel or flight attendants. They are supposed to appear approachable, receptive, and friendly while taking care of the things you require as a customer. Some airlines like Southwest go even further in asking service employees to be “funny” and “caring” and “cheerful” while doing their jobs.

• Emotional labor is a situation where a person displays organizationally desired emotions in a job.

Emotional labor isn't always easy; it can be hard to be consistently “on” in displaying the desired emotions in one's work. If you're having a bad mood day or have just experienced an emotional run-in with a neighbor, for example, being “happy” and “helpful” with a demanding customer might seem a little much to ask. Such situations can cause emotional dissonance where the emotions we actually feel are inconsistent with the emotions we try to project.¹⁸ That is, we are expected to act with one emotion while we actually feel quite another.

• Emotional dissonance is inconsistency between emotions we feel and those we try to project.

It often requires a lot of self-regulation to display organizationally desired emotions in one's job. Imagine, for example, how often service workers struggling with personal emotions and moods experience dissonance when having to act positive toward customers.¹⁹ Scholars call it deep acting when someone tries to modify their feelings to better fit the situation—such as putting yourself in the position of the air travelers whose luggage went missing and feeling the same sense of loss. Surface acting is hiding true feelings while displaying very different ones—such as smiling at a customer even though the words they used to express a complaint just offended you.

Cultural Aspects of Emotions and Moods

Issues of emotional intelligence, emotion and mood contagion, and emotional labor can be complicated in cross-cultural situations. General interpretations of emotions and moods appear similar across cultures, with the major emotions of happiness, joy, and love all valued positively.²⁰ But the frequency and intensity of emotions is known to vary somewhat. In mainland China, for example, research suggests that people report fewer positive and negative emotions as well as less intense emotions than in other cultures.²¹ Norms for emotional expression also vary across cultures. In collectivist cultures that emphasize group relationships such as Japan, individual emotional displays are less likely to occur and less likely to be accepted than in individualistic cultures.²²

Informal cultural standards called display rules govern the degree to which it is appropriate to display emotions. For example, British culture tends to encourage downplaying emotions, while Mexican culture is much more demonstrative in public. Overall, the lesson is that the way emotions are displayed in other cultures may not mean what they do at home. When Walmart first went to Germany, its executives found that an emphasis on friendliness embedded in its U.S. roots didn't work as well in the local culture. The more serious German shoppers did not respond well to Walmart's friendly greeters and helpful personnel. And along the same lines, Israeli shoppers seem to equate smiling cashiers with inexperience, so cashiers are encouraged to look somber while performing their jobs.²³

• Display rules govern the degree to which it is appropriate to display emotions.

Figure 3.3 Figurative summary of Affective Events Theory.

Emotions and Moods as Affective Events

Figure 3.3 presents the Affective Events Theory as a summary for this discussion of emotions, moods, and human behavior in organizations.²⁴ The basic notion of the theory is that our emotions and moods are influenced by events involving other people and situations. Emotions and moods, in turn, influence the work performance and satisfaction of us and others.

The left-hand side of Figure 3.3 shows how the work environment, including the job and its emotional labor requirements, and daily work events create positive and negative emotional reactions. These influence job satisfaction and performance.²⁵ For example, everyone experiences hassles and uplifts on the job, sometimes many of these during a workday. Our positive and negative emotional reactions to them influence the way we work at the moment and how we feel about it.

Personal predispositions in the form of personality and moods also affect the connection between work events and emotional reactions. Someone's mood at the time can exaggerate the emotions experienced as a result of an event. If you have just been criticized by your boss, for example, you are likely to feel worse than you would otherwise when a colleague makes a joke about the length of your coffee breaks.

How Attitudes Influence Behavior

At one time Challis M. Lowe was one of only two African-American women among the five highest-paid executives in U.S. companies surveyed by the woman's advocacy and research organization Catalyst.²⁶ She became executive vice president at Ryder System after a 25-year career that included several changes of employers and lots of stressors—working-mother guilt, a failed marriage, gender bias on the job, and an MBA degree earned part-time. Through it all she says: “I've never let being scared stop me from doing something. Just because you haven't done it before doesn't mean you shouldn't try.” That, simply put, is what we would call a can-do “attitude!”

Figure 3.4 A work-related example of the three components of attitudes.

An attitude is a predisposition to respond in a positive or negative way to someone or something in one's environment. When you say, for example, that you “like” or “dislike” someone or something, you are expressing an attitude. But it's important to remember that an attitude, like a value, is a hypothetical construct; one never sees, touches, or actually isolates an attitude. Rather, attitudes are inferred from the things people say or through their behavior. Attitudes are influenced by values and are acquired from the same sources—friends, teachers, parents, role models, and culture. Attitudes, however, focus on specific people or objects. The notion that shareholders should have a voice in setting CEO pay is a value. Your positive or negative feeling about a specific company due to the presence or absence of shareholder inputs on CEO pay is an attitude.

• An attitude is a predisposition to respond positively or negatively to someone or something.

Components of Attitudes

The three components of an attitude are shown in Figure 3.4—cognitive, affective, and behavioral.²⁷ The cognitive component of an attitude reflects underlying beliefs, opinions, knowledge, or information a person possesses. It represents a person's ideas about someone or something and the conclusions drawn about them. The statement “My job lacks responsibility” is a belief shown in the figure. The statement “Job responsibility is important” reflects an underlying value. Together they comprise the cognitive component of an attitude toward one's work or workplace.

The affective component of an attitude is a specific feeling regarding the personal impact of the antecedent conditions evidenced in the cognitive component. In essence this becomes the actual attitude, such as the feeling “I don't like my job.” Notice that the affect in this statement displays the negative attitude; “I don't like my job” is a very different condition than “I do like my job.”

The behavioral component is an intention to behave in a certain way based on the affect in one's attitude. It is a predisposition to act, but one that may or may not be implemented. The example in the figure shows behavioral intent expressed as “I'm going to quit my job.” Yet even with such intent, it remains to be seen whether or not the person really quits.

Linking Attitudes and Behavior

As just pointed out, the link between attitudes and behavior is tentative. An attitude expresses an intended behavior that may or may not be carried out. In general, the more specific attitudes are the stronger the relationship with eventual behavior. A person who feels “I don't like my job” may be less likely to actually quit than someone who feels “I can't stand another day with Alex harassing me at work.” For an attitude to actually influence behavior, it's also necessary to have the opportunity or freedom to behave in the intended way. In today's economy there are most likely many persons who stick with their jobs while still holding negative job attitudes. The fact is they may not have any other choice.²⁸

Attitudes and Cognitive Consistency

Leon Festinger, a noted social psychologist, uses the term cognitive dissonance to describe a state of inconsistency between an individual's attitudes and/or between attitudes and behavior.²⁹ It turns out that this is an important issue. Perhaps you have the attitude that recycling is good for the economy. You also realize you aren't always recycling everything you can. Festinger points out that such cognitive inconsistency between attitude and behavior is uncomfortable. We tend to deal with the discomfort by trying to do things to reduce or eliminate the dissonance: (1) changing the underlying attitude, (2) changing future behavior, or (3) developing new ways of explaining or rationalizing the inconsistency.

• Cognitive dissonance is experienced inconsistency between one's attitudes and/or between attitudes and behavior.

The way we respond to cognitive dissonance is influenced by the degree of control we seem to have over the situation and the rewards involved. In the case of recycling dissonance, for example, the lack of convenient recycling containers would make rationalizing easier and changing the positive attitude less likely. A reaffirmation of intention to recycle in the future might also reduce the dissonance.

Types of Job Attitudes

Even though attitudes do not always predict behavior, the link between attitudes and potential or intended behavior is an important workplace issue. Think about your daily experiences or conversations with other people about their work. It isn't uncommon to hear concerns expressed about a co-worker's “bad attitude” or another's “good attitude.” Such feelings get reflected in things like job satisfaction, job involvement, organizational commitment, and employee engagement.

You often hear the term “morale” used to describe how people feel about their jobs and employers. It relates to the more specific notion of job satisfaction, an attitude reflecting a person's positive and negative feelings toward a job, co-workers, and the work environment. Indeed, you should remember that helping others realize job satisfaction is considered one hallmark of effective managers. They create work environments in which people achieve high performance and experience high job satisfaction. This concept of job satisfaction is very important in OB and receives special attention in the following section.

• Job satisfaction is the degree to which an individual feels positive or negative about a job.

In addition to job satisfaction, OB scholars and researchers are interested in job involvement. This is the extent to which an individual feels dedicated to a job. Someone with high job involvement psychologically identifies with her or his job, and, for example, shows willingness to work beyond expectations to complete a special project. This relates to organizational citizenship behaviors as also discussed in the next section.

• Job involvement is the extent to which an individual is dedicated to a job.

Another work attitude is organizational commitment, or the degree of loyalty an individual feels toward the organization. Individuals with a high organizational commitment identify strongly with the organization and take pride in considering themselves members. Rational commitment reflects feelings that the job serves one's financial, developmental, and professional interests. Emotional commitment reflects feelings that what one does is important, valuable, and of real benefit to others. Research shows that strong emotional commitments to the organization are much more powerful than rational commitments in positively influencing performance.³⁰

• Organizational commitment is the loyalty of an individual to the organization.

A survey of 55,000 American workers by the Gallup Organization suggests that profits for employers rise when workers' attitudes reflect high job involvement and organizational commitment. This combination creates a high sense of employee engagement—something that Gallup defines as feeling “a profound connection” with the organization and “a passion” for one's job.³¹ Active employee engagement shows up as a willingness to help others, to always try to do something extra to improve performance, and to speak positively about the organization. Things that counted most toward high engagement in the Gallup research were believing one has the opportunity to do one's best every day, believing one's opinions count, believing fellow workers are committed to quality, and believing a direct connection exists between one's work and the organization's mission.³²

• Employee engagement is a strong sense of connection with the organization and passion for one's job.

Job Satisfaction and Its Importance

There is no doubt that job satisfaction is one of the most talked about of all job attitudes. It was defined earlier as an attitude reflecting a person's feelings toward his or her job or job setting at a particular point in time.³³ And when it comes to job satisfaction, several good questions can be asked. What are the major components of job satisfaction? What are the main job satisfaction findings and trends? What is the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance?

Components of Job Satisfaction

Managers can infer the job satisfaction of others by careful observation and interpretation of what people say and do while going about their jobs. They can also use interviews and questionnaires to more formally assess levels of job satisfaction on a team or in an organization.³⁴ Two of the more popular job satisfaction questionnaires used over the years are the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) and the Job Descriptive Index (JDI).³⁵ Both address components of job satisfaction with which all good managers should be concerned. The MSQ measures satisfaction with working conditions, chances for advancement, freedom to use one's own judgment, praise for doing a good job, and feelings of accomplishment, among others. The JDI measures these five job satisfaction facets.

• The work itself—responsibility, interest, and growth
• Quality of supervision—technical help and social support
• Relationships with co-workers—social harmony and respect
• Promotion opportunities—chances for further advancement
• Pay—adequacy of pay and perceived equity vis-à-vis others

Job Satisfaction Trends

If you watch or read the news, you'll regularly find reports on the job satisfaction of workers. You'll also find lots of job satisfaction studies in the academic literature. The results don't always agree, but they usually fall within a common range. And until recently, we generally concluded that the majority of American workers are at least somewhat satisfied with their jobs. Now, the trend has turned down.³⁶

Surveys conducted by The Conference Board showed in 1987 that about 61 percent of American workers said they were satisfied; in 2009 only 45 percent were reporting job satisfaction.³⁷ The report states: “Fewer Americans are satisfied with all aspects of employment, and no age or income group is immune. In fact, the youngest cohort of employees (those currently under age 25) expresses the highest level of dissatisfaction ever recorded by the survey for that age group.” In terms of other patterns in these data, only 51 percent of workers surveyed in 2009 said their jobs were interesting versus 70 percent in 1987. Only 51 percent said they were satisfied with their bosses versus 60 percent in 1987.

A global survey in 2011 by Accenture contacted 3,400 professionals from 29 countries around the world.³⁸ Results showed less than one-half were satisfied with their jobs, and that the percentage of job satisfaction was about equal between women (43%) and men (42%). But about three quarters of the respondents said they had no plans to leave their current jobs. This makes us wonder about the implications for both employees and employers when people stick with jobs that give them little satisfaction.

Both men and women in the Accenture Survey generally agreed on the least satisfying things about their jobs–being underpaid, lacking career advancement opportunities, and feeling trapped in their jobs. But gender differences were also evident. Women are less likely than men to ask for pay raises (44% vs. 48%) and for promotions (28% vs. 39%). Women are more likely to believe their careers are not “fast-tracked” (63% vs. 55%) and more likely to report that getting ahead in careers is due to hard work and long hours (68% vs. 55%). And in respect to generational differences, Gen Y workers ranked pay higher as a source of motivation (73%) than either Gen Xers (67%) or Baby Boomers (58%).

How Job Satisfaction Influences Work Behavior

Would you agree that people deserve to have satisfying work experiences? You probably do. But, is job satisfaction important in other than a “feel good” sense? How does it impact work behaviors and job performance? In commenting on the Conference Board data just summarized, for example, Lynn Franco, the director of the organization's Consumer Research Center, said: “The downward trend in job satisfaction could spell trouble for the engagement of U.S. employees and ultimately employee productivity.”³⁹

Withdrawal Behaviors There is a strong relationship between job satisfaction and physical withdrawal behaviors like absenteeism and turnover. Workers who are more satisfied with their jobs are absent less often than those who are dissatisfied. Satisfied workers are also more likely to remain with their present employers, while dissatisfied workers are more likely to quit or at least be on the lookout for other jobs.⁴⁰ Withdrawal through absenteeism and turnover can be very costly in terms of lost experience, and the expenses for recruiting and training of replacements.⁴¹

A survey by Salary.com showed not only that employers tend to overestimate the job satisfactions of their employees, they underestimate the amount of job seeking they are doing.⁴² Whereas employers estimated that 37 percent of employees were on the lookout for new jobs, 65 percent of the employees said they were job seeking by networking, Web surfing, posting resumes, or checking new job possibilities. Millennials in their 20s and early 30s were most likely to engage in these “just-in-case” job searches. The report concluded that “most employers have not placed enough emphasis on important retention strategies.”

There is also a relationship between job satisfaction and psychological withdrawal behaviors. They show up in such forms as daydreaming, cyber loafing by Internet surfing or personal electronic communications, excessive socializing, and even just giving the appearance of being busy when one is not. These withdrawal behaviors are indicators of work disengagement, something that Gallup researchers say as many as 71 percent of workers report feeling at times.⁴³

Organizational Citizenship Job satisfaction is also linked with organizational citizenship behaviors.⁴⁴ These are discretionary behaviors, sometimes called OCBs, that represent a willingness to “go beyond the call of duty” or “go the extra mile” in one's work.⁴⁵ A person who is a good organizational citizen does extra things that help others—interpersonal OCBs, or advance the performance of the organization as a whole—organizational OCBs.⁴⁶ You might observe interpersonal OCBs in a service worker who is extraordinarily courteous while taking care of an upset customer, or a team member who takes on extra tasks when a co-worker is ill or absent. Examples of organizational OCBs are co-workers who are always willing volunteers for special committee or task force assignments, and those whose voices are always positive when commenting publicly on their employer.

•Organizational citizenship behaviors are the extras people do to go the extra mile in their work

The flip-side of organizational citizenship shows up as counterproductive work behaviors.⁴⁷ Often associated with some form of job dissatisfaction, they purposely disrupt relationships, organizational culture, or performance in the workplace.⁴⁸ Counterproductive workplace behaviors cover a wide range of things from work avoidance, to physical and verbal aggression, to bad mouthing, to outright work sabotage and even theft.

• Counterproductive work behaviors are behaviors that intentionally disrupt relationships or performance at work.

At-Home Affect When OB scholars talk about “spillover” effects, they are often referring to how what happens to us at home can affect our work attitudes and behaviors, and how the same holds true as work experiences influence how we feel and behave at home. Research finds that people with higher daily job satisfaction show more positive affect after work.⁴⁹ In a study that measured spouse or significant other evaluations, more positive at-home affect scores were reported on days when workers experienced higher job satisfaction.⁵⁰ This issue of the job satisfaction and at-home affect link is proving especially significant as workers in today's high-tech and always-connected world struggle with work-life balance.

Linking Job Satisfaction and Job Performance

The importance of job satisfaction shows up in two decisions people make about their work—belonging and performing. The first is the decision to belong—that is, to join and remain a member of an organization. This decision links job satisfaction and withdrawal behaviors, both absenteeism and turnover. The second decision, the decision to perform, raises quite another set of issues. We all know that not everyone who belongs to an organization, whether it's a classroom or workplace or sports team or voluntary group, performs up to expectations. So, what is the relationship between job satisfaction and performance?⁵¹ A recent study, for example, finds that higher levels of job satisfaction are related to higher levels of customer ratings received by service workers.⁵² But can it be said that high job satisfaction causes high levels of customer service performance?

Three different positions have been advanced about causality in the satisfaction–performance relationship. The first is that job satisfaction causes performance; in other words, a happy worker is a productive worker. The second is that performance causes job satisfaction. The third is that job satisfaction and performance influence one another, and are mutually affected by other factors such as the availability of rewards. Perhaps you can make a case for one or more of these positions based on your work experiences.

Satisfaction Causes Performance If job satisfaction causes high levels of performance, the message to managers is clear. To increase employees' work performance, make them happy. But, research hasn't found a simple and direct link between individual job satisfaction at one point in time and later work performance. A sign once posted in a tavern near one of Ford's Michigan plants helps tell the story: “I spend 40 hours a week here, am I supposed to work too?” Even though some evidence exists for the satisfaction causes performance relationship among professional or higher-level employees, the best conclusion is that job satisfaction alone is not a consistent predictor of individual work performance.

Performance Causes Satisfaction If high levels of performance cause job satisfaction, the message to managers is quite different. Instead of focusing on job satisfaction as the precursor to performance, try to create high performance as a pathway to job satisfaction. It generally makes sense that people should feel good about their jobs when they perform well. And indeed, research does find a link between individual performance measured at one time and later job satisfaction.

Figure 3.5 shows this relationship using a model from the work of Edward E. Lawler and Lyman Porter. It suggests that performance leads to rewards that, in turn, lead to satisfaction.⁵³ Rewards are intervening variables in this model; when valued by the recipient, they link performance with later satisfaction. The model also includes a moderator variable—perceived equity of rewards. This indicates that performance leads to satisfaction only if rewards are perceived as fair and equitable. Although this model is a good starting point, and one that we will use again in discussing motivation and rewards in Chapter 6, we also know from experience that some people may perform well but still not like the jobs that they have to do.

Figure 3.5 Simplified Porter-Lawler model of the performance → satisfaction relationship.

Rewards Cause Both Satisfaction and Performance The final position in the job satisfaction–performance discussion suggests that the right rewards allocated in the right ways will positively influence both performance and satisfaction. These two outcomes also influence one another. A key issue in respect to the allocation of rewards is performance contingency. This means that the size of the reward varies in proportion to the level of performance.

Research generally finds that rewards influence satisfaction while performance-contingent rewards influence performance.⁵⁴ The prevailing management advice is to use performance-contingent rewards well in the attempt to create both. Although giving a low performer a small reward may lead to dissatisfaction at first, the expectation is that he or she will make efforts to improve performance in order to obtain higher rewards in the future.⁵⁵

3 study guide

Key Questions and Answers

What are emotions and moods?

• Affect is a generic term that covers a broad range of feelings that individuals experience as emotions and moods.
• Emotions are strong feelings directed at someone or something and that influence behavior, often with intensity and for short periods of time.
• Moods are generalized positive or negative states of mind that can be persistent influences on one's behavior.
• Emotional intelligence is the ability to detect and manage emotional cues and information. Four emotional intelligence skills or competencies are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.

How do emotions and moods influence behavior in organizations?

• Emotional contagion involves the spillover effects onto others of one's emotions and moods; in other words, emotions and moods can spread from person to person.
• Emotional labor is a situation where a person displays organizationally desired emotions while performing a job.
• Emotional dissonance is a discrepancy between true feelings and organizationally desired emotions; it is linked with deep acting to try to modify true inner feelings and with surface acting to hide one's true inner feelings.
• Affective Events Theory (AET) relates characteristics of the work environment, work events, and personal predispositions to positive or negative emotional reactions and job satisfaction.

What are attitudes and how do they influence behavior in organizations?

• An attitude is a predisposition to respond in a certain way to people and things.
• Attitudes have affective, cognitive, and behavioral components.
• Although attitudes predispose individuals toward certain behaviors, they do not guarantee that such behaviors will take place.
• Individuals desire consistency between their attitudes and their behaviors, and cognitive dissonance occurs when a person's attitude and behavior are inconsistent.
• Job satisfaction is an attitude toward one's job, co-workers, and workplace.
• Job involvement is a positive attitude that shows up in the extent to which an individual is dedicated to a job.
• Organizational commitment is a positive attitude that shows up in the loyalty of an individual to the organization.

What is job satisfaction and why is it important?

• Five components of job satisfaction are the work itself, quality of supervision, relationships with co-workers, promotion opportunities, and pay.
• Job satisfaction influences physical withdrawal behaviors of absenteeism, turnover, as well as psychological withdrawal behaviors like day dreaming and cyber loafing.
• Job satisfaction is linked with organizational citizenship behaviors that are both interpersonal—such as doing extra work for a sick teammate—and organizational—such as always speaking positively about the organization.
• A lack of job satisfaction may be reflected in counterproductive work behaviors such as purposely performing with low quality, avoiding work, acting violently at work, or even engaging in workplace theft.
• Three possibilities in the job satisfaction and performance relationship are that satisfaction causes performance, performance causes satisfaction, and rewards cause both performance and satisfaction.

Terms to Know

Affect (p. 54)

Attitude (p. 61)

Cognitive dissonance (p. 62)

Counterproductive work behaviors (p. 67)

Display rules (p. 59)

Emotion and mood contagion (p. 58)

Emotional dissonance (p. 58)

Emotional intelligence (p. 54)

Emotional labor (p. 58)

Emotions (p. 54)

Employee engagement (p. 63)

Job involvement (p. 62)

Job satisfaction (p. 62)

Moods (p. 56)

Organizational citizenship behaviors (p. 67)

Organizational commitment (p. 63)

Relationship management (p. 55)

Self-awareness (p. 55)

Self-conscious emotions (p. 56)

Self-management (p. 55)

Social awareness (p. 55)

Social emotions (p. 56)

Self-Test 3

Multiple Choice

1. A/an _____ is a rather intense but short-lived feeling about a person or a situation, while a/an _____ is a more generalized positive or negative state of mind. (a) stressor, satisfier (b) affect, attitude (c) spillover, moderator (d) emotion, mood
2. When someone is feeling anger about something a co-worker did, she is experiencing a/an _____, but when just “having a bad day overall” she is experiencing a/an _____. (a) mood, emotion (b) emotion, mood (c) affect, effect (d) dissonance, consonance
3. Emotions and moods as personal affects are known to influence _____. (a) attitudes (b) ability (c) aptitude (d) intelligence
4. If a person shows empathy and understanding of the emotions of others and uses this to better relate to them, she is displaying the emotional intelligence competency of _____. (a) self-awareness (b) emotional contagion (c) relationship management (d) social awareness
5. The _____ component of an attitude indicates a person's belief about something, while the _____ component indicates positive or negative feeling about it. (a) cognitive, affective (b) emotional, affective (c) cognitive, mood (d) behavioral, mood
6. _____ describes the discomfort someone feels when his or her behavior is inconsistent with an expressed attitude. (a) Alienation (b) Cognitive dissonance (c) Job dissatisfaction (d) Person–job imbalance
7. Affective Events Theory shows how one's emotional reactions to work events, environment, and personal predispositions can influence _____. (a) job satisfaction and performance (b) emotional labor (c) emotional intelligence (d) emotional contagion
8. The tendency of people at work to display feelings consistent with the moods of their co-workers and bosses, is known as _____. (a) emotional dissonance (b) emotional labor (c) mood contagion (d) mood stability
9. When an airline flight attendant displays organizationally desired emotions when interacting with passengers, this is an example of _____. (a) emotional labor (b) emotional contagion (c) job commitment (d) negative affect
10. A person who always volunteers for extra work or helps someone else with their work is said to be high in _____. (a) emotional labor (b) affect (c) emotional intelligence (d) organizational commitment
11. The main difference between job involvement and _____ is that the former shows a positive attitude toward the job and the latter shows a positive attitude toward the organization. (a) organizational commitment (b) employee engagement (c) job satisfaction (d) cognitive dissonance
12. Job satisfaction is known to be a good predictor of _____. (a) deep acting (b) emotional intelligence (c) cognitive dissonance (d) absenteeism
13. The best conclusion about job satisfaction in today's workforce is probably that _____. (a) it isn't an important issue (b) the only real concern is pay (c) most people are not satisfied with their jobs most of the time (d) trends show declining job satisfaction
14. Which statement about the job satisfaction–job performance relationship is most consistent with research? (a) A happy worker will be productive. (b) A productive worker will be happy. (c) A well rewarded productive worker will be happy. (d) a poorly rewarded productive worker will be happy.
15. What does “performance-contingent” refer to when rewards are discussed as possible influences on satisfaction and performance? (a) rewards are highly valued (b) rewards are frequent (c) rewards are in proportion to performance (d) rewards are based only on seniority

Short Response

• 16. What are the major differences between emotions and moods as personal affects?
• 17. Describe and give examples of the three components of an attitude.
• 18. List five facets of job satisfaction and briefly discuss their importance.
• 19. Why is cognitive dissonance an important concept for managers to understand?

Applications Essay

• 20. Your boss has a sign posted in her office. It says—“A satisfied worker is a high-performing worker.” In a half-joking and half-serious way she points to it and says, “You are fresh out of college as a business and management major, am I right or wrong?” What is your response?

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