Organizational Behavior - MGT502 VU

Lesson 6
UNDERSTANDING THE VALUES
Overview

Work values, attitudes, and moods have important effects on organizational behavior. Work values (a
worker’s personal convictions about the outcomes one should expect from work and how one should behave
at work) are an important determinant of on-the-job behavior. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment
are two key work attitudes with important implications for understanding and managing behaviors such as
organizational citizenship behavior, absenteeism, and turnover. Work moods are also important determinants
of behavior in organizations. This chapter makes the following points:

Work values are people’s personal convictions about what one should expect to obtain from working
and how one should behave at work. Work attitudes, more specific and less long lasting that values,
are collections of feelings, beliefs, and thoughts that people have about how to behave in their current
jobs and organizations. Work moods, more transitory than both values and attitudes, are people’s
feelings at the time they actually perform their jobs. Work values, attitudes, and moods all have the
potential to influence each other.

There are two types of work values. Intrinsic work values are values related to the work itself, such as
doing something interesting and challenging or having a sense of accomplishment. Extrinsic work
values are values related to the consequences of work, such as having family security or status in the
community.

Two important work attitudes are job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Job satisfaction is
the collection of feelings and beliefs that people have about their organization as a whole. Work
attitudes have three components: an affective component (how a person feels about a job), a cognitive
component (what a person thinks about a job), and a behavioral component (what a person thinks
about how to behave on the job).

People experience many different moods at work. These moods can be categorized generally as
positive or negative. When workers are in positive moods, they feel exited, enthusiastic, active,
strong, peppy, or elated. When workers are in negative moods, they feel distressed, fearful, scornful,
hostile, jittery, or nervous. Workers also experience less intense moods at work, such as feeling sleepy
or calm. Work moods are determined by both personality and situation and have the potential to
influence organizational behaviors ranging from absence to being helpful to customers and coworkers
to creativity to leadership.

Job satisfaction is one of the most important and well-researched attitudes in organizational behavior.
Job satisfaction is determined by personality, values, the work situation, and social influence. Facet,
discrepancy, and steady-state models of job satisfaction are useful for understanding and managing
this important attitude.

Job satisfaction is not strongly related to job performance because workers are often not free to vary
their levels of job performance and because sometimes job satisfaction is not relevant to job
performance. Job satisfaction has a weak negative relationship to absenteeism. Job satisfaction
influences turnover; workers who are satisfied with their jobs are less likely to quit. Furthermore,
workers who are satisfied with their jobs are more likely to perform voluntary behaviors, known as
organizational citizenship behavior that contributes to organizational effectiveness. Job satisfaction
also has a positive effect on worker well-being.

Organizational commitment is the collection of feelings and beliefs that people have about their
organization as a whole. Affective commitment exists when workers are happy to be members of an
organization and believe in it. Continuance commitment exists when workers are committed to the

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organization because it is too costly for them to leave. Affective commitment has more positive
consequences for organizations and their members than continuance commitment. Affective
commitment is more likely when organizations are socially responsible and demonstrate that they are
committed to workers. Workers with high levels of affective commitment are less likely to quit and
may be more likely to perform organizational citizenship behavior.

Values

¾ Values are broad preferences concerning appropriate courses of action or outcomes.

¾ Values influence behavior and attitudes.

Basic convictions: “A specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable
to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence.”
– They contain a judgmental element in that they carry the individual’s idea of what is right,
good, or desirable.
– Value System -- a hierarchy based on a ranking of an individual’s values in terms of their
intensity.

Sources of values
– Parents.
– Friends.
– Teachers.
– Role models.
– External reference groups.

Types of values
– Terminal values.
• Preferences concerning the ends to be achieved.
– Instrumental values.
• Preferences for the means to be used in achieving desired ends.

Work Values
– Achievement (career advancement)
– Concern for others (compassionate behavior)
– Honesty (provision of accurate information)
– Fairness (impartiality)

The thoughts and feelings people have about work range from being broad and long-lasting attitudes about the
nature of work in general, called work values, to more specific thoughts and feelings about a current job or
organization, called work attitudes, to more moment-to-moment experiences, called work moods.

Work values are a worker’s personal convictions about expected outcomes work and behavior at work.
Outcomes might include a comfortable existence with family security, a sense of accomplishment and self-
respect, or social recognition, and an exciting lifestyle. Appropriate work behaviors at work include being
ambitious, imaginative, obedient, self-controlled, and respectful. Work values guide ethical behavior at
work—honesty, trustworthiness, and helpfulness.

Work moods, how people feel when they perform their jobs, are more transitory than values and attitudes,
changing from day to day, hour to hour, or minute to minute. Moods are categorized as either positive or
negative. Positive moods include feeling excited, enthusiastic, active, strong, peppy, or elated. Negative moods
include feeling distressed, fearful, scornful, hostile, jittery, or nervous. Moods can also be less intense. A
worker might simply feel drowsy, sluggish, calm, placid, and relaxed.

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Organizational Behavior - MGT502 VU

Experiencing different moods depends on a worker’s personality and the situation. Workers high on the trait
of positive affectivity experience positive moods at work, whereas those high on the trait of negative affectivity
experience negative moods. Both major and minor situational factors, such as receiving a promotion or
coming to work in bad weather, can influence a worker’s mood.

Mood has importance consequences for organizational behavior. Research suggests that positive moods
promote creativity, result in helpfulness to coworkers and customers, and increase the performance of
subordinates. Negative moods result in more accurate judgments (e.g., a performance appraisal). Both positive
and negative moods influence decision making. Because managers can do many things to promote positive
moods, work moods are receiving additional attention from researchers.

Power distance Values Across Cultures

• The degree to which people in a
country accept that power in Power Distance
institutions and organizations is
distributed unequally.
Individualism or Collectivism
1. Individualism versus collectivism:
• Individualism is the degree to Quantity or Quality of Life
which people in a country prefer
to act as individuals rather than as Uncertainty Avoidance
members of groups.
• Collectivism equals low Long-Term or Short-Term
individualism.

2. Quantity of life versus quality of life:

• Quantity of life is the degree to which values such as assertiveness, the acquisition of
money and material goods, and competition prevail.
• Quality of life is the degree to which people value relationships and show sensitivity and
concern for the welfare of others.

3. Uncertainty avoidance:
• The degree to which people in a country prefer structured over unstructured situations.
4. Long-term versus short-term orientation:
• Long-term orientations look to the future and value thrift and persistence.
• Short-term orientation values the past and present and emphasizes respect for tradition and
fulfilling social obligations.

GLOBE Framework for Assessing •Assertiveness

•Assertiveness
Cultures: •Future
•Future Orientation
Orientation
The GLOBE •Gender
•Gender differentiation
differentiation
• Assertiveness: The extent to
which a society encourages Framework •Uncertainty
•Uncertainty avoidance
avoidance
people to be tough, for
•Power
•Power distance
distance
confrontational, assertive, Assessing
and competitive versus Cultures •Individual/collectivism
•Individual/collectivism
modest and tender •In-group
•In-group collectivism
collectivism
• Future Orientation: The
•Power
•Power orientation
orientation
extent to which a society
encourages and rewards •Humane
•Humane orientation
orientation
future-oriented behaviors

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Organizational Behavior - MGT502 VU

such as planning, investing

in the future and delaying
gratification
• Gender differentiation: The extent to which a society maximized gender role differences
• Uncertainly avoidance: Society’s reliance on social norms and procedures to alleviate the
unpredictability of future events
• Power distance: The degree to which members of a society expect power to be unequally
shared
• Individualism/Collectivism: The degree to which individuals are encouraged by societal
institutions to be integrated into groups within organizations and society
• In-group collectivism: The extent to which society’s members take pride in membership in
small groups such as their families and circles of close friends, and the organizations
where they are employed
• Performance orientation: The degree to which society encourages and rewards group
members for performance improvement and excellence
• Humane orientation: The degree to which a society encourages and rewards individuals for
being fair, altruistic, generous, caring, and kind to others

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