management process & organization behavior notes 5

7/28/2019 Management Process & Organization Behavior Notes 5

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Value, Ethics And Job Satisfaction Unit 5

Sikkim Manipal University 52

Unit 5 Value, Ethics And Job Satisfaction

Structure

5.1 Introduction

Objectives

5.2 Types of Values

Self Assessment Questions 1

5.3 Contemporary Work Cohort


5.4 National culture and values


5.5 Attitudes


5.6 Summary

Terminal Questions

Answer to SAQs and TQs

5.1 IntroductionValues represent basic convictions that 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 (Rokeach, 1973). When the values are ranked in terms of their intensity, i.e., when the

value are prioritized in terms of their intensity, it is called value system. Types of values include,

ethical/moral values, doctrinal/ideological (political, religious) values, social values, and aesthetic

values.

Values have both content and intensity attributes.

1. The content attribute signifies that a mode of conduct or end-state of existence is important.

2. The intensity attribute specifies how important it is.

3. Ranking an individuals values in terms of their intensity equals that persons value system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aestheticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_(sociology)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctrinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moralityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics


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Values build the foundation for the understanding of attitudes and motivation of an individual, since,

value has a great impact on perceptions. Values shape relationships, behaviors, and choices. The

more positive our values, more positive are peoples actions. A significant portion of the values an

individual holds is established in the early yearsfrom parents, teachers, friends, and others.

Learning objectives:

The learning objectives of this unit are as follows:

1. Types of Values2. National culture and values3. Attitudes

5.2 Types Of Values

Rokeach, in his Value Survey (Rokeach Value Survey- RVS), proposed two sets of values. They are

:Terminal values and Instrumental values. Each set contains 18 individual value items. Terminal

values refer to desirable end-states of existence, the goals that a person would like to achieve during

his/her lifetime. Instrumental values refer to preferable modes of behavior, or means of achieving the

terminal values. This survey proposed that people in the same occupations or categories tend to hold

similar values. The terminal values and instrumental values proposed by RVS are listed below:

Terminal values

1. Equality (brotherhood and equal opportunity for all)

2. A comfortable life (a prosperous life)

3. An Exciting Life (a stimulating, active life)

4. Family Security (taking care of loved ones)

5. Freedom (independence and free choice)

6. Health (physical and mental well-being)

7. Inner Harmony (freedom from inner conflict)

8. Mature Love (sexual and spiritual intimacy)

9. National Security (protection from attack)

10. Pleasure (an enjoyable, leisurely life)

11. Salvation (saved eternal life)

12. Self-Respect (self-esteem)


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13. A Sense of Accomplishment (a lasting contribution)

14. Social Recognition (respect and admiration)

15. True Friendship (close companionship)

16. Wisdom (a mature understanding of life)

17. A World at Peace (a world free of war and conflict)

18. A World of Beauty (beauty of nature and the arts)

Instrumental values

1. Ambitious (hardworking and aspiring)

2. Broad-minded (open-minded)

3. Capable (competent effective)

4. Clean (neat and tidy)

5. Courageous (standing up for your beliefs)

6. Forgiving (willing to pardon others)

7. Helpful (working for the welfare of others)

8. Honest (sincere and truthful)

9. Imaginative (daring and creative)

10. Independent (self-reliant self-sufficient)

11. Intellectual (intelligent and reflective)

12. Logical (consistent rational)

13. Loving (affectionate and tender)

14. Loyal (faithful to friends or the group)

15. Obedient (dutiful respectful)

16. Polite (courteous and well-mannered)

17. Responsible (dependable and reliable)

18. Self-controlled (restrained self-disciplined)


1. ___________ values refer to desirable end-states of existence, the goals that a person would like

to achieve during his/her lifetime.

2. Social Recognition is ____________ value


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3. ___________ values refer to preferable modes of behavior, or means of achieving the terminal

values

5.3 Contemporary Work Cohort

Robbins (2003) has proposed Contemporary Work Cohort, in which the unique value of different

cohorts is that the U.S. workforce has been segmented by the era they entered the workforce.

Individuals values differ, but tend to reflect the societal values of the period in which they grew up.

The cohorts and the respective values have been listed below:

1. VeteransWorkers who entered the workforce from the early 1940s through the early 1960s.

They exhibited the following value orientations:

They were influenced by the Great Depression and World War II

1. Believed in hard work

2. Tended to be loyal to their employer

3. Terminal values: Comfortable life and family security

2. BoomersEmployees who entered the workforce during the 1960s through the mid-1980s

belonged to this category. Their value orientations were:

1. Influenced heavily by John F. Kennedy, the civil rights and feminist movements, the Beatles, theVietnam War, and baby-boom competition

2. Distrusted authority, but gave a high emphasis on achievement and material success

3. Organizations who employed them were vehicles for their careers

4. Terminal values: sense of accomplishment and social recognition

3. Xersbegan to enter the workforce from the mid-1980s. They cherished the following values:

1. Shaped by globalization, two-career parents, MTV, AIDS, and computers

2. Value flexibility, life options, and achievement of job satisfaction

3. Family and relationships were important and enjoyed team-oriented work

4. Money was important, but would trade off for increased leisure time


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5. Less willing to make personal sacrifices for employers than previous generations

Terminal values: true friendship, happiness, and pleasure

4. Nextersmost recent entrants into the workforce.

1. Grew up in prosperous times, have high expectation, believe in themselves, and confident in their

ability to succeed

2. Never-ending search for ideal job see nothing wrong with job-hopping

3. Seek financial success

4. Enjoy team work, but are highly self-reliant

5. Terminal values: freedom and comfortable life


1. Workers who entered the workforce from the early 1940s through the early 1960s, are called

________________.

2. _______________ began to enter the workforce from the mid-1980s.

5.4 National Culture And Values

Following are the most important research with regard to establishing relationship between national

culture and values.

Hofstedes research

Hofstede (1980,1991), in order to find the common dimensions of culture across the countries,

gathered data from surveys with 116,000 respondents working from IBM from more than 70 countries

around the world. The underlying concept of the four dimensions is described below (Hofsede 1991):

1. Power distance: This dimension measures the 'social equality' i.e. to what extent a society

accepts unequal distribution of power in families, institutions and organizations. Inequality of

power in organizations is generally manifested in hierarchical superior-subordinate relationships.


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2. Uncertainty avoidance: This is a representation of a society's tolerance for uncertain situations.

It measures to what extent a society manages those situations by providing specific and

conventional rules, regulations and norms by rejecting aberrant ideas or behavior by accepting

the possibility of absolute truths and the accomplishments of expertise. Countries, which score

high in uncertainty avoidance, discourage risk-taking behavior and innovation.

3. Individualism vs. collectivism: Individualism gauges to what extent individuals in a country

consider themselves as distinct entities rather than as members of cohesive groups. Collectivism,

on the other hand, emphasizes on 'social ties or bonds' between individuals. Individualistic

society considers self-interest as more important than the group goal.

4. Masculinity vs. femininity: This dimension refers to what extent dominant values in a society

emphasizes masculine social values like a work ethic expressed in terms of money, achievement

and recognition as opposed to feminine social role which show more concern for people and

quality of life.

Hofstede and Bond (1988) have identified a fifth dimension (based on Confucian dynamism), called

long-term orientation, which measures employees devotion to the work ethic and their respect for

tradition. It was found that Asian countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan are

extremely strong in work ethic and commitment to traditional Confucian values.

Hofstede (1991) further proposed that each person carries around several layers of cultural

programming. It starts when a child learns basic values: what is right and wrong, good and bad,

logical and illogical, beautiful and ugly. Culture is about your fundamental assumptions of what it is to

be a person and how you should interact with other persons in your group and with outsiders. The

first level of culture is the deepest, the most difficult to change and will vary according to the culture

in which we grow up. Other layers of culture are learned or programmed in the course of education,

through professional or craft training and in organization life. Some of the aspects of culture learned

later have to do with conventions and ethics in your profession. These layers are more of ways of

doing things, or practices as opposed to fundamental assumptions about how things are.


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GLOBE research

GLOBE project integrates the above mentioned cultural attributes and variables with managerial

behavior in organizations. Following are some of the questions asked in this project to prove that

leadership and organizational processes were directly influenced by cultural variables:

1. Are leader behaviors, attributes and organizational practices universally accepted and effective

across cultures?

2. Are they influenced by societal and organizational cultures?

3. What is the effect of violating cultural norms that are relevant to leadership and organizational

practices?

4. Can the universal and culture-specific aspects of leadership behaviour and organizationalpractice be explained with the help of a theory accounting for systematic differences across

cultures?

From the above, GLOBE project identified nine cultural dimensions (House, Javidan, Hanges and

Dorfman, 2002: 3-10)

1. Uncertainty- avoidance: GLOBE project defined this dimension as the extent to which a society

or an organization tries to avoid uncertainty by depending heavily on prevalent norms, rituals andbureaucratic practices.

2. Power distance: it is the degree to which power is unequally shared in a society or an

organization.

3. Collectivism-I i.e. societal collectivism: it is the degree to which society and organization

encourages, and recognizes collective performance.

4. Collectivism-II- In-group collectivism: it is the degree to which individuals take pride, loyalty and

cohesiveness in their organizations and families.

5. Gender egalitarianism: GLOBE has defined this as an extent to which a society or an

organization minimizes gender differences and discrimination.

6. Assertiveness: it is the degree to which individuals, both in organizational and social context

are, assertive and confrontational.


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7. Future orientation: it is the degree to which individuals are encouraged in long- term future

orientated behaviors such as planning, investing, etc.

8. Performance orientation: this dimension encourages and rewards group members for

performance improvement.

9. Humane orientation: it is the degree to which organizations or society encourage or reward for

being fair, altruistic, friendly, generous and caring.

Work behavior across cultures

In every culture, there are different sets of attitudes and values which affect behavior. Similarly, every

individual has a set of attitudes and beliefs filters through which he/she views management

situations within organizational context. Managerial beliefs, attitudes and values can affect

organizations positively or negatively. Managers portray trust and respect in their employees in

different ways in different cultures. This is a function of their own cultural backgrounds. For example,

managers from specific cultures tend to focus only on the behavior that takes place at work, in

contrast to managers from diffused cultures who focus on wider range of behavior including

employees private and professional lives. Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1998:86) have

conducted a survey to find out whether the employees believe their companies should provide

housing to the employees. It was found out that most managers from diffused cultures believed that

company should provide such facility (former Yugoslavia 89%, Hungary 83%, China 82%, Russia

78%), whereas less than 20% managers from specific cultures such as UK, Australia, Denmark,

France, etc., agreed on the same.

Laurent (1983: 75-96), as a result of his survey with managers from nine Western European

countries, U.S., three Asian countries found distinctly different patterns for managers in common

work situations.

Task and relationship: in response to the statement which states that the main reason for a

hierarchical structure was to communicate the authority- relationship, most U.S. managers disagreed

whereas, most Asian , Latin American managers strongly agreed. It was quite evident that U.S

managers, having an extremely task- oriented culture, believed more in flatter organizational

structure to become more effective. On the other hand, the second set of managers were from more


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relationship- oriented cultures where the concept of authority is more important. Similarly, in

response to the statement which says that in order to have efficient work relationship it is often

necessary to bypass the hierarchical line, differences were found across cultures. Managers from

Sweden (task- oriented culture) projected least problem with bypassing since getting the job done is

more important than expressing allegiance to their bosses. In contrast, Italian managers, coming

from a relationship-oriented culture, considered bypassing the authority/boss as an act of in-

subordination. The above- mentioned example is inevitably a caution signal to the universal

management approach, irrespective of culture.

Managers as experts or problem-solvers: in the same study, Laurent asked managers from

various cultures whether it was important for them to have at hand, precise answers to most

questions their subordinates might raise about their work. French managers believed that they

should give precise answers to the questions in order to maintain their credibility and retain the

subordinates sense of security. On the contrary, U.S. managers believed that a managers role

should be to act as a mentor who would facilitate the employees to solve the problem. They also

believe that providing direct answers to a problem actually discourages subordinates initiative and

creativity and ultimately hampers performance.


1. Power distance measures the _________________.

2. ______________ gauges to what extent individuals in a country consider themselves as distinct

entities rather than as members of cohesive groups.

3. Hofstede and Bond (1988) have identified a fifth dimension called __________________

5.5 Attitudes

Attitudes are evaluative statements that are either favorable or unfavorable concerning objects,

people, or events. Attitudes are not the same as values, but the two are interrelated. There are three

components of an attitude:

1. Cognition

2. Affect

3. Behavior


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Cognition It is the mental process involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension, including

thinking, knowing, remembering, judging, and problem solving.

Affect - is the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude.

Behavior - The behavioral component of an attitude refers to an intention to behave in a certain way

toward someone or something.

Types of Attitudes

Most of the research in OB has been concerned with three attitudes: job satisfaction, job

involvement, and organizational commitment.

1. Job satisfaction

1. It is defined as an individuals general attitude toward his/her job. A high level of job

satisfaction equals positive attitudes toward the job and vice-a-versa.

2. Job involvement

1. It is the measure of the degree to which a person identifies psychologically with his/her job and

considers his/her perceived performance level important to self-worth.

3. Organizational commitment

1.It is defined as a state in which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its

goals, and wishes to maintain membership in the organization. Research evidence has shown

a negative relationship between organizational commitment and both absenteeism as well as

turnover. An individuals level of organizational commitment is a better indicator of turnover than

the far more frequently used job satisfaction predictor, because, it is a more global and

enduring response to the organization as a whole than is job satisfaction.

Attitudes and Consistency

When there is an inconsistency, forces are initiated to return the individual to an equilibrium state

where attitudes and behavior are again consistent, by altering either the attitudes or the behavior, or

by developing a rationalization for the discrepancy.


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Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Festinger (1957), while linking attitudes with behavior, argued that, any form of inconsistency is

uncomfortable and individuals will attempt to reduce the dissonance. The desire to reduce

dissonance would be determined by the importance of the elements creating the dissonance, the

degree of influence the individual believes he/she has over the elements and the rewards that may

be involved in dissonance

Importance: If the elements creating the dissonance are relatively unimportant, the pressure to

correct this imbalance will be low.

Influence: If the dissonance is perceived as an uncontrollable result, they are less likely to be

receptive to attitude change. Though dissonance exists, it is possible to rationalize and justify it.

Rewards: The inherent tension in high dissonance tends to be reduced with high rewards.

However, it is not possible for any individual to completely avoid dissonance. Due to moderating

factors, individuals will not necessarily move to reduce dissonanceor consistency.

Contemporary research has shown that attitudes can significantly predict future behavior and has

confirmed Festingers original view that relationship can be enhanced by taking moderating variables

into account( Robbins, 2003). The most powerful moderators are:

1. Importance

2. Specificity

3. Accessibility

4. Social pressures

5. Direct experience

1. Importance: refers to fundamental values, self-interest, or identification with individuals or groupsthat a person values.

2. Specificity: The more specific the attitude and the more specific the behavior, the stronger the

link between the two.


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3. Accessibility: Attitudes that are easily remembered are more likely to predict behavior than

attitudes that are not accessible in memory.

4. Social pressures: Discrepancies between attitudes and behavior are more likely to occur where

social pressures to behave in certain ways hold exceptional power.

Direct experience: The attitude-behavior relationship is likely to be much stronger if an attitude

refers to an individuals direct personal experience.

Self-perception theory

Self-perception theory (Bem, 1967) proposes that attitudes are used to make sense out of an action

that has already occurred rather than devices that precede and guide action. In contrast to the

cognitive dissonance theory, attitudes are just casual verbal statements and they tend to create

plausible answers for what has already occurred.

While the traditional attitude-behavior relationship is generally positive, the behavior-attitude

relationship is stronger especially when attitudes are unclear and ambiguous or little thought has

been given to it earlier.

Attitude Surveys

1. The most popular method for getting information about employee attitudes is through attitude

surveys. It provides with valuable feedback about the way employees perceive their working

conditions. Managers present the employee with set statements or questions to obtain specific

information. What may be viewed by management as fair policies and practices, and as objective,

may be seen as inequitable by employees in general, or by certain groups of employees, and

may result in negative attitudes about the job and the organization. The use of regular attitude

surveys can alert management to potential problems and employees intentions well in time, so

that action can be taken to prevent repercussions (Robbins, 2003).

Measuring Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is the sense of fulfillment and pride felt by people who enjoy their work and do it well.

For an organization, satisfied work force ensures commitment to high quality performance and


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increased productivity Job satisfaction helps organizations to reduce complaints and grievances,

absenteeism, turnover, and termination. Job satisfaction is also linked to a more healthy work force

and has been found to be a good indicator of longevity. And although only little correlation has been

found between job satisfaction and productivity, it has also been found that satisfying or delighting

employees is a prerequisite to satisfying or delighting customers, thus protecting the "bottom line

(Brown, 1996).

Creating Job Satisfaction

Probably the most important point to bear in mind when considering job satisfaction is that there are

many factors that affect job satisfaction and that what makes workers happy with their jobs varies

from one worker to another and from day to day. Organizations aspiring to create a workenvironment that enhances job satisfaction need to incorporate the following:

1. Flexible work arrangements

2. Task variety and significance

3. Job security

4. A supportive work environment

5. Competitive salary

6. Career opportunities

Job enrichment

It is a deliberate upgrading of responsibility, scope, and challenge in the work itself. Job enrichment

usually includes increased responsibility, recognition, and opportunities for growth, learning, and

achievement. Large companies that have used job-enrichment programs to increase employee

motivation and job satisfaction include, AT&T, IBM, and General Motors (Daft, 1997).

Workers role in job satisfaction

A worker should also take some responsibility for his or her job satisfaction. Everett (1995) proposed

the following questions which employees ask themselves in regard to job satisfaction at the

workplace:
http://www.answers.com/topic/job-enrichmenthttp://www.answers.com/topic/aspirehttp://www.answers.com/topic/prerequisitehttp://www.answers.com/topic/longevity


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1. When have I come closest to expressing my full potential in a work situation?

2. What did it look like?

3.What aspects of the workplace were most supportive?

4. What aspects of the work itself were most satisfying?

5. What did I learn from that experience that could be applied to the present situation?

The following suggestions can help a worker find personal job satisfaction:

1. Seek opportunities to demonstrate skills and talents.

2. Develop communication skills.

3. Acquire job related skills and try to implement them.

4. Demonstrate creativity and initiative.

5. Improve team building and leadership skill.

6. Learn to de-stress.

The ways of expressing job dissatisfaction

There are a number of ways in which employees can express dissatisfaction (Robbins, 2003). They

are:

1. Exit

2. Voice

3. Loyalty

4. Neglect

1. Exit: Behavior directed toward leaving the organization, actions like looking for a new position as

well as resigning.

2. Voice: Actively and constructively attempting to improve conditions, including suggesting

improvements, discussing problems with superiors, and some forms of union activity.
http://www.answers.com/topic/workplace


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3. Loyalty: Passively, but optimistically waiting for conditions to improve, including standing up for

the organization in the face of external criticism/ crisis, and reposing trust in the organization and

its management to take the right decisions and set things in order.

4. Neglect: Passively allowing conditions to worsen, including chronic absenteeism or lateness,

reduced effort, and increased error rate


1. There are ____________ components of an attitude

2. Festinger has proposed _________________________ theory.

3. ________________ theory proposes that attitudes are used to make sense out of an action that

has already occurred rather than devices that precede and guide action.

5.6 Summary

Values represent basic convictions that 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. Types of values include, ethical/moral values, doctrinal/ideological (political, religious)

values, social values, and aesthetic values. Values build the foundation for the understanding of

attitudes and motivation of an individual, since, value has a great impact on perceptions. Values

shape relationships, behaviors, and choices. The more positive our values, more positive are

peoples actions. A significant portion of the values an individual holds is established in the early

years from parents, teachers, friends, and others. Rokeach, in his Value Survey (Rokeach Value

Survey- RVS), proposed two sets of values. They are :Terminal values and Instrumental values.

Each set contains 18 individual value items. Terminal values refer to desirable end-states of

existence, the goals that a person would like to achieve during his/her lifetime. Instrumental values

refer to preferable modes of behavior, or means of achieving the terminal values. Hofstede proposed

four dimensions of national culture: Power distance (this dimension measures the 'social equality'),

Uncertainty avoidance (this is a representation of a society's tolerance for uncertain situations),

Individualism vs. collectivism (individualism gauges to what extent individuals in a country consider

themselves as distinct entities rather than as members of cohesive groups and collectivism

emphasizes on 'social ties or bonds' between individuals) and Masculinity vs. femininity (this

dimension refers to what extent dominant values in a society emphasizes masculine social values
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aestheticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_(sociology)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctrinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moralityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics


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like a work ethic expressed in terms of money, achievement and recognition as opposed to feminine

social role which show more concern for people and quality of life). Attitudes are evaluative

statements that are either favorable or unfavorable concerning objects, people, or events. Attitudes

are not the same as values, but the two are interrelated. There are three components of an attitude:

Cognition (the mental process involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension), Affect (the

emotional or feeling segment of an attitude) and Behavior (an intention to behave in a certain way

toward someone or something). Festinger (1957), while linking attitudes with behavior, argued that,

any form of inconsistency is uncomfortable and individuals will attempt to reduce the dissonance.

The desire to reduce dissonance would be determined by the importance of the elements creating

the dissonance, the degree of influence the individual believes he/she has over the elements and the

rewards that may be involved in dissonance. Self-perception theory (Bem, 1967) proposes that

attitudes are used to make sense out of an action that has already occurred rather than devices that

precede and guide action. In contrast to the cognitive dissonance theory, attitudes are just casual

verbal statements and they tend to create plausible answers for what has already occurred.

Terminal Questions

1. What is Rokeach Value Survey- RVS? Explain the values described in this survey.

2. Explain Hofstedes research.

3. Describe Laurents findings .

4. Explain Cognitive Dissonance Theory and self- perception theory.

Answers to Self Assessment Questions


1. Terminal

2. Terminal

3. Instrumental


1. Veterans

2. Xers


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1. Social equality

2. Individualism

3. Long-term orientation


1. Three

2. Cognitive Dissonance

3. Self-perception

Answer to Terminal Questions

1. Refer section 5.2




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