MANAGING EMPLOYEE

ATTITUDES AND WELL-BEING

Emotions
Physiological, behavioral, and psychological episodes experienced toward an object, person, or
event that create a state of readiness.

Emotions in the Workplace

Emotions have a profound effect on almost everything we do in the workplace. By ignoring the
role of emotions, we have limited our ability to understand human behavior in the workplace.
Today experts in management, marketing, economics, and many other social sciences are
catching up by making emotions a key part of their research and theories. So what are
emotions? Emotions are physiological, behavioral, and psychological episodes experienced
toward an object, person, or event that create a state of readiness. They are brief e vents that
typically subside or occur in waves lasting a few minutes. Emotions are directed toward
someone or something.

EMOTIONS, ATTITUDES, AND BEHAVIOR

Emotions influence our thoughts and behavior; but to understand how w this works; we also
need to know about attitudes. Attitudes are clusters of beliefs, assessed feelings, and
behavioral intentions toward a person, object, or event.
Attitudes include three components: beliefs, feelings, and behavioral intentions.

Beliefs: These are established perceptions about the attitude objectwhat you believe
to be true. For example, you might believe that mergers reduce job security for
employees in the merged firms. Or you might believe that mergers increase the
companys competitiveness in this era of globalization. These beliefs are perceived facts
that you acquire from past experience and other forms of learning.
Feelings: Feelings represent your positive or negative evaluations of the attitude object.
Some people think mergers are good; others think they are bad. Your like or dislike of
mergers represents your assessed feelings toward the attitude object.
Behavioral intentions: These represent your motivation to engage in a particular
behavior with respect to the attitude object. You might plan to quit rather than stay
with the company during the merger. Alternatively, you might intend to e-mail the
company CEO to say that this merger was a good decision.

Model of Emotions,
Attitudes, and Behavior

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
A persons actions sometimes influence his or her attitudes when they are inconsistent with
each other. This inconsistency potentially creates an uncomfortable tension, called cognitive
dissonance, that motivates people to change their attitudes so they are more consistent with
the behavior. Everyone experiences some degree of cognitive dissonance from time to time.

Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction, a persons evaluation of his or her job and work context, is probably the most
studied attitude in management. It is an appraisal of the perceived job characteristics, work
environment, and emotional experiences at work. Satisfied employees have a favorable
evaluation of their job based on their observations and emotional experiences. Job satisfaction
is really a collection of attitudes about different aspects of the job and work context. You might
like your coworkers but be less satisfied with your workload, for instance.

JOB SATISFACTION AND WORK BEHAVIOR

A useful template to organize and understand the consequences of job dissatisfaction is the
exitvoiceloyaltyneglect (EVLN) model. As the name suggests, the EVLN model identifies
four ways in which employees respond to dissatisfaction:
Exit refers to leaving the organization, transferring to another work unit, or at least trying to
make these exits. Employee turnover is a well-established outcome of job dissatisfaction,
particularly for employees with better job opportunities elsewhere.
When employees believe their managers treat them unfairly, these shock events generate
strong emotions that energize employees to think about and search for alternative
employment.
Voice refers to any attempt to change, rather than escape from, a dissatisfying situation.
Voice can be a constructive response, such as recommending ways for management to improve
the situation; or it can be more confrontational, such as filing formal grievances. In the
extreme, some employees might engage in counterproductive behaviors to get attention and
force changes in the organization.
Loyalty has been described in different ways. The most widely held view is that loyalists are
employees who respond to dissatisfaction by patiently waitingsome say they suffer in
silencefor a problem to work itself out or get resolved by others.
Neglect includes reducing work effort, paying less attention to quality, and increasing
absenteeism and lateness. It is generally considered a passive activity that has negative
consequences for the organization.

JOB SATISFACTION AND PERFORMANCE

Job performance leads to job satisfaction (rather than vice versa), but only when performance
is linked to valued rewards. Higher performers receive more rewards and consequently are
more satisfied than poorly performing employees who receive fewer rewards. The connection
between job satisfaction and performance isnt stronger because many organizations do not
reward good performance.
job satisfaction might influence employee motivation, but this has little influence on
performance in jobs w here employees have little control over their job output (such as
assembly-line work). This point explains why the job satisfactionperformance relationship is
strongest in complex jobs, where employees have more freedom to perform their work or to
slack off.

JOB SATISFACTION AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Job satisfaction does more than improve work behaviors and customer satisfaction. Job
satisfaction is also an ethical issue that influences the organizations reputation in the
community. People spend a large portion of their time working in organizations, and many
societies now expect companies to provide work environments that are safe and enjoyable.
Indeed, employees in several countries closely monitor ratings of the best companies to work
foran indication that employee satisfaction is worth considerable goodwill to employers. This
fact is apparent when an organization has low job satisfaction. The company tries to hide this
situation, and when morale problems become public, corporate leaders are usually quick to
improve employee attitudes.

Organizational Commitment
Organizational commitment refers to an employees emotional attachment to, identification
with, and involvement in a particular organization.30 It is the employees pride and loyalty
toward the organization. Managers need to pay attention to this attitude because loyal
employees are less likely to quit their jobs and be absent from work.

WATCH OUT FOR CONTINUANCE COMMITMENT

An employees calculative attachment to an organization, whereby an employee is motivated to
stay only because leaving would be costly.

BUILDING ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT

There are almost as many ways to build organizational loyalty, but the following list is most
prominent in the literature:

Justice and support: Employee loyalty is higher in organizations that fulfill their obligations to
employees and abide by humanitarian values, such as fairness, courtesy, forgiveness, and moral
integrity.
Shared values: The definition of organizational commitment refers to a persons identification
with the organization, and that identification is highest when employees believe their values
are congruent with the organizations dominant values.
Trust: A psychological state comprising the intention to accept vulnerability based on positive
expectations of the intent or behavior of another person.

Work-Related Stress and Its Management

stress
An adaptive response to a situation that is perceived as challenging or threatening to a persons
well-being.
Employees at Electronic Arts and many other organizations are experiencing increasing levels of
work-related stress. Stress is an adaptive response to a situation that is perceived as challenging
or threatening to a persons well-being. The stress response is a complex emotion that
produces physiological changes to prepare us for fight or flightto defend against a threat or
flee from it. Specifically, our heart rates and perspiration increase, muscles tighten, and
breathing speeds up. Our bodies also move more blood to our brains, release adrenaline and
other hormones, fuel our systems by releasing more glucose and fatty acids, activate systems
that sharpen our senses, and use resources that would normally go to our immune systems.

GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME

The stress experience is a physiological response called the general adaptation syndrome that
occurs through the three stages shown in Figure. The alarm reaction stage occurs when a threat
or challenge activates the physiological stress responses that w ere just noted. Our energy level
and coping effectiveness initially decrease because we have not prepared for the stress. The
second stage, resistance, activates various biochemical, psychological, and behavioral
mechanisms that give us more energy and engage coping mechanisms to overcome or remove
the source of stress. To focus energy on the source of the stress, our bodies reduce resources to
the immune system during this stage.

STRESSORS: THE SOURCES OF STRESS

stressors
Any environmental conditions that place a physical or emotional demand on a person.

Psychological harassment
Repeated and hostile or unwanted conduct, verbal comments, actions, or gestures that affect
an employees dignity or psychological or physical integrity and that result in a harmful work
environment for the employee.

sexual harassment
A type of harassment that includes unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that
detrimentally affects the work environment or leads to adverse job related
consequences for its victims.

MANAGING WORK-RELATED STRESS

Some degree of stress is good (eustress), but for the most part managers need to figure out
how to minimize distress among their staff. Most stress management strategies can be
organized into the five categories summarized in Figure: withdraw from the stressor, change
stress perceptions, control stress consequences, receive social support, and remove the
stressor.

Withdraw from the Stressor One set of strategies for minimizing workplace stress is to
permanently or temporarily remove employees from the stressor. Permanent withdrawal
occurs when employees are transfer red to jobs that better f it their competencies and values.
Temporarily withdrawing from stressors involves distancing oneself for a short time (perhaps a
few minutes or weeks) from the stressor. Some companies even set up workplace temporary
retreats to help employees manage stress.
Change Stress Perceptions Employees often experience different levels of stress in the same
situation because they have different levels of self-confidence and optimism. Consequently,
corporate leaders need to find ways to strengthen employees confidence and self- esteem so
that job challenges are not perceived as threatening. A study of newly hired accountants
reported that personal goal setting and self-reinforcement can reduce the stress people
experience when they enter new work settings. Humor is another w ay to improve optimism
and create positive emotions by taking some psychological weight off the situation.
Control the Consequences of Stress Coping with workplace stress also involves controlling its
consequences. For this reason, many companies have fitness centers where employees can
keep in shape.
employee assistance programs (EAPs) Counseling services that help employees overcome
personal or organizational stressors and adopt more effective coping mechanisms.
Remove the Stressor The stress management strategies described so far may keep employees
stress-fit, but they dont solve the fundamental causes of stress. For this reason, some
experts argue that the only way companies can effectively manage stress is by removing the
stressors that cause unnecessary strain and job burnout.
worklife balance: A state of minimal conflict between work and non-work demands.