Values, Attitudes, Job Satisfaction and Achievements

Abstract

This paper presents a review of journals on organisational behaviour. It focuses on values, attitudes, and job satisfaction. These are elements of organisational behaviours, which relate to and influence organisational achievements. Employee attitudes, work values, and job satisfaction have overall impacts on job performance. Job satisfaction improves with supportive organisational behaviours. The core value that creates an organisation is leadership. Leadership develops to leadership styles, which define management styles. Supportive organisational behaviours are positively related to leadership behaviours, work attitudes, values, and job satisfaction.

HR managers must understand the factors that influence employee attitudes and job satisfaction, including dispositional ones. Given the increasing focus on HR managers, they need to identify gaps in HR practices and the effects of such gaps on employee attitudes, work values, and job satisfaction. This process requires HR managers to develop appropriate tools for evaluating work values, job satisfaction, and attitudes as components of organisational behaviours.

Summary of the articles

In a journal article, Work values, work attitude and job performance of green energy industry employees in Taiwan, Liao, Lu, Huang, and Chiang (2012) noted that work values and job attitude were correlated, and they accounted for job involvement and organisational commitment among employees. Consequently, work attitudes and job involvement had significant impacts on work values and performance. At the same time, leadership styles also influenced work values and attitudes, including job participation and commitment to an organisation.

Liao et al. (2012) noted that service-based organisations depended on job attitudes and employee professionalism to influence customers’ evaluation of an organisation. These factors could either make or ruin the reputation of a firm.

Work values had a profound influence on work behaviours, individual goals, and work hours. Thus, in any industry, employee values were critical because they could affect customers’ perception of a company’s products and services. It was imperative for service-oriented organisations to relate employee work values and work attitudes with organisational values in order to internalise and establish a high emotional commitment to a company among employees.

At the same time, such strategies could help employees to identify themselves with an organisation. Thus, alignment of work values and attitudes with organisational behaviour could enhance employees’ dedication to an organisation. In this regard, organisations should allow employees to align their values and organisational values in order to enhance organisational commitment, job performance, and job satisfaction.

Therefore, organisations should measure and evaluate employees’ job performance for effective allocation of human resources, development of new training programmes and employee promotion. Moreover, job performance tests organisational abilities to reward its employees fairly based on performance. This would improve employees’ job satisfaction, morale, and future performance. Overall, job performance could show employees’ attitude and satisfaction with their jobs.

In their study, Employee Attitudes and Job Satisfaction, Saari and Judge (2004) identified three critical shortcomings between “HR practice and the scientific research in the area of employee attitudes in general and the most focal employee attitude in particular—job satisfaction” (p. 395). Their investigation entailed factors that were responsible for “employee attitudes, outcomes of negative or positive job satisfaction, and how organisations could measure and influence employee attitudes” (Saari and Judge 2004, p. 395).

They concluded that organisations had to close the gaps in knowledge when assessing the implemented practices. Moreover, the authors noted that future studies should concentrate on comprehending personal characteristics of employees like emotions when reviewing job satisfaction, and the effects of employees’ attitudes on organisational performance.

Saari and Judge (2004) observed that employee attitudes resulted from several factors. Thus, it was imperative for HR practitioners to understand attitudes and HR practices that could influence them.

Saari and Judge (2004) concluded that HR managers could close the gap between research and practice through conducting research for making informed decisions (p. 403). They also noted that HR managers faced growing demands from other business units with regard to human resource management. Organisations need the HR department to provide tactical elements needed for performance improvement.

Thus, an informed action plan is an effective tool for overcoming such challenges. In addition, HR managers must know how to create employee evaluation tools that can measure attitudes, behaviours, performance, value, and satisfaction, among others. HR managers can use results and insights from studies to improve employee attitudes and job performance.

Conclusion and reflection

The reviewed articles identify the relationship between work values, attitudes, and job satisfaction as aspects of organisational behaviours. Job satisfaction, work values, and attitudes have a positive correlation with job performance. Therefore, organisations should align work values, attitudes, and job satisfaction with organisational to enhance job performance.

Liao et al. (2012) observed that organisations relied on the quality of their leadership. The authors noted that leadership influenced all aspects of community activities and group involvement. Moreover, leadership also affected behaviours and relationships among employees. This explains the importance of leadership in any organisation. As a result, effective management was a fundamental component of any given company. Leadership styles affect organisational achievements. That is, leadership behaviours had significant impacts on employees’ roles and organisational performance because it could reinforce employees’ behaviours and roles. In this regard, leaders can use their ideas and beliefs to influence employees’ values and thoughts.

One must not ignore the role of leadership in shaping organisational behaviours. Therefore, leadership styles influence work values, employee attitudes, work involvement, commitment, job satisfaction, and organisational performance. Organisational leadership style should be highly considerate to enhance employee commitment, work values, attitudes, job satisfaction, performance, and organisational behaviours.

HR managers need to understand the gap between HR practices and organisational behaviours. HR managers need to collect and analyse data to get insights from employees. This is a method of closing the gap between HR practices and organisational behaviours.

Therefore, HR managers must develop appropriate tools for evaluating work values, attitudes, job satisfaction, and performance among employees. Individual factors should also be a part of organisational behaviours during evaluation. Data will provide insights for improving HR practices that focus on employee attitudes, work values, job satisfaction, and job performance.

Some scholars have shown that dispositional influences could affect job satisfaction. Consequently, many studies have concentrated on dispositional factors that could affect job satisfaction.

Cultural influences also affect employee attitudes and job satisfaction. Many HR practitioners have linked cultural influences to the rising globalisation. Hence, available studies could help HR departments to develop practices, which aid in aligning cultural factors with organisational practices.

Work situation influences relate to the nature of the work. However, other factors are also imperative in this aspect. They include pay, promotion, supervision, colleagues, and other factors that defined work environments.

Saari and Judge (2004) focused on positive and negative job satisfaction. The authors noted that positive or negative job satisfaction depended on employee attitudes. In other words, employee attitudes affected organisational outcomes. Organisational commitment also reflected the same correlations with job performance and job satisfaction.

It is imperative for organisations to comprehend the work values of their workforce to allow them to improve dedication and commitment to their firms.

Employee motivation also influences their work values and commitment to an organisation. In turn, it affects job involvement and job performance.

Job performance influences other factors, such as promotion, demotion, rewards, transfer, salary, and benefits, among others in an organisation. It also allows employees to account for their contributions to an organisation. Thus, job performance is an imperative element for understanding employees’ behaviours and job satisfaction. One must understand employees’ actions in order to account for job performance, contributions, and job satisfaction.

Job satisfaction and job performance have strong relationships when considered broadly. That is, HR managers should define job performance metrics, which account for organisational behaviours. In most cases, job performance appraisals do not account for organisational behaviours, which improve job satisfaction.

Job satisfaction and life satisfaction also interacted and influenced performances. However, organisations had greater control over job satisfaction than life satisfaction (Saari and Judge, 2004). ‘Spill over’ of life satisfaction led to job satisfaction.

It is imperative for HR departments to focus on improving low job satisfaction among employees. This would result in organisational effectiveness and create ‘spill over’ to employees, which may enhance employee life satisfaction and overall well-being.

There were also withdrawal behaviours noted among employees and their influences on job satisfaction. Employees who were not contented with their work were more likely to resign, leave, or be absent than satisfied employees. Job satisfaction influences employee attrition and absenteeism. In addition, job dissatisfaction also indicates some common withdrawal tendencies, such as lateness, retirement, substance abuse, unionisation, and conflicts among employees. HR practitioners should measure and determine financial implications related to job dissatisfaction and other withdrawal behaviours and attitudes among employees. This is a powerful technique of predicting possible outcomes of low job satisfaction, as well as the overall impact of enhanced employee attitudes.

HR managers should also understand the techniques involved in measuring and influencing employee attitudes. However, there is serious knowledge gap among HR managers on how they can measure and influence their employee attitudes. HR managers can apply different methods to measure and understand employee attitudes by using interviews, focus groups, and surveys.

References

Liao, C-W., Lu, C-Y, Huang, C-K., and Chiang, T-L. (2012). Work values, work attitude and job performance of green energy industry employees in Taiwan. African Journal of Business Management, 6(15), 5299-5318. Web.

Saari, L., and Judge, T. (2004). Employee Attitudes and Job Satisfaction. Human Resource Management, 43(4), 395–407. Web.