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Enjoying Your Work Richard Brislin |
Job attitudes summarize
people’s evaluations,
thoughts and behaviorsJob satisfaction, or lack of it, is an important attitude that people bring to their workplaces every day. Attitudes refer to people's positive or negative reactions to various aspects of their lives. When any one aspect is considered, it is called a social object. Examples of these objects are one's job, neighborhood, outdoor activities in Hawaii, and the public schools that are supported by taxpayer dollars. Attitudes contain three components: people's evaluations of social objects, their thoughts and cognitions, and their actual behaviors.
The evaluative component refers to people's overall feelings about a social object. Using the example of people's jobs, the evaluative component would be assessed by asking people how good or bad their jobs are, how positive or negative they feel and how favorable or unfavorable their experiences have been. If people feel generally positive about their jobs, specific negative experiences are often dismissed as temporary difficulties that can be easily overcome. But if they have an unfavorable evaluation, the same difficulties can be seen as additional specific examples of why the jobs are terrible.
The cognitive component refers to people's thoughts, beliefs and opinions. This component can be measured by asking people to describe their jobs as objectively as they can. They would then describe their job duties, their salaries, their co-workers and other aspects of their work that come to mind. Another way of describing the cognitive component is that it summarizes what people think "the facts" are. People may be wrong, but their overall feelings of job satisfaction are influenced by their perceptions of the facts. For example, their salaries might be very good compared with individuals holding similar jobs in other companies. But if people think they are underpaid, this could affect their job performance.
The behavioral component refers to people's overt actions and activities. These behaviors can be observed and noted by others. Do people come to work on time and stay until the end of workday? Do they take a number of sick days that seems excessive? If people are working in retail sales, do they approach and offer help to customers within 10 seconds of seeing them looking at merchandise? Do they meet deadlines set by company executives, or do they constantly ask for extensions? Given that behaviors are overt, they have a major impact on people's reputation among their colleagues.
Distinctions among evaluations, cognitions and behaviors have been captured in people's everyday language. Individuals may talk positively about a social object, such as the desirability of maintaining contact with customers concerning their long-term satisfaction with the company's products. They may have positive feelings concerning this goal (evaluative), and they may be able to give reasons that it is a good idea (cognitive). These components are different, however, from "walking the talk." People have to actually follow through with their evaluations and cognitions and engage in the behavior of contacting customers who have made purchases in the past.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
The purpose of this column is to increase understanding of human behavior as it has an impact on the workplace. Given the amount of time people spend at work, job satisfaction should ideally be high and it should contribute to general life happiness. Enjoyment can increase as people learn more about workplace psychology, communication, and group influences.
Richard Brislin is a professor in the College of Business Administration, University of Hawaii. He can be reached through the College Relations Office: cro@cba.hawaii.edu
