Chapter 10
Affect, Attitudes, and Behavior at
Work
Psychology Applied to Work®
Learning Objectives
• Explain the role of affect, moods, and emotions in the
workplace.
• Explain the organizational attitudes of job
satisfaction, work commitment, employee
engagement, and organizational justice.
• Understand the concepts of organizational citizenship
behavior and counterproductive work behavior and
their relationships to other concepts.
• Understand the concept of organizational politics.
• Understand the concept of the psychological contract
in employment and its changing nature.
Psychology Applied to Work®
Affect, Moods, and Emotions
• Affect - broad range of feelings described
along positive-negative continuum
• Moods - general and relatively long lasting
• Emotions - discrete, short, and target-specific
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Emotions
• Five Categories
– Positive
– Negative
– Existential
– "Nasty"
– Empathetic
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Emotions (cont’d)
• Key Concepts
– Emotional Labor - surface vs. deep acting
– Emotion Regulation - attempts to modify one's
emotions
– Emotional Intelligence - ability to recognize and
control emotions; controversial
– Emotional Contagion - conscious and
unconscious emotion synchronization
Psychology Applied to Work®
Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive
Emotions
Psychology Applied to Work®
Job Attitudes
• Job Satisfaction
• Work Commitment
• Employee Engagement
• Organizational Justice
Psychology Applied to Work®
Job Satisfaction
• Internal evaluation of job favorability
• Broad differences in satisfaction
• Can measure at two levels:
– Global job satisfaction
– Job facet satisfaction
• Sample measures
– Job Descriptive Index
– Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire
Psychology Applied to Work®
Job Satisfaction (cont’d)
• Brief’s Model of Job Satisfaction
– Positive-negative dimension vs. objective job
circumstances
Psychology Applied to Work®
Job Satisfaction (cont’d)
• Judgments embedded in a relative context (links
to sensation and perception research)
• Honeymoon-hangover effect: possibility of a
"set point" for job satisfaction
• Key relationships
– Correlations of personality with satisfaction
– Relationship between satisfaction and job-related
criteria
– Relationship between satisfaction and withdrawal
behavior
Psychology Applied to Work®
Work Commitment
• Allegiance or loyalty to work - bonds
reflecting dedication to and responsibility for
one's work
• Four types of bonds
Psychology Applied to Work®
Work Commitment (cont’d)
• Tripartite view of commitment
– Affective
– Continuance
– Normative
• Targets of work commitment
• Relationships with work-related constructs
Psychology Applied to Work®
Employee Engagement
• Three dimensions
– Vigor
– Dedication
– Absorption
• Distinct yet counter to burnout
– Burnout: emotional exhaustion, cynicism,
reduced personal accomplishment
– Engagement more cognitive; burnout more
emotional
Psychology Applied to Work®
Organizational Justice
• Fair treatment of people in organizations
• Typologies of organizational justice
Psychology Applied to Work®
Behaviors
• Organizational Citizenship Behavior
• Counterproductive Work Behavior
• Organizational Politics
Psychology Applied to Work®
Organizational Citizenship Behavior
• Contributing to the organization’s welfare
by going beyond duties
• 5 main dimensions to citizenship behavior:
– Altruism
– Conscientiousness
– Courtesy
– Sportsmanship
– Civic virtue
Psychology Applied to Work®
Organizational Citizenship Behavior
(cont’d)
• Motives for employees to engage in
citizenship behaviors
– "do good" - good soldiers
– "look good" - good actors
• Origins of organizational citizenship behavior
– Dispositional
– Situational antecedents
• Cautionary statements regarding
organizational citizenship behaviors
Psychology Applied to Work®
Counterproductive Work Behavior
• Behaviors harmful to employees or the
organization
• Categories of deviant behavior
– Verbal
– Physical
– Sabotage
• Severity (minor/major)
• Recurrence (one time/ongoing)
• Visibility (overt/covert)
– Work-directed
– Workplace homicide
Psychology Applied to Work®
Counterproductive Work Behavior (cont’d)
• "Thermodynamics of revenge"
– Employee heats up then cools down in one of
several forms:
•
•
•
•
Venting
Dissipation
Fatigue
Explosion
Psychology Applied to Work®
Counterproductive Work Behavior (cont’d)
• Workplace bullying
– Low performers vs. excellent performers
– Organization's policies and practices
• Bad applies vs. bad barrels
• Spiraling effect of incivility
• Cyberaggression and cyberbullying
Psychology Applied to Work®
Organizational Politics
•
•
•
•
Behaviors driven by self-interest
Who gets what, when, and how
Positive, neutral, and negative views of politics
Political games in organizations
– Budgeting game
– Expertise game
– Rival camps game
Psychology Applied to Work®
Organizational Politics (cont’d)
• Four components of political skill
– Social astuteness
– Interpersonal influence
– Building networks and forming coalitions
– Projected virtue
• Responses to politics
– Stress
– Turnover intentions
– Work attitudes
Psychology Applied to Work®
The Psychological Contract
• Founded on concepts of mutuality and
reciprocity
• Types of contracts:
– Transactional contracts (short-term)
– Relational contracts (long-term)
• Symmetrical vs. asymmetrical power
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The Psychological Contract (cont’d)
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The Psychological Contract (cont’d)
• Violations of the psychological contract
(consequences)
• Sequential pattern of employee responses to
violations
• Move from relational to transactional
–
–
–
–
–
Voice
Silence
Retreat
Destruction
Exit
Psychology Applied to Work®