Work Related Attitudes Prejudice Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment Research Proposal

Work-Related Attitudes: Prejudice, Job Satisfaction, And Organizational Commitment

Area of the Study:

A worker's attitude heavily impacts his behavior and his performance in any organization. A positive attitude results in an increase in overall productivity for him and the organization because of the feeling of optimism, pride and job satisfaction. A negative attitude will result in negative behaviors which will then lead to job switching or lack of productivity. There are many places where attitude can influence work behavior which the research will illustrate on the importance of attitude in the performance of an individual.

"How work related attitudes impact job satisfaction, organizational commitment and prejudice?"

Research Questions:

What are the job related attitudes that organizational behavior deals with?

What are the results of positive and negative job attitudes?

How can job attitudes be measured?

How can employee attitude be influenced?

How is job attitude related to job satisfaction?

How is job attitude related to organizational commitment?

How is job attitude different from prejudice?

Review Literature:

Attitudes:

Attitudes are statements about people, objects and events which can be either favorable or unfavorable. Attitudes basically reflect how you feel about something. Attitudes can be complex to understand.

Attitudes have three major components:

1) Cognition

2) Affect

3) Behavior

If anyone makes a statement that his pay is low. It shows the cognitive component of the attitude because he has described how he feels or believes about how things are. This will lead to the second component which is the affect that it has on his attitude which might describe his feeling of anger or disappointment because of being paid less. The third part will be the behavior which is driven by the previous two components; the behavior might be that he starts looking for another job because he was thought that he had been paid less. The three components have been is helpful in understanding the relationship between attitude and behavior.

Major Job Attitudes:

Job Satisfaction: A positive feeling about a job which results from the evaluation of its characteristics.

Job Involvement: It describes the degree of a person's involvement in the job, how much he actively participates in the job and considers the job important to him.

Organizational Commitment: It describes the degree to which an employee identifies himself with the organization he works with and wishes to maintain his membership in the organization.

Prejudice: Prejudice exists even in the open minded organizations however it has been decreasing to some extent. Denial, blaming others and defensiveness are common practices in prejudice organizations which affects the attitude of employees.

What Causes Job Satisfaction:

The following are the most common factors which determine job satisfaction:

Work Itself

Pay

Promotion

Supervision

Coworkers

Overall

Impact of Job Satisfaction on the Workplace:

Job Satisfaction has leads to the following:

Better Job Performance

High Level of Organizational Commitment

Higher Level of Customer Satisfaction

Job Dissatisfaction leads to:

Absenteeism

High Turnover

Workplace Deviance

Moderating Variables:

The following are the most important attitudes behavior relationships:

The importance of the attitude

Its Correspondence to behavior

Accessibility

Social Pressures

Direct Experience

HYPOTHESIS:

The Hypothesis of our research will be:

"Positive work place attitude leads to better performances"

METHODOLOGY:

To accomplish the above research objectives, information will be collected from the employees of an organization. We will use following methods

Exploratory Research

Focus Group Interviews

Survey/Questionnaires

VARIABLES:

A. Dependent Variables:

Employee Turnover Rate

Productivity

Absenteeism

Organizational Citizenship

B. Independent Variables:

Salary, Other Perks and Allowances

Connection between pay and performance

Opportunity for advancement

Ability to influence decisions that affect you

Opportunity to work on interesting projects

Workload

Flexibility of work hours

Physical working environment

Your relationship with your peers and bosses

Access to company-sponsored training and seminars

Team Work

C. External Variables:

Economic Condition

Industry Opportunities

Government Role and Regulations

SAMPLE:

Our Sample size for the Research questionnaire would be 50 employees of an organization. The sample will be selected on the basis of Simple Random Sampling, where each employee will have a chance to participate in the Survey.

DECISION CRITERIA:

On the basis of above collected information we would then able to evaluate these variables and monitor how it effects the satisfaction of the employees at the organization and test the hypothesis by using different Statistical Tools, and by the help of this we would be able to conclude if the employees are satisfied or not.

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

I have reasonable amount of work at my job I have adequate information / instructions enabling me to do my job well.

I have enough learning opportunities.I feel recognized appreciated at work

I have energy at the end of each work day to engage in personal interests.

I feel positive and up most of the time I am working

Creativity and innovation are supported

I feel free to be who I am at work.

The general cleanliness of the office is excellent

I have adequate space available at your workstation.

I am satisfied with the current car parking facility.

I am satisfied with quality of food in the mess

The sitting arrangement in the mess is comfortable

I am satisfied with the variety of food.

I look forward to going to work on Monday morning.

My manager responds to the issues importance to me

My coworkers are committed to doing quality work

Tasks are properly divided within teams

My co-workers are cooperative in team assignments

I have ample time to attend to the people I care about.

I feel comfortable working in teams

I take pride in working for this organization

Please indicate your level of agreement with each of the following statements

Very

dissatisfied

Somewhat dissatisfied

Neutral

Somewhat

satisfied

Very

satisfied

Salary

Benefits

Frequency of bonuses

Connection between pay and performance

Opportunity for advancement

Job security

Ability to influence important decisions

Support of senior team members

No. Of leaves per annum

Approval system of leaves

Opportunity to work on interesting projects

Access to company-sponsored training

Workload

Flexibility of work hours

Size of team

Communication with your supervisor

Recognition received from your manager

Your manager's management capabilities

Your manager's active involvement in your career development

Your relationship with your peers

While switching your job, what is the most important factor for you? Kindly prioritize ( 1 to 6)

a) Distance from home

b) Designation

c) Pay Scale

d) Nature of Work

e) Growth Opportunities

f) Relationship with Reporting Manager

Organization

Department

Age

Gender

Job Description

Job Status (Permanent, contract etc.)

Professional Education

Professional Work Experience

Work experience in the current organization

Monthly Salary

< 2k, 2k to 4k, 4k to 6k, 6k to 8k, > 8k

Annotated Bibliography:

1. Podsakoff, N.P., Blume, B.D., Whiting, S.W., & Podsakoff, P.M. (2009). Individual- and organizational-level consequences of organizational citizenship behaviors: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology (The study aimed to investigate the perception of moral conduct and the relationship among: attitude towards business ethics, turnover intention, job performance, job satisfaction, and the demographic profile of study was a survey using self-administered questionnaires.)

2. Podsakoff, P.M., MacKenzie, S.B., Moorman, R.H., & Fetter, R. (1990). Transformational leader behaviors and their effects on followers' trust in leader, satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviors. The Leadership Quarterly (This study discusses Some important issues facing managers in the hospitality industry include role stress and its effects on performance and job satisfaction and how the work environment can influence employee attitudes and outcomes)

3. Podsakoff, P.M., MacKenzie, S.B., Paine, J.B., & Bachrach, D.G. (2000). Organizational citizenship behaviors: A critical review of the theoretical and empirical literature and suggestions for future research. Journal of Management

(The study has helped in identifying new areas where the research can be conducted and aimed at different objectives regarding various attitudes and the consequential behaviors)

4. Holtom BC, Lee TW and Tidd ST, (2000), "The relationship between work status congruence and work-related attitudes and behaviors" (This research has investigated various attitudes and the behaviors regarding organizational behavior)

5. Casey Florence, (2001), "Work Attitudes and Work Experience: The Impact of Attitudes on Behavior" (This research evaluated the interaction of work-related attitudes and subsequent behavior for eight different age groups in different genders)

6. Muhammad Jamal, (2002), "Shift work and department-type related to job stress, work attitudes and behavioral intentions: A study of nurses" (This study reported the issues regarding shift works and the attitudes of the employees)

7. James Rhineheart, (2003), "Contradictions of work-related attitudes and behavior: an interpretation" (The study has listed down the major factors that influence the behavior of an individual in a workplace)

8. Hatch, M.J. (2006), "Organization Theory: Modern, symbolic, and postmodern perspectives." 2nd Ed. Oxford University Press. (The study has helped in determining the different dynamics of organizational behavior)

9. Jones, Ishmael (2008), the Human Factor: Inside the CIA's Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture. New York: Encounter Books. (This study has helped in determining the variables of attitudes)

10. Ash, M.G. (1992). "Cultural Contexts and Scientific Change in Psychology: Kurt Lewin in Iowa." American Psychologist. (The study has helped in determining the varying attitudes of employees with the….....