| MBA 669 | Rick Marriner |
| Monday, Orange County | Winter, 1998 |
Stephen P. Robbins, 1998, Organizational Behavior - Chapter 4 "Values, Attitudes, and Job Satisfaction," New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. |
Objective Points |
Subjective Review |
| Summary: The chapter explores the meaning of values in the workplace and how these values are formed or evolve. It attempts to use quantitative methods to measure qualitative phenomena such as the Rokeach Value Survey. It also attempts to explore our attitudes and what externalities do to change them. Lastly, we look at behavior and the specific variables that go into generally effecting them. | This chapter, I feel, make strides in explaining the interconnectiveness of values, attitude, and behavior. I generally agree with the subsurface tenacity by with which values are maintained in our personality. I understand that the value system is a very hard thing to change. In research on recidivism rates in criminals, it is sometimes impossible to change the value scheme a person holds in life. Attitudes are much more flexible in my experience. On their best day, TV ads and aggressive marketing can manipulate them and on their worse day, we change our attitudes to rationalize why we are doing something. It is interesting to note that the short term change in our attitudes away from our deep rooted values is possible but creates a dissonance until the attitude changes back, or the value evolves. |
| Point 1: The chapter introduces the author's own ideas on the 4 most recent cohorts or stages based on age groups. The last two stages, the Pragmatic (ages 30-40) and Generation X (ages under 30 staring work in the 1990's) are the ones with which I have the most experience. | At the level I am at in my organization, my peers are not necessarily those in the same generation as I am and there is an ingredient of tension in general relation. The generation of workers with which I work according to the author is a generation of success orientated individuals with a hard working ethic and loyalty to the firm. These are all good attributes and I have them as well, I am also a very leisure orientated person. I believe that increasing our education is those I work with do not always hold a form of leisure and this. The author makes some large generalizations, but for the most part, they are accurate. |
| Point 2: Geert Hofstede was alluded to in the text as the developer of the analysis tool by which the analysis tool by which nations and cultures are rated on rates nations and cultures on. These indicators include power distance, individualism, Quality of life, uncertainty, and long-term orientations. | It is interesting to me in looking at the cross section of countries that the United States rated so high on individualism. In my current job, I deal with the unions extensively. I am under the impression that those in these unions are willing to forgo their individualism for the pursuit of the union's agenda. In the case of the unions that we work with are generally working for the long-term betterment of the individual, but are also looking to maintain their organization in the changing times. I can agree that overall America is based on rugged individualism. |
| Point 3: The author indicates that each person approaches each organization with different attitudes and that on the whole more surveys link attitude to behavior than not. Specifically the author looks at the effect of Job-Involvement, Job Satisfaction, and organizational commitment and their effect on essential organizational drivers. | I looked directly into Job Satisfaction since it is the current topic of debate in our company. We perceive that there is rampant job dissatisfaction in the middle and lower ranks on our ships. After recent conversations, it is thought to derive from a lower wage than thought equitable, and the fact that there are wage disparities on days that unlicensed have holidays. All this coupled with a tight labor market for this level of worker tends to lead to high turnover, which is a costly and dangerous thing on tankers. We are currently looking into means to control job satisfaction though the increasing the equity of the job rewards. |
| Question: To what extent has it been proven that genetics plays a major role in the make up of our values and attitudes? | I tend to believe that people are more a function of their environment than of their genetic background. I would like to read more about this and learn what opponents to pure environmental development models have to say. |
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