MGMT20001 · Organisational Behaviour
Values and Attitudes
Behaviour flows from who we are and how we judge: stable personality traits (the Big Five / OCEAN, with conscientiousness the strongest single predictor of performance), the values we hold (the normative basis of attitudes, varying by national culture in Hofstede’s dimensions), and the attitudes built on them. An attitude has three components — cognitive, affective, behavioural (ABC) — but predicts behaviour only loosely, because of the attitude–behaviour gap and cognitive dissonance. The famous myth the unit busts: the satisfaction–performance link is weak. Dissatisfaction plays out through EVLN (exit, voice, loyalty, neglect); work also demands emotional labour; and chronic stress runs from stressors to strains. We mirror the running 'Fast Fashion' case (Part 1).
What this chapter covers
- 01Personality — the Big Five (OCEAN); the MBTI caveat
- 02Values as the normative basis of attitudes; values congruence
- 03Hofstede's national-culture value dimensions
- 04The three components of an attitude (cognitive / affective / behavioural)
- 05The attitude–behaviour gap & cognitive dissonance
- 06Job satisfaction — the weak satisfaction–performance link
- 07EVLN responses to dissatisfaction; emotional labour; the stressor → strain chain
Worked example: diagnose dissatisfaction with EVLN
- +1Exit: quitting or transferring out — active, destructive.
- +1Voice: raising the sourcing concern and proposing a fix — active, constructive.
- +1Loyalty: patiently waiting, trusting the firm to put it right — passive, constructive.
- +1Neglect: reduced effort, more absence, letting quality slip — passive, destructive.
- +1The myth-buster: job satisfaction predicts turnover, absence and citizenship more reliably than raw output — the satisfaction–performance link is genuinely weak.
Key terms
- Big Five (OCEAN)
- The dominant personality model: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism. Conscientiousness is the strongest single predictor of overall job performance; the MBTI, though popular, is poorly supported.
- Values as the normative basis of attitudes
- Values are stable, broad beliefs about what is good or right; they underpin the more specific evaluations (attitudes) we form. Values congruence — person–organisation fit — drives satisfaction and commitment.
- Hofstede's dimensions
- National cultures differ predictably on individualism–collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity–femininity and long–short-term orientation — so 'American' management theories don't always travel.
- Attitude (ABC)
- An evaluative statement with three components: cognitive (beliefs), affective (feelings) and behavioural (intentions). Attitudes predict behaviour only loosely; clashes produce cognitive dissonance.
- EVLN
- The four responses to dissatisfaction: Exit (active/destructive), Voice (active/constructive), Loyalty (passive/constructive), Neglect (passive/destructive).
Values and Attitudes FAQ
Which Big Five trait best predicts job performance?
Conscientiousness — organised, dependable, disciplined — is the strongest single predictor of overall job performance. Low neuroticism (high emotional stability) buffers stress, and the others help in role-specific ways. The exam-safe move is to prefer the Big Five over the popular-but-weak MBTI.
Why do the slides say job satisfaction barely drives performance?
Because the 'happy productive worker' link is real but weak. Satisfaction more reliably predicts turnover, absence and organisational citizenship than raw output. It's a favourite myth-busting exam point — don't claim a strong satisfaction–performance link.
What is the attitude–behaviour gap?
An attitude predicts behaviour only loosely — situation, habit and competing attitudes intervene. When action and attitude clash, people feel cognitive dissonance and often reduce it by changing the attitude to fit the behaviour, rather than the reverse.
What is emotional labour?
The effort of managing and displaying expected emotions at work (the smiling shop assistant under pressure). The strain is worst under high emotional dissonance — when the felt emotion clashes with the required display. Emotional intelligence helps manage it.
Exam move
Anchor on the unit's chain: personality → values → attitudes → behaviour, with values as the normative basis of attitudes. Memorise the Big Five (conscientiousness predicts performance) and Hofstede's five dimensions for apply questions. Be ready to break an attitude into ABC and explain the gap / dissonance. Above all, bank the two myth-busters — the weak satisfaction–performance link and the fact that dissatisfaction surfaces as turnover/absence/citizenship — and use EVLN to classify responses on the active/passive and constructive/destructive axes.
