Work Attitudes that lead to High Performance

The attitudes of most interest to managers are those related to work, especially attitudes that influence how well employees perform. To lead employees effectively, managers logically seek to cultivate the kinds of attitudes that are associated with high performance. Two attitudes that might relate to high performance are satisfaction with one’s job and commitment to the organization.



Job satisfaction:

A positive attitude towards one’s job is called job satisfaction. In general, people experience this attitude when their work matches their needs and interests, when working conditions and rewards (such as pay) are satisfactory, when they like their co-workers and when they have positive relationships with supervisors.

Many managers believe job satisfaction is important because they think satisfied employees will do better work. In fact, research shows that the link between satisfaction and performance is generally small and is affected by other factors. The importance of satisfaction varies according to the amount of control the employee has; an employee doing routine tasks may produce about the same output no matter how he or she feels about the job. However, an internal study at a big super market recently found a clear link between employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and revenue. In particular employee’s attitude about whether their workloads were manageable and well-organized ranked among the indicators of company performance.

Managers of today’s knowledge workers often rely on job satisfaction to keep motivation and enthusiasm for the organization high. Organizations don’t want to lose talented highly skilled workers. In addition most managers care about their employees and simply want them to feel good about their work – and almost everyone prefers being around people who have positive attitudes. However, a survey by International Survey Research found that Generation X employees, those who are carrying the weight of much of today’s knowledge work, are the least satisfied of all demographic groups. Managers play an important role in whether employees have positive or negative attitudes towards their job.

Organizational Commitment:

Organizational commitment refers to an employee’s loyalty to and engagement with the organization. An employee with a high degree of organizational commitment is likely to speak well when talking about the company. Such a person likes being a part of the organization and tries to contribute to its success.

Most managers want to enjoy the benefits of loyal, committed employees including low turnover and willingness to do more than the job’s basic requirements. In addition, results of a recent survey in Global organizations suggests that companies with committed employees perform better. The study found that companies with highly committed employees outperformed the industry average over a 12 month period by 6 per cent, while those with low levels of commitment underperformed the average by 9 per cent. Alarmingly, the level of commitment in the United States is significantly lower than half of the world’s other large economies. US employees are less committed than those in Brazil, Spain, Germany, Canada and Italy. This low level of organizational commitment puts US firms at a serious disadvantage in the global marketplace.

The high motivation and engagement that comes with organizational commitment is essential to the success of knowledge based organizations that depend on employees’ ideas and creativity. Trust in the management’s decisions and integrity is an important component of organizational commitment. Unfortunately in recent years, many employees have lost that trust, resulting in a decline in commitment.

Managers can take action to promote organizational commitment by keeping employees informed, giving them a say in decisions, providing the necessary training and other resources that enable them to succeed, treating them fairly and offering rewards they value. For example, employee commitment in today’s workplace is strongly correlated with initiatives and benefits that help people balance their work and personal lives.

Sometimes a person may discover that his or her attitudes conflict with one another or are not reflected in behavior. For example, a person’s high level of organizational commitment might conflict with a commitment to family members. If employees routinely work evenings and weekends, their long hours and dedication to the job might conflict with their belief that family ties are important. This can create a state of cognitive dissonance, a psychological discomfort that occurs when individuals recognize inconsistencies in their own attitudes and behaviors.

In the case of working overtime, people who can control their hours might restructure responsibilities so that they have time for both work and family. In contrast, those who are unable to restructure workloads might develop an unfavorable attitude towards the employer, reducing their organizational commitment. They might resolve their dissonance by saying they would like to spend more time with their kids but their unreasonable employer demands that they work many hours.

Wages in India

Once jobs have been evaluated and all the points have been summed up, the next step is placing of all evaluated jobs according to points in terms of money. This is the point when rated jobs are translated into monetary values. To conduct wage survey the existing rates are taken for comparison.

The main purposes of wage survey, is to find out the fair for various jobs in order to establish the entire wage structure. Selection of key jobs whose duties are clearly defined, not unstable and mostly representing all level of jobs worth is the very first step in building a wage survey. For the wage survey two types of samples are needed. First sample of key jobs and second a sample of firms in the labor market. Jobs require different personnel, in terms of skill, ability etc and thus it varies from local to regional level. Selection of a sample of firms should be from those firms which operate under similar market conditions.

The job content and available data are carefully analyzed and averaged out, and in this way the rupee values of jobs are prepared and plotted on the chart.

By plotting key jobs against their existing wages, we get a wage trend line lies close to all the jobs plotted on the graph. The wage trend line should be drawn in such a way that it covers most of the points. Those which lie below the line should be paid more to come on the line of best fit. But simultaneously the authority and responsibility should also be increased in line with the wage increase. And as all those which are above the best fit line cannot be paid lower than the existing wage rates all such rates should be freezed.

In construction of wage structure similar jobs are grouped and treated as a job class. All the jobs, which come under that job class are paid the same wage. In the point system, suppose, 120 points to 150 points make a job class. In such case, all the jobs which fetch total between 120 and 150 would carry the same monetary compensation. The purpose of grouping of jobs is to facilitate wage administration.

Factors affecting the designing of the wage structure are:

–Labor market condition: if supply of labor is higher than demand the wage would be relatively low.

–That is, if standard of living is high it calls for higher wage.

–Wage structures of other firms in the same industry directly affect the company’s wage structure.

–Sometimes, even though the competitors pay relatively higher wage, due to weak collective bargaining power of the trade union, management may settle wage at a relatively low rate.

All wages should be paid within limits which are given by the standard set through a wage structure. A cardinal principle of wage and salary administration is that wage rate shall not be cut, as a result of installation of job evaluation. Adjustments in the total rate structure should also be similar to the percentage increment in order to maintain equitable relationship.

Improved method of ranking system is known as factor comparison system where job factors are compared rather than the whole jobs. It consists of the following steps:

–Selection of job characteristics

–Selection of key jobs

–Determination of correct rates of key jobs

–Ranking of key jobs under each job factor

–Allocation of correct rate to each key job

–Evaluation of all other jobs.

–Designing, adjusting and operating the wage structure

From the employee’s point of view wages determines his standard of living. Wage policy., therefore is an important issue and recognizing its importance the Constitution of India guaranteed equal pay for equal work for both men and women. All workers living with a wage and conditions of work which ensure a decent standard of life

Minimum wage: Minimum age is that wage which must invariably be paid whether the company, big or small makes profits or not It is the bare minimum that a worker can expect to get for services rendered by him.

In calculating the minimum wage, the standard wage, the standard working class family should be taken to comprise three consumption units for one earner, the earnings of women, children and adolescents being disregarded.

Minimum food requirements should be calculated on the basis of asset intake of calories for average adult of moderate activity.

Clothing requirements should be estimated on the basis of per capital consumption of 18 yards per annum which would give the average worker’s family of four a total of 72 yards.

In respect of housing the rent corresponding to the minimum area provided for under Government Industrial housing scheme should be taken into consideration in fixing the minimum age. Fuel, lighting and other miscellaneous items of expenditure should constitute 20 per cent of the total minimum wage.