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The effect of dispositional influences on job perceptions, work attitudes, and nonattendance behavior
Abstract
Recently, several researchers have argued that previous work in organizational science has underestimated the contributions made by dispositional factors to the prediction of important job outcomes, and have proposed that an individual's behavior is co-determined by characteristics of the individual in a dynamic interplay with the situation. The present study examined the roles that dispositions play in the prediction of various salient organizational outcomes, such as facets of work satisfaction and nonattendance behaviors. The basic research question addressed the effects of particular dispositional factors (i.e., Negative and Positive Affectivity, Time Orientation and Self-monitoring) in their relationships with (1) perceptions of job demands, job complexity and control, (2) job satisfaction, and (3) tardiness and absence behaviors. Questionnaire responses were received from 115 blue-collar workers employed at a medium-sized, midwestern manufacturing plant. These data measured dispositions, perceptions and attitudes. Objective measures assessed job demands and attendance. Path analyses, using hierarchical multiple regressions, were used to assess the direct and indirect relationships. The findings showed that individuals who perceive that their jobs are high in psychological demands, who view themselves as having low control over those jobs, who have a diffused-point time orientation, and who are dissatisfied with their supervisors were more likely to have greater tardiness behavior. Persons who took voluntary absences, on the other hand, had less physically demanding jobs, perceived themselves to have greater control at work, and were generally satisfied with their pay, but dissatisfied with their supervisors and coworkers. Further, individuals scoring high in Negative Affectivity, but low in Self-monitoring, were likely to be absent due to ill health. Conclusions reached in this study included the following: (1) there may be health implications for high-Negative Affectivity and low Self-monitoring individuals when they do not have control and well-liked coworkers and supervisors at work, (2) a distinction between nonattendance behaviors is both practically and theoretically important for practicing managers, and (3) dispositional influences are an important component to understanding and predicting behavior in an organizational context.
Subject Area
Management
Recommended Citation
Dwyer, Deborah Jean, "The effect of dispositional influences on job perceptions, work attitudes, and nonattendance behavior" (1989). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8925234.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8925234