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achievement- oriented behavior. Thus, when the tasks are of a challenging nature, he argued that high need for achievement subjects will manifest high expectations
of task accomplishment and will exhibit a high level of effort and concomitant involvement in their work. He found that individuals with strong higher order
needs demonstrate higher performance than individuals with weaker higher order needs.
4. Work attitudes
Attitude is an important variable in human behavior. For better understanding, it is important to discuss the meaning and definition of attitude.
There are six salient features, which contribute to the meaning of attitude Aswathappa in Jegadeesan 2007 such the followings:
a. attitudes refer to feelings and beliefs of individuals or group of individuals;
b. the feelings and beliefs are directed towards other people, objects or ideas; c. they tend to result in behavior or action;
d. they can fall anywhere along a continuum from very favorable to very unfavorable;
e. they endure; f. all people, irrespective of their status or intelligence, hold attitudes.
Individuals acquire attitudes from several sources but the point to be stressed is that the attitudes are acquired but not inherited. The most important
sources of acquiring attitudes are direct experience with the object, association, family, neighborhood, economic and social positions and mass communication.
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Individuals possess hundreds of attitudes. But organizational behavior is concerned with work-related attitudes, which are mainly three: job satisfaction,
job involvement and organizational commitment Jegadeesan 2007. Milani 1975 defined attitude in terms of employees’ feelings and
predispositions towards their jobs and employers in a budgetary context. Following to Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance, it may argued employees
with positive work attitudes develop a cognitive dissonance or psychological uneasiness during their participation in budget setting. To reduce this dissonance,
they try to improve their performance Mia 1988; Yuen 2007. Work attitude is important because committed executives are expected to
exemplify a willingness to work harder to achieve organizational goals. Executives demonstrating this commitment have a greater desire to remain
employed with that organization. Pool and Brian Pool 2007. Milani 1975 divided working attitudes into job attitudes and organization
attitudes. He found that positive attitudes towards a job enhance an employee’s identification with the organization’s goals, thus leading to an effective overall
performance for the organization. In most instances, attitudes towards the job have been offered as an intervening factor that affects job performance when
participating in budget activities. Job related attitudes also play a major role in shaping the work behaviors of managers in organizations Jayan 2006.
Lynn in Jayan 2006 have developed a theoretical model to describe the differential relationship that organizational attitudes organizational commitment
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and satisfaction and Job attitudes Job involvement and satisfaction have with several behavior intentions turnover, absenteeism and performance.
The work attitudes investigated in this study included job satisfaction and organizational commitment. In this present study, work attitude is related to job
satisfaction as attitude toward job and affective commitment as attitude toward organization Muse and Stamper 2007; Larson and Luthans 2006.
4.1. Job satisfaction as attitude toward job
This study used the global approach over the dimensions approach, conceptualizing job satisfaction as the degree of positive emotions an employee
has toward a job. According to Shahnawaz and Jafri 2009 job satisfaction has been defined as a pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s
job - an affective reaction to one’s job and an attitude towards one’s job. Job satisfaction also can be refers to one’s feelings towards one’s job. It can only be
inferred but not seen. Positive attitudes towards the job are conceptually equivalent to job satisfaction and negative attitudes towards the job indicate job
dissatisfaction. If any employee likes his job intensely he will experience high job satisfaction. If he dislikes his job intensely, he will experience job dissatisfaction
Jegadeesan 2007. The job satisfaction measurement that has been used for public sector
organization in previous study conducted by Baptiste 2008, focuses on employees being satisfied with eight categories of their job: 1 sense of
achievement, 2 scope of using initiative, 3 influence over job, 4 pay, 5 job
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security, 6 training received, 7 the work they do, 8 involvement in decision making.
4.2. Affective commitment as attitude toward organization
Organizational commitment reflects the extent an individual identifies with an organization and committed to its organizational goals. Pool and Brian
Pool 2007. Whereas satisfaction means positive emotions toward a particular job, organizational commitment is the degree to which an employee feels loyalty to a
particular organization Elanain 2009. Similar to previous study about organizational commitment Muse and Stamper 2007; Larson and Luthans 2006;
Elanain 2009 study, this research conceptualized organizational commitment as an affective form of commitment based on feelings of loyalty toward the
organization Allen and Meyer, 1990; 1991. Affective or attitudinal commitment is defined as the willingness to
execute continuous effort for the success of the organization. It is characterized by a strong belief in, and acceptance of, the organization’s goals and values Yahya
et al 2008. As noted Parker and Kyj 2006, affective commitment is characterized by: 1 strong belief in the goals and values of the organization, 2
willingness to exert considerable effort to help the organization to reach its goals, and 3 strong desire to maintain organizational membership. For individuals who
are committed to their organization, the desire to achieve organizational goals extends beyond personal interests in acquiring tangible organizational rewards
such as income or promotion. Committed individuals exhibit a willingness to aid
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the organization even if direct reward is not contingent upon that aid. Committed employees identify with organizational success Parker and Kyj 2006.
5. Employees’ job performance
