The Role of Attitudes in Work Behavior

Abstract

The relationship between work attitudes such as satisfaction and commitment and behaviors such as task effort, citizenship behavior, absenteeism, job search, and turnover is a perennial focus of organizational research. Over time we have learned a great deal about why, how, and when attitudes predict work behavior, but new questions and theories continue to proliferate. With this review, we aim to synthesize existing organizational literature on attitudes and behavior, focusing on how the field can be organized using principles from Ajzen & Kruglanski's (2019) theory of reasoned goal pursuit. The accumulated evidence answers longstanding questions while simultaneously raising new ones related to the link between general attitudes and specific behavior; the proximal effect of intentions; the role of goals, social contexts, and behavioral control; and the dynamic processes among attitudes, environments, and behavior. We also suggest applications of our organizing framework to enhance future work attitudes and behavior research.