The Strength of Job Attitudes: A Multi-Study Test

Abstract

Integrating theory in the social psychology literature with the job attitudes literature, we position job attitude strength as a missing yet crucial moderator in many of the job attitude questions that have been a central focus of OB researchers and practitioners. We articulate the theoretical relevance of job attitude strength and provide meaningful direction to job attitude researchers interested in incorporating this theoretical perspective into their work by identifying and empirically testing multiple relevant operationalizations of job attitude strength (i.e., attitude certainty, attitude extremity, latitude of rejection, and affective-cognitive consistency). In introducing and empirically testing an important new moderator of job attitude-behavior relationships, we shed some light on the historically elusive job satisfaction-performance relationship. We test our hypotheses regarding (a) the convergent validity of multiple strength operationalizations and (b) their ability to moderate job satisfaction-outcome relationships across six distinct samples, utilizing multiple operationalizations of both attitude strength and job satisfaction and examining multiple dependent variables of interest to job attitude researchers and organizational scholars in general (e.g., job performance, withdrawal). Results are supportive of our hypotheses, indicating that job attitude strength clearly moderates the relationships between job satisfaction and performance, withdrawal, and organizational commitment, but that not all attitude strength dimensions are created equal in this regard.