Job satisfaction and attitudes

Whenever I have to go to a government office to get something official done I feel anxious and I dread to go. I’d rather postpone it if I can or send somebody else instead. Eventually I have to go because it cannot wait any longer or because I have to show up personally after all. Tomorrow for example I reserved the day to go to the traffic authority and pay for my annual road tax. I should have done it earlier, I know, but now I can’t wait any longer and I simply have to go to that crowded place and follow my file from window to window, where ever it goes. Ethiopians who are there for the same reason usually help and tell me where to go as it is not easy for a foreigner to figure out the process. Friends tell me though that much has improved and that it will take some two hours, which sounds good compared to the whole day that I have set aside for it. We will see.
Last year, when I had to retrieve some certificates from the municipality I was pleasantly surprised as the process and set up of the office had improved tremendously from what I remembered. The service was very effective and my certificates were retrieved in a relatively short time. The same applies for immigration where I go every year to extend my residence permit and that of my family. No sweat.
Things are different though at some of the Inland Revenue offices, where I feel treated as a potential cheater and tax evader rather than an investor who needs the services of the office to pay his dues. The mission statement of the office says that it wants to educate the public and provide it support in paying taxes, or something like that. The attitude of the bureaucrats there is different though. They are not educating the people who come there but instead they are trying to find faults with them, send them back to bring this paper or that, while sitting or sleeping on their file. Processes are not clear and consistent so you never know what is going to happen next. There is no welcoming you with something like “How can we help?” but you are rather met with a question like “And what is it with you?” or something of the sort.
In one particular office there is a television set, supposedly to entertain customers, while they are waiting for their process to be handled. A nice gesture, but guess what? The TV is turned around in such a position, not for the waiting customers to see but for the workers, who even ask customers to step aside so that they can see better!
And so I conclude that the attitude towards work and the public varies tremendously from office to office. At some places you are treated fine and the process to follow is clear or explained well. Here the rights of citizens and residents are respected and the workers are there to provide the service you deserve as tax payer. In other places however, you seem to be a burden and you are treated without any respect, while you are sent here and there for no seemingly good reason. Here, processes are inconsistent and not clear, subject to the interpretation of anybody at the other side of the table, who has forgotten that his or her salary is paid out of the taxes from the people they are not serving very well.
So what is behind the attitude that workers have towards their work? What is it that motivates them to perform well or not and to serve customers with respect and a helping hand or to try and find a way to avoid providing any service at all?
Earlier in this column we looked into values or what it is that people find really important in their lives. Examples of values in work are recognition, respect & dignity, involvement at work, pride in one’s work, financial security, self development and health & wellness. Like values, attitudes are important components that make up the behaviour of workers. While values have a more general focus, attitudes focus on specific people or circumstances. An attitude can be described as the positive or negative response to someone or something in the work environment. For example, when you say that you like or dislike somebody or something, you are expressing an attitude. One important work related attitude is job satisfaction. This attitude expresses a person’s positive or negative feelings about various aspects of his/her job and the work environment. Attitudes are developed out of different components. The cognitive components of an attitude are the beliefs, opinions, knowledge and information that somebody possesses. The affective components are the specific feelings that somebody has. And behavioural components the intentions to behave in a certain way based on a person’s specific feelings or attitude. And so we see that beliefs and values create feelings that influence behaviour. For example: The worker in the tax office beliefs that businessmen are tax evaders. As a result, the worker develops a negative attitude toward businessmen: “I don’t like businessmen”, followed by the behaviour in the office: “I will not serve businessmen well.”
Now, job satisfaction can be defined as the degree to which workers feel positively or negatively about their jobs, an attitude in other words. Closely related attitudes are commitment and involvement. Commitment of a worker demonstrates how strongly a worker identifies with and feels part of the organization or business, while involvement refers to the willingness of a person to work hard. Higher job satisfaction normally results in a decision of the employee to work hard and perform well and so we observe that the level of job satisfaction and thus the attitude towards hard work and performance differs considerably from office to office. Reasons for this are found in the way the managers and supervisors influence attitudes of their employees. And this is where management have the important task to create a good working environment and team spirit, while educating their staff and make them aware about their responsibilities, ethics, citizens and customers’ rights.