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CHAPTER 9 • Foundations of Individual Behavior 293
Finally, rewards also influence the degree to which individuals are motivated to reduce
dissonance. Coupling high dissonance with high rewards tends to reduce the discomfort by
motivating the individual to believe that there is consistency.
Let’s look at an example. Tracey Ford, a corporate manager, believes strongly that no
company should lay off employees. Unfortunately, Tracey has to make decisions that trade
off her company’s strategic direction against her convictions on layoffs. She knows that orga-
nizational restructuring means some jobs may no longer be needed. She also knows layoffs
are in the best economic interest of her firm. What will she do? Undoubtedly, Tracey is expe-
riencing a high degree of cognitive dissonance. Let’s explain her behavior.

1. IMPORTANCE OF FACTORS: Because of the importance of the issues in this example,
she can’t ignore the inconsistency. To deal with her dilemma, she can follow several
steps. She can change her behavior (lay off employees). Or she can reduce dissonance by
concluding that the dissonant behavior is not so important after all (“I’ve got to make a
living, and in my role as a decision maker, I often have to place the good of my company
above that of individual organizational members”). She might also change her attitude
(“There is nothing wrong in laying off employees”). Finally, another choice would be
to seek out more consonant elements to outweigh the dissonant ones (“The long-term
benefits to the surviving employees from our restructuring more than offset the associ-
ated costs”).
2. DEgREE OF INFLUENCE: The degree of influence that Tracey believes she has
also impacts how she reacts to the dissonance. If she perceives the dissonance to be
uncontrollable—something about which she has no choice—she’s less likely to feel she
needs to change her attitude. If, for example, her boss told her that she had to lay off
employees, the pressure to reduce dissonance would be less than if Tracey was perform-
ing the behavior voluntarily. Dissonance would exist but it could be rationalized and
justified. This tendency illustrates why it’s critical in today’s organizations for lead-
ers to establish an ethical culture. With the leaders’ influence and support, employees
won’t feel as much dissonance when faced with decisions of whether to act ethically
or unethically. 13
3. REWARDS: Finally, rewards also influence how likely Tracy is to reduce
dissonance. High dissonance, when accompanied by high rewards, tends to A Question of Ethics
reduce the tension inherent in the dissonance. The reward reduces dissonance
by adding to the consistency side of the individual’s balance sheet. Tracey Have you ever faked a smile? All of us have
might feel because she is well compensated in her job that she sometimes has sometime, somewhere. Now research has
to make hard decisions, such as laying off employees.
shown that employees “fake a positive outlook
So, what can we say about dissonance and employee behavior? These when the boss is around.” Being ambivalent
15
moderating factors suggest that although individuals experience dissonance, (or even negative) about your work or about
they won’t necessarily move toward consistency, that is, toward reducing the working for your organization can be a definite
dissonance. If the issues underlying the dissonance are of minimal impor- detriment. Employers want to see passion. They
tance, if an individual perceives that the dissonance is externally imposed and want you to love your job and be excited about
is substantially uncontrollable, or if rewards are significant enough to offset
the dissonance, the individual will not be under great tension to reduce the coming to work and about doing your job. And
dissonance. 14 when you don’t? If you want to keep your job,
you fake it. But all that faking takes a toll.
How Can an Understanding of Attitudes Help Managers If your professor has assigned this, go to the

Be More Effective? Assignments section of mymanagementlab
.com to complete these discussion questions.
Managers should be interested in their employees’ attitudes because they
influence behavior in the following ways: Talk About It 1: What ethical issues
might arise under these circumstances for both
1. Satisfied and committed employees have lower rates of turnover and employees and for managers?
absenteeism. If managers want to keep resignations and absences down—
especially among their more productive employees—they’ll want to do Talk About It 2: Discuss ways that
things that generate positive job attitudes. managers could create an environment where
2. Whether satisfied workers are productive workers is a debate that’s been employees don’t have to fake a positive outlook.
going on for almost 80 years. After the Hawthorne studies (see p. 51 in the