Which comes first: employee attitudes or organizational financial and market performance?
Employee attitude data from 35 companies over 8 years were analyzed at the organizational level of analysis against financial (return on assets; ROA) and market performance (earnings per share: EPS) data using lagged analyses permitting exploration of priority in likely causal ordering. Analyses revealed statistically significant and stable relationships across various time lags for 3 of 7 scales. Overall Job Satisfaction and Satisfaction With Security were predicted by ROA and EPS more strongly than the reverse (although some of the reverse relationships were also significant); Satisfaction With Pay suggested a more reciprocal relationship with ROA and EPS. The discussion of results provides a preliminary framework for understanding issues surrounding employee attitudes, high-performance work practices, and organizational financial and market performance.
D001290:Attitude; D003132:Commerce; D003625:Data Collection; D005376:Financial Management; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D040541:Marketing; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D015279:Organizational Culture