06.Employee Job Satisfaction

Employee Job Satisfaction

Introduction

When it comes to managing their staff, one of the most challenging area for today's managers is job satisfaction. Many studies have shown that job satisfaction has a disproportionately high impact on employee motivation, with motivation having an impact on productivity and, as a result, on corporate performance.

Definition And Importance Of Job Satisfaction

Hoppock defined job satisfaction is defined as any set of psychological, physiological, and environmental factors that lead a person to honestly state, "I am content with my job." (Hoppock, 1935). Although numerous external factors influence job satisfaction, it remains an internal issue that has to do with how the person feels, according to this perspective. That is, job satisfaction refers to a combination of factors that contribute to a sense of fulfillment. Vroom in his definition of Job satisfaction is concerned with the employee's function in the workplace. Thus, he defines Individuals' affective orientations toward the work responsibilities they are now performing are defined as job satisfaction. (Vroom, 1964).

 

Job satisfaction is an emotional reaction to one's work environment. As a result, it can only be inferred rather than observed. How effectively the results meet or surpass expectations is typically a determining factor in job satisfaction. For case, Participants in an organization who believe they are working harder than others in the department but receive fewer incentives are more likely to have a bad attitude toward their work, their employer, and/or their coworkers.

Christen, Iyer, and Soberman (2006) develop a model of job satisfaction (see Figure 1) that includes the following elements:

Figure 1: Christen, Lyer And Soberman Model Of Job Satisfaction

Source: Christen Et, 2006

Lawler and Porter (1967present their job satisfaction model, which, unlike the preceding model, emphasizes the role of rewards on job satisfaction.

Figure 2: Lawler’s And Porter’s Model of Job Satisfaction

Source : Lawler And Porter, 1967

In this paradigm, intrinsic and extrinsic rewards are not directly linked to job satisfaction because of the employee's perceptions about the deserved amount of pay.

Factors Of Job Satisfaction

Several factors influence job satisfaction, including the nature of the work, salary, advancement possibilities, management, workgroups, and working circumstances.

The variables of job happiness are approached in a somewhat different way by Rue and Byars,

Figure 3: determinants of satisfaction and dissatisfaction

 Source : Rue and bytes, 2003

 Measuring Job Satisfaction

Frequently, general social science research methodologies such as the questionnaire are used to assess job satisfaction. The 1967 version of the Minessota Satisfaction Questionnaire uses the following response categories:

1.      Not satisfied,

2.      Somewhat satisfied,

3.      Satisfied,

4.      Very satisfied and

5.      Extremely satisfied.

Effects Of Job Satisfaction

Satisfied employees are not always the most productive. There are several putative moderating variables, with rewards appearing to be the most relevant. People will be satisfied if they receive rewards that they believe are fair, and this is likely to lead to increased performance effort. Furthermore, recent research suggests that while contentment may not always lead to improved individual performance, it does lead to improvements at the departmental and organizational levels. Finally, whether contentment leads to performance or performance leads to satisfaction is still a point of contention. (Luthans, 1998).

Employee loyalty is one of the most important considerations for human resource managers in particular. Employee loyalty is frequently tested using the Loyalty Questionnaire, and when it isn't high enough, it might have major negative implications.

Employee absenteeism incurs substantial new costs for businesses; as a result, managers are constantly looking for strategies to reduce it to a bare minimum. Increased employee satisfaction is probably the best approach to reduce employee absenteeism.

When employee satisfaction is high, absenteeism is low; when employee satisfaction is poor, absenteeism is high. However, there are moderating variables, such as the degree to which people believe their professions are important, as with the other correlations with satisfaction. It's also worth remembering that while high job satisfaction does not always equate to low absence, low job satisfaction is more likely to result in high absenteeism.

LIST OF REFERENCES

 

1.      Armstrong, M. (2006). A Handbook of Human resource Management Practice, Tenth Edition, Kogan Page Publishing, London,, p. 264

2.      Christen, M., Iyer, G. and Soberman, D. (2006). Job Satisfaction, Job Performance, and Effort: A Reexamination Using Agency Theory, Journal of Marketing, January, Vol. 70, pp. 137-150

3.      Herzberg, H. F. (1976). Motivation-Hygiene Profiles, p. 20

4.      Hoppock, R. (1935). Job Satisfaction, Harper and Brothers, New York, p. 47

5.      Lawler, E.E. III, and Porter, L.W. (1967). The Effect of Performance on Job Satisfaction, Industrial Relations, pp. 20-28

6.      Opatha, H.H.D.N.P. (2010). Personal Quality, Department of HRM, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka

7.      Rue, L.W. and Byars, L. (2003). Management, Skills and Application, 10 ed., McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York, p. 259