Business
Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction refers to an individual's contentment and fulfillment with their job. It encompasses various factors such as work environment, relationships with colleagues, compensation, and opportunities for growth. High job satisfaction is linked to increased productivity, employee retention, and overall organizational success.
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10 Key excerpts on "Job Satisfaction"
eBook - PDFOffice Ergonomics
Ease and Efficiency at Work, Second Edition
- Anne D. Kroemer, Karl H.E. Kroemer(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
WHAT EXACTLY IS “Job Satisfaction”? Employees spend vast amounts of their time on the job, so it is not far-fetched to assume that job characteristics will influence Job Satisfaction, which will then affect productivity and performance at work. Job Satisfaction is important to us as a society, as managers, and as employees for several reasons. First, as a society, we believe in a high-quality work life as a goal; we feel that everyone has the right to fulfill-ing, rewarding jobs. Additionally, employers are increasingly interested in keeping employees happy because Job Satisfaction is associated with critical (and revenue-impacting) variables like turnover, absenteeism, and job performance. And employ-ees who are happy on the job might well enjoy a higher quality of life overall, with fewer stress-related disorders and illnesses, than those who are not happy. There does appear to be a causal link between job stress and physical disorders; stress is covered in further detail later in this chapter. Job Satisfaction is defined as the extent to which a person derives pleasure from a job. It is distinct from “morale,” which refers to the collective spirit and over-all goodwill of the larger group in which the person functions. Job Satisfaction has been extensively researched and, accordingly, there are several theories that strive to explain what causes or prevents it. These approaches can be broadly categorized into need-based or value-based theories, social comparison theories, and job content and context theories. 29 Working Well with Others According to need- or value-based theories, Job Satisfaction is an attitude that is determined within the individual. The theories in this general category pos-tulate that every person has physical and physiological needs that one strives to fill in order to obtain satisfaction.
- Colin P. Silverthorne(Author)
- 2005(Publication Date)
- NYU Press(Publisher)
10Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment Motivation and performance are influenced by the emotions we experience both at work and in our personal lives. How our attitudes and emotions affect our behavior is explored in this chapter.Job Satisfaction
The very extensive literature concerning Job Satisfaction indicates that, across a variety of work settings, Job Satisfaction is an important workplace construct that is of concern for effective management. Job Satisfaction is defined as “a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job” (including various facets of that job). Job Satisfaction can be broken down into three general areas: the values that an individual has or wants, the perception of how the organization meets these values, and their relative importance to the individual (Locke, 1976). Job Satisfaction has been linked to positive workplace outcomes such as increased organizational commitment, with workers having high levels of Job Satisfaction being more likely to be committed to the organization (Brown and Peterson, 1994). Furthermore, individuals with higher levels of Job Satisfaction are less likely to seek out a different job (Sager, 1994) or to leave the organization (Boles, Johnson, and Hair, 1997). Employee Job Satisfaction is also a function of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards offered by a job (Tuch and Martin, 1991), status associated with job level (Cox and Nkomo, 1991), and work values (Drummond and Stoddard, 1991). Furthermore, task, status, monetary reward, and social relationships (or a team dimension) are four essential aspects of Job Satisfaction (Neil and Snizek, 1987) and are also important dimensions of work values (Shuka, Sarna, and Nigam, 1989). They are the basis of the reward thesis, which explains higher Job Satisfaction by the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards obtained from a promotion (Wright, Bengtsson, and Frankenberg, 1994). As mentioned earlier, turnover is a major issue for many organizations and is very important to control because of the costs associated with hiring and training new personnel, as well as the costs associated with not having that individual contributing his or her work efforts toward organizational goals. Creating and maintaining a high level of Job Satisfaction is one of the most important attitudinal issues faced by managers in the workplace.
- Steven G. Rogelberg(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
Job Satisfaction Job Satisfaction Sharon K. Parker Sharon K. Parker Parker, Sharon K. 803 808 Job Satisfaction Sharon K. Parker Job Satisfaction refers to the overall feelings one has and the evaluation one makes about one’s job. People with high job satisfaction experience a pleasurable or positive emotional state when they think about their job or job experiences. In simple terms, they like their jobs. Since early studies in the 1930s, Job Satisfaction has become one of the most widely investigated concepts in the field of industrial and organizational psychology. It is a valuable outcome in its own right but also a driver of other important individual and organizational outcomes. The importance of this concept is reflected in its central role in numerous theories, such as those concerning job design, leadership, and employee withdrawal. Defining and Measuring Job Satisfaction Job Satisfaction is traditionally defined as a pleasurable or positive emotional state that results from one’s appraisal of one’s job or job aspects. This definition includes both one’s affective reactions to one’s job (feelings) and one’s cognitive evaluation of the job (thoughts). There is controversy about whether Job Satisfaction should be considered as the interplay of both one’s thoughts and feelings, as implied in this definition, or whether the cognitive and affective aspects should be separated into distinct dimensions
eBook - PDFIndustrial and Organizational Psychology
Research and Practice
- Paul E. Spector(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
You will see it frequently mentioned throughout most of the remaining chapters of this book. We will also include a discussion of organizational commitment, which relates to many of the same variables as Job Satisfaction. Finally, we will discuss emotions in the workplace, both their causes and their consequences. Objectives: The student who studies this chapter should be able to: Define Job Satisfaction and organizational commitment. Characterize the differences between Job Satisfaction and organizational commit- ment. Explain how Job Satisfaction and organizational commitment are measured. Summarize the findings on possible causes and effects of Job Satisfaction and organizational commitment. Discuss how emotions are experienced by employees at work and how they impact organizations. THE NATURE OF Job Satisfaction Job Satisfaction is an attitudinal variable that reflects how people feel about their jobs overall, as well as various aspects of the jobs. In simple terms, Job Satisfaction is the extent to which people like their jobs; job dissatisfaction is the extent to which they dislike them. There have been two approaches to the study of Job Satisfaction—the global approach and the facet approach. The global approach treats Job Satisfaction as a single, overall How People Feel About Their Jobs 211 TABLE 9.1 Common Job Satisfaction Facets Pay Job conditions Promotion opportunities Nature of the work itself Fringe benefits Communication Supervision Security Coworkers feeling toward the job. Many studies assess people’s overall satisfaction, and many of the findings discussed in this chapter reflect that variable. The alternative approach is to focus on job facets or different aspects of the job, such as rewards (pay or fringe benefits), other people on the job (supervisors or coworkers), job conditions, and the nature of the work itself. A list of the most often studied facets appears in Table 9.1.
eBook - PDF- Christine Williams, Kirsten Dellinger, Lisa Keister(Authors)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- Emerald Group Publishing Limited(Publisher)
Research on job quality is often based on measures of general Job Satisfaction, an ‘‘overall affective orientation on the part of individuals toward work roles which they are presently occupying’’ ( Kalleberg, 1977, p. 126 ). Job Satisfaction can be explained not only by characteristics of individuals (e.g., years of education) but also by characteristics of jobs and work settings. The latter influences on Job Satisfaction have roots in research by Turner and Lawrence (1965) and Hackman and Lawler (1971) who provide evidence that employees who work on jobs high on ‘‘core dimensions’’ (i.e., variety, task identity, autonomy, and feedback) show high work satisfaction ( Hackman & Oldham, 1976 ; Kalleberg, 1977 ; Loher, Noe, Moeller, & Fitzgerald, 1985 ). More recently, research focuses on the nature of work relationships ( Wharton, Rotolo, & Bird, 2000 ). Ducharme and Martin (2000) , using data from the 1997 National Employee Survey, find that Job Satisfaction is related to both instrumental and affective social support from coworkers. Ganster, Fulicier, and Mayes (1986) , using data DINA BANERJEE AND CAROLYN C. PERRUCCI 40 from a contracting firm, find Job Satisfaction related to affective social support from the immediate supervisor as well as from ‘‘other people at work.’’ Handel (2005) finds that workers’ Job Satisfaction is associated most strongly with interesting work, followed by positive management– employee relations and promotion opportunities, and then by subjective pay evaluation, job security, independent work, and positive coworker relations. The present study examines the consequences of an expanded set of individual human capital and work context characteristics on a recent national sample of employees’ evaluations of their general Job Satisfaction. It first compares men and women employees, and white and nonwhite employees on their reported levels of Job Satisfaction.
eBook - PDF- Josiane Fahed-Sreih(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- IntechOpen(Publisher)
First, a number of researchers have been curious about the relationships between Job Satisfaction and job performance. For this question, many people may intui-tively believe that Job Satisfaction is an important factor to impact job performance. Their presumption is that happy workers are more likely to be productive workers. However, at the early stage, the results indicated that Job Satisfaction was not mean-ingfully associated with job performance [75]. Till recently, studies showed that Job Satisfaction was moderately correlated with task performance. In other words, Job Satisfaction did predict job performance [2]. The satisfied employees who held posi-tive feelings toward their work did a better job to fulfill the duties [76], to increase creativity in job [77], to enhance decision-making and problem-solving ability [78], and furthermore, to strengthen the memory and recall ability [79]. Second, Job Satisfaction is interrelated to job commitment. Commitment is defined as that an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals and wishes to remain as a member [3]. Commitment can be divided into three types, i.e., affective commitment, continuance commitment, and normative com-mitment, which are emotional-based, cost-based, and obligation-based, respec-tively [2]. Research found that Job Satisfaction was strongly correlated with affective and normative commitment but not correlated with continuance commitment [80]. Thus, the employees who have positively affective reaction to their jobs will be com-mitted to their job and feel an obligation to remain in the organization [80–84]. Third, Job Satisfaction is moderately positive related to organizational citizen-ship behavior [2, 85]. OCB has been defined as “individual behavior that is discre-tionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization” ([86, 87], p. 4).
eBook - ePubThe Psychology of Behaviour at Work
The Individual in the Organization
- Adrian Furnham(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Psychology Press(Publisher)
One might expect the notion of Job Satisfaction to be in the forefront of employers’ minds. Interestingly enough, however, the extent to which organizations have adopted the term and institutionalized intervention based on Job Satisfaction related theory and research is considerably more mixed. Job Satisfaction, for example, is rarely included as part of an organization’s key values, basic beliefs, core competencies or guiding principles, nor is the topic given much direct exposure in popular business books. Rather, the idea of having satisfied employees is more likely to be considered some form of outcome or end-state, which occurs as a result of adherence to some more proactively typically action oriented set of factors, behaviours or set of interventions.Box 6.4 Overall Job Satisfaction questionnaire1. My job is like a hobby to me 2. My job is usually interesting enough to keep me from getting bored 3. It seems that my friends are more interested in their jobs (R) 4. I consider my job rather unpleasant (R) 5. I enjoy my work more than my leisure time 6. I am often bored with my job (R) 7. I feel fairly well satisfied with my present job 8. Most of the time I have to force myself to go to work (R) 9. I am satisfied with my job for the time being 10. I feel that my job is no more interesting than others I could get (R) 11. I definitely dislike my work (R) 12. I feel that I am happier in my work than most other people 13. Most days I am enthusiastic about my work 14. Each day of work seems like it will never end (R) 15. I like my job better than the average worker does 16. My job is pretty uninteresting (R) 17. I find real enjoyment in my work 18. I am disappointed I ever took this job (R)ItemsSource: Brayfield & Rothe (1951).Responses: Strongly agree: Agree; Undecided; Disagree; Strongly disagree; scored 5 to 1 respectively. (R) reverse items.Generally speaking, attention to Job Satisfaction related issues seems to range anywhere from complete repression of the term to fully integrated measurement and evaluation tools, such as annual organization culture surveys, multi-rater feedback methodologies or the Balanced Scorecard approach. Even in those organizations where Job Satisfaction issues are addressed directly through formal institutional systems and policies, the conceptualization tends to be more outcome-oriented, such as morale, commitment or even turnover. Thus, while these areas are entirely different psychological constructs in the literature, managers and practitioners often use the terms interchangeably when working with and responding to these types of issues. This blurring of the construct itself and intermittent level of implementation raises some important issues for researchers and theorists working in the area of Job Satisfaction, as well as for the practitioners who must work within and manage such complex boundaries. (Judge & Church, 2000: 176–177)
- Mats Alvesson(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter(Publisher)
5. Job Satisfaction, Motivation and Meaning of Work The well-being and Job Satisfaction of personnel are not in themselves of major interest from the management perspective. Job Satisfaction, how-ever, is regarded as being closely related to motivation. Since the problem of motivation is of the greatest interest to executives these must, at least indirectly, take account of the well-being of their personnel. In order to understand why working life assumes the form it does and why employees feel as they do, the attitude of companies (management) to Job Satisfaction and motivation poses an interesting problem. The management-orientated organization theoretical literature often as-cribes greater interest to motivation than to Job Satisfaction. In this chapter I shall also focus on the motivation problem, Job Satisfaction being treated more implicitly. I wish to emphasize that in this chapter I examine the aspects of motivation above all as they are relevant from the point of view of management perspective. Most of the literature I have studied is based on this perspec-tive. Amongst other things this fact has certain implications for the concepts which are applied. Normally I prefer to use words such as engagement or intentionality rather than motivation when describing the interest of indi-viduals in taking action. In management-orientated motivation theory these expressions are not frequently used. If it is a question of motivation (engagement, intentionality) in connection with an acting/behaving con-cerning tasks which are narrowly defined and controlled by a management function, motivation is perhaps a more accurate expression than engage-ment, for example. The former concept is associated with instrumental reason, while engagement refers to the negation of this reason (see Ch. 1).
eBook - PDF- S. Bazen, C. Lucifora, W. Salverda, S. Bazen, C. Lucifora, W. Salverda(Authors)
- 2005(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
Individual perceptions of the industrial relations environment are positively associated with satis- faction, indicating that a good environment in the workplace is very important for individual welfare. Finally, employer behaviour is significantly associated with some of the dimensions of job dissatisfaction, but only three behavioural factors are clear determinants of all four dimensions of job (dis)satisfaction: the presence of guaranteed job security, the presence of internal labour markets, and the presence of formal procedures for dealing with collective disputes. With regard to the second of the above dimensions, the results for the preference accorded to insiders in career development (through the internal labour market) clearly confirm that this significantly increases satisfaction. Conversely the other two employer practices are negatively associated with Job Satisfaction, and the association is not the result of reverse causation. While these results may at first seem counterintuitive, there are a number of possible explanations for them. For example there may be a trade-off between collective interests and individual welfare, these practices may benefit some workers at the expense of others, or employers may expect employee compliance in return. All three of these can result, ceteris paribus, in lower Job Satisfaction. Finally, the above findings suggest that particular care should be taken when interpreting empirical evidence if the different facets of Job Satisfaction are analyzed independently or when only an indicator for overall Job Satisfaction is considered. 82 Job Satisfaction and Employer Behaviour Notes 1. These dimensions are selectivity in recruiting, employment security, incentive pay, employee ownership, information sharing, participation and empowerment, self- managed teams, training and skill development, cross-utilization and cross-training, symbolic egalitarianism and promotion from within.
eBook - PDFIndustrial and Organizational Psychology
Research and Practice
- Paul E. Spector(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
Over time, however, Job Satisfaction will increase, perhaps as employees adjust to working life and as they gain in experi- ence and skill. Ethnic Differences. Another trend in the composition of the workforce in the United States and other countries is that it is becoming increasingly diverse. If organizations are to deal appropriately with a diverse workforce, then they must understand how people of various ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds view and feel about their jobs. Within the United States several studies have compared the Job Satisfaction of Black and White employees. Some of these studies have found Most Americans say that they like their jobs. Digital Vision Antecedents of Job Satisfaction 217 that Blacks have slightly lower Job Satisfaction (Greenhaus et al., 1990), but studies that have found differences in satisfaction have also noted differences in other vari- ables, suggesting that job experiences might differ in these samples. Perhaps it is job differences and not race that account for the lower Job Satisfaction of Blacks. Somers and Birnbaum (2001) considered this possibility in their study of Black and White employees of a hospital, finding that there were no differences between them after demographic variables (e.g., age and education) and type of work were statistically controlled. Person–Job Fit Most researchers have tended to treat environmental and personal factors as inde- pendent influences on Job Satisfaction. In other words, they have studied character- istics of jobs or of individuals that may lead to satisfaction. Another approach, however, is to look at the interaction of both factors. The person–job fit approach states that Job Satisfaction will occur when there is a good match between the person and the job. There are many ways that people and jobs fit, however, including the correspondence between task demands and personal abilities (Greguras & Diefendorff, 2009).
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