Role of Job Satisfaction on Employee Behavior

In today’s complex work environment maintaining satisfied employees that will continue to serve an organization is the ultimate goal of any human resource department of a company. Job satisfaction is the most frequently studied variable in organizational behavior research (Spector, 1997). It has been considered in a variety of ways, and is defined differently in various studies. Thus in order to understand and appreciate the role of job satisfaction on employee behavior this study has been undertaken.

The researcher has introduced the concepts of Attitude and Behavior and then moved further into explaining the three main components of major Job Attitude which consists of Job Involvement, Organization Commitment and Job Satisfaction. The Dimensions, Antecedents and Measures of Job Satisfaction have also been touched upon in detail. The researcher has also gathered information on various motivation theories that are applied in organizations by the managers

There is enough discussion on the impact of Job Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction on employee behaviors which in turn affects the workings and performance of an organization. To conclude with the researcher has discussed job satisfaction’s necessity for an employee since it not only affects his/her work life but also his personal life. It is very important for organizations to identify the determinants of job satisfaction in an effort to optimize the productivity of their employees and avoid the costs of employee turnover. Restructuring of activities and jobs in organizations and the human resources to suit the specific demands and needs of such structures is of vital importance to both the employees and managers. The viewpoint of many managers and employees from various articles has been taken into consideration.

INTRODUCTION

Organization Behavior (OB) is a very important study and application of knowledge about how people as individuals and as groups act within organizations. It studies what people do in an organization and how their behavior affects the organization’s performance. It endeavors to identify ways in which people can act more effectively. It is an applied behavioral science that is built on contributions from a number of behavioral disciplines. It provides a useful set of tools at many levels of analysis. For instance it helps managers understand the behavior of individuals working within an organization. It also aids their understanding of the complexities involved in interpersonal relations. People, structure, technology, and the environment in which the organization operates are the key elements in the study of organization behavior (Robbins, Judge and Sanghi, 2008).

In today’s work environment, organizations focus a lot of their attention towards ensuring job satisfaction for each of their employees. The cost of dissatisfied employees is extremely high for any organization. Satisfied employees are believed to be more productive, perform better and are more likely to perform acts that lead to customer satisfaction. Dissatisfied employees on the other hand, are those that are not satisfied with their working conditions for a variety of reasons and the consequences of having them in an organization are very disastrous in nature (Newstrom and Davis, 1993; George and Jones, 1999; Bennett, 1991).

ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR

Attitudes are the feelings and beliefs that largely influence as to how the employees would perceive their working environment, commit themselves to designated actions and behave as a result. They are evaluative statements in nature which can be either favorable or unfavorable- concerning objects, people or events. They basically reflect as to how an individual feels about something. Attitudes is formed by three main components: cognitive component which talks about the opinion or belief segment of an attitude, affective component stresses on the emotional or the feelings segment of an attitude and finally behavioral component talks about having an intention to behave in a certain way towards some or something. These components, together, help in understanding the complexity and the potential relationship between attitudes and behavior. In organizations, attitudes are important because of their behavioral component. In order to explain the linkage between attitudes and behavior, Leon Festinger proposed the theory of Cognitive Dissonance in the late 1950s. This theory refers to any incompatibility that an individual might perceive between two or more attitudes or between behavior and attitudes.

Recent researches have confirmed to Festinger’s belief by evidencing that attitudes significantly predict future behavior and also that relationships between employees and the organization can be heightened by taking into concern moderating variables. Important Attitudes that reflect fundamental values, self interest, or identification with individuals or other groups that a person values are considered to be very important in nature. Attitudes that the individuals consider important tend to show a stronger relationship to behavior. The link between the two is even stronger when the attitude and the behavior are very specific in nature. For instance asking an employee about their intention to stay with the concerned organization for the next few months is going to help in predicting the turnover for that person as compared to if they were asked about how satisfied they were with their pay. Attitudes that are easily thought of or are often showed by an employee play a key role in predicting behavior than those attitudes that are not easily accessible in the memory.

Variances between attitudes and behavior are quite likely to occur when social structures stress people to behave in certain ways. This tends to qualify behavior in organizations. Also the attitude-behavior relationship is likely to be much stronger if an attitude refers to something with which the individual has direct personal experience. Attitudes are usually used to evaluate and understand after an action has taken place instead of using it before so as to guide an action. Organization Behavior concentrates on only a limited number of work-related attitudes even though a person could have an unlimited number of attitudes. Either may it be positive or negative evaluations that an employee carries about his/her work environment are captured by these work related attitudes. Job Satisfaction, Job Involvement and Organizational Commitment are the three main attitudes that have been studied by a lot of scholars and researchers.

MAJOR JOB ATTITUDES

JOB INVOLVEMENT

JOB SATISFACTION

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT

JOB INVOLVEMENT

Job involvement helps in measuring the level to which people psychologically relate themselves with their job and conceive their self worth with the perceived level of performance. It has been evidenced that employees who are highly involved with their jobs strongly identify themselves with their work and value its worth in their life. Because of their attachment with their work they highly engross themselves in their jobs, invest valuable time and energy in them and view work as a fundamental part of their overall lives. Higher level of job involvement and psychological empowerment leads to higher to organizational citizenship and job performance by the individual. Holding meaningful jobs and performing them well are important to their own self image which helps to explain the traumatic effects of job loss on their esteem needs. People involved in their jobs participate in following the code of work ethics of their workplace; exhibit high growth needs, and also enjoy their involvement in making decisions. Thus, job involvement also helps in lowering the absenteeism rate and turnover rates. Also a manager’s high involvement in the job leads to higher job satisfaction of his employees thus making it an important factor for an organization’s effectiveness in a highly competitive environment.

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT

Organizational Commitment is usually defined as the strength of one’s identification and involvement with their respective organization (Mowday et al., 1979) as cited by Silva. P (2006). It’s the state when an employee identifies himself/herself with a particular organization and its goals and sees he/she working with that organization in the future also. It is a way by which an employee’s willingness to remain as a member of that organization for the future also is evaluated. It often reflects the employee’s belief in the mission and goals of the firm, willingness to put in effort in their accomplishment and intentions to continue working there. Under the case of high job involvement an employee identifies with ones specific job, while under high organizational commitment an employee identifies with one’s employing organization. It has been identified that a positive relationship exists between organizational commitment and job productivity. Employees who are organizationally committed usually have low absenteeism rate, low turnover rates and also have a willingness to adhere their concerned company’s policies.

JOB SATISFACTION

“Take away my people, but leave my factories, and soon grass will grow on the factory floors. Take away my factories, but leave my people, and soon we will have a new and better factory”

– Andrew Carnegie

(as quoted by Brown, 1996)

Job satisfaction, in the words of Ivancevich and Matteson, 1990, is an attitude that individuals carry about their jobs. It results from their perception of their jobs. Various aspects of a job such as pay, promotion opportunities and co-workers plays a role in forming the base of job satisfaction. Also factors such as of the work environment such as the supervisor’s style, policies and procedures etc. affect a person’s level of job satisfaction. It details other determinants of job satisfaction such as promotion, co-workers, managerial styles and policies/procedures. Job Satisfaction is a set of favorable or unfavorable feelings and emotions with which employees perceive their work. Job satisfaction is an affective attitude- a feeling of relative likes or dislikes. It can be viewed as an overall attitude or it can apply to the various parts of an individual’s job.

Job satisfaction is related to the positive feeling an employee perceives about one’s job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics. Jobs require interaction with coworkers and bosses, following organizational rules and policies, meeting performance standards, living with working conditions. It has been identified that a positive relationship exists between a person’s job satisfaction level and holding of positive feelings about the same concerned job whereas a person dissatisfied with his job carries negative feelings about the job and organization. Every organization works towards having satisfied employees. There are multiple reasons for the same such as increased employee performance as pointed out by George and Jones (1999), higher motivation levels as found by Bennett (1991) and longevity in tenure with the organization as stated by Robbins (1996). All of the above are essential for any organization especially in case of the hospitality industry where employee performance, high levels of motivation and saving costs incurred in replacing employees are vital.

Dimensions of Job Satisfaction

Job Satisfaction is a complex concept and not easy to measure at the same time. Job satisfaction is different from motivation. It is more of an attitude, an internal state. It could, for example, be associated with a personal feeling of achievement, either quantitative or qualitative whereas motivation is more of a process which may lead to job satisfaction as a result. It is not clear whether job satisfaction consists of a single dimension or a number of separate dimensions. But there surely seems to be a positive correlation between satisfaction and different areas of work. But some workers may be satisfied with certain aspects of their work and dissatisfied with other aspects. Level of job satisfaction gets affected by a wide range of variables related to individual, social, cultural, organizational and environmental factors. These factors all influence job satisfaction of individuals in a given set of circumstances, but not necessarily in others (Mullins. L, 2001).

It is important that managers know the tremendous discrepancies that seemed to exist in the past between what they thought workers wanted from their jobs and what workers said they actually wanted. It is also important that they realize what effect an economic or other change has on these priorities. One may generalize at this point that individuals’ act on the basis of their perceptions or interpretation and not on the basis of reality itself. One of the main reasons behind understanding the study of behavioral sciences is that they help in getting our perceptions to realism. Therefore, by bringing their perceptions closer and closer to reality- what their people really want- managers can often increase their effectiveness in working with employees. Managers just cannot make and act on their own self made assumptions. They have to know and understand the factors that motivate their employees (Hersey. P and Blanchard. K, 1992).

ANTECEDENTS OF JOB SATISFACTION

A lot of researchers and scholars have carried out studies to determine and understand the variables and factors affecting an employee’s job satisfaction. A wide range of individual, social, organizational and cultural variables have been identified as factors affecting an employee’s level of job satisfaction. These factors affecting an employee’s job satisfaction can be divided into internal and external factors. Internal factors usually refer to the factors that can affect the employee’s job satisfaction within the organization and are always focused around the environment of the organization, working conditions, relation with other members in the organization, benefits that employees receive as outcomes to their work and many other factors. Factors outside the organization like employee’s family/social life, the identity and image of the organization in the outside market are categorized under external factors affecting an employee’s level of job satisfaction.

It is not important that the employees may be satisfied with their job but may not have the same feelings about all the aspects of their job (Spector, 1997). George and Jones (1999) found that there are four main factors that affect the level of job satisfaction namely, personality, values, the work situation and social influences. These can also be broadly grouped as non work and work related determinants of job satisfaction.

Determinants of Job Satisfaction

Source: www.google.com

Five main components of job satisfaction, that is, work, supervision, coworkers, pay and promotion play a very key role in affecting an employee’s job satisfaction levels. Personal factors such as age, health, length of job experience, emotional stability, social status, leisure activities, and family and other social relationships also play a certain role in influencing job satisfaction. Even role ambiguity and role conflict are considered to be vital in influencing an employee’s job satisfaction. An employer’s behavior at the workplace in many ways can also to some extent affect an employee’s job satisfaction. Outcomes such as organizational commitment or intention to leave are some of the end results that come into being because of these factors.

Personality also plays an influential role in forming as an antecedent of job satisfaction since it is subjective to individual experience and expectations (Judge, Heller & Mount, 2002). An employee’s personality traits can influence satisfaction or dissatisfaction at work. Employees with Type A’ personalities are usually more aggressive in nature. They believe in setting high standards for themselves and therefore are more prone to job dissatisfaction. Whereas employees who are quite relaxed in their attitude fall under the category of Type B’ personalities. Their personality shows its effect on their attitude towards work in a very relaxed way. People who find themselves in jobs which fit according to their attitudes and personalities stay more satisfied and committed to their work. The characteristic of the job also influences one’s attitude towards it which may include the aesthetics of that workplace. Financial Rewards are viewed as satisfactory only when it is equitable and is in line with the expectations of the workers (Khandewal. V, 2008).

The use of sound selection methods and having a good match between employee and jobs can ensure right person for the right job which in turn would help in enhancing job satisfaction. Job satisfaction factors for employees keep changing over time. Thus it is the responsibility of the managers and the employers to keep in pace with their changing needs and demands so that they remain committed to the organization.

MEASURES OF JOB SATISFACTION

To evaluate an employee’s satisfaction or dissatisfaction at work is a complex process which consists of assessing a number of discrete job elements. One of the popular methods to evaluate the attitudes of employees is by the use of attitude surveys. It helps in drawing out responses from employees through questionnaires as to their feelings about their jobs, work groups, supervisors and the organization. Managers are provided with valuable feedback on how employees perceive their working conditions by using attitude surveys on a regular basis. It helps in revising an organization’s policies and procedures so that they work in favor of the employees.

In research literature, the two most extensively validated employee attitude survey measures used are the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) which questionnaire widely used to capture job satisfaction data that was created by Smith, Kendall & Hulin (1969). It measures one’s satisfaction in five facets: pay, promotions and promotion opportunities, coworkers, supervision and the work itself. JDI is a very reliable method. Some more job satisfaction questionnaires include Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) created by Weiss, Dawis, England & Lofquist (1967), the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) And the Faces Scale. The MSQ method has the advantage of skillfulness. All of these measures have led to greater scientific understanding of employee attitudes and it has proven to be very successful for many practioners and researchers (www.wikipedia.org)

Many organizations often wish to obtain a more detailed assessment of employee attitudes in order to ensure employee satisfaction as an end result. It is very important to analyze and interpret effectively the data obtained from these employee attitude surveys in order to understand the results and in turn take appropriate actions to improve employee attitudes and job satisfaction. Employee surveys used effectively can act as catalysts for improving employee attitudes and producing organizational change. Survey feedback and action help support and drive organizational change (Ulrich, Brockbank, Yeung, & Lake, 1995).

IMPACT OF JOB SATISFACTION AND DISSATISFACTION ON EMPLOYEE BEHAVIOR

When employees are dissatisfied with their jobs, lack job involvement and are low in their commitment to the organization, a wide variety of consequences follows in. Dissatisfied employees may engage in psychological withdrawal, physical withdrawal or even acts of aggression and retaliation for presumed wrongs. Many researchers and authors like Davis & Newstrom (1989), Lawler (1977), Porter & Steers (1977), Newcomb, Betts & Cano (1987) have attributed job turnover, absenteeism and job burnout to a lack of job satisfaction. Satisfied employees may provide acts of consumer service beyond the call of duty, have sparkling work records, and actively pursue excellence in all areas of their jobs. Some specific outcomes of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction in a workplace are explained as under:

Job Satisfaction and Job Performance

The relationship between Job satisfaction and Job performance is one of the most researched topic by many scholars (Judge, Thoresen, Bono, and Patton, 2001). According to Landy (1989) their relationship in the field of Industrial psychology was described as the “Holy Grail”. The satisfaction-performance relationship is more complex that the simple path of “satisfaction leads to performance.” Thus it is wrong to assume that high satisfaction always leads to high employee performance. Satisfied workers actually may be high, average or even low producers will tend to continue the level of performance that brought them satisfaction before also. The study of the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance has a very controversial history. In 1930s the Hawthorne studies conducted helped the researchers in becoming aware of the effects of employee attitudes on their work performance.

According to Newstrom and Davis (1993), one way to view this dimension is in believing the relationship that high performance contributes to high job satisfaction. This sequence states that better performance typically leads to higher economic, sociological and psychological rewards. If these rewards are seen in a fair light then the overall employee satisfaction improves. On the other hand if these rewards are seen inadequate for one’s level of performance then dissatisfaction tends to arise. It is important for managers to devote its efforts to aid its employee performance, which will likely produce satisfaction as a by product. In 2001, Judge et al identified seven different models that can be best used to describe the job satisfaction and job performance relationship. Some of these models view the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance to be unidirectional which states that either job satisfaction causes job performance or vice versa.

Job Satisfaction and Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)

Job satisfaction is considered to be a major determinant of an employee’s organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). A modest relationship exists between job satisfaction and OCB. Satisfied employees seem more likely to talk positively about the organization, help others, and go beyond the normal expectations in their job. They are also very likely to go beyond the formal requirements of the job just in order to reciprocate their positive experiences. They voluntarily engage in behaviors that work in favor of the organization.

Job Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is a very important requirement for many firms. Their performance gets marked by keeping their customers satisfied and happy. Employees of service based organizations often interact with their customers, thus the satisfaction of these employees is very important in order to keep the customers loyalty to the concerned organization. Satisfied employees increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Service organizations know that satisfied and loyal customers are highly dependent on how frontline employees deal with their customers. Satisfied employees are more likely to be friendly, upbeat and responsive in nature which the customers appreciate. Since satisfied employees have high retention rate, customers are more likely to encounter familiar faces and receive experienced service. All these qualities build customer satisfaction and loyalty. The dissatisfied customers can increase an employee’s job dissatisfaction in a similar fashion.

Many service based companies like, FedEx, Southwest Airlines, Four Seasons Hotels are American Express very customer oriented companies who go out of their way in order to please their customers. In order to provide that great impeccable service to their customers they focus on building employee satisfaction- recognizing that employee satisfaction will go a long way towards contributing to their goal of having happy customers. These firms seek to hire upbeat and friendly employees, train the employees in the importance of customer service, reward customer service, provide positive work climates and track employee satisfaction on a regular basis through various attitude surveys.

Job Satisfaction and Absenteeism/Tardiness

A consistent negative relationship exists between satisfaction and absenteeism. Dissatisfied employees are more likely to be absent at their work, other factors have an impact on the relationship and reduce the correlation coefficient. Employees who have less job satisfaction tend to be absent more often. But this connection is not sharp for a couple of reasons. Some absences are caused by legitimate medical reasons and therefore a satisfied employee may have a valid absence at times. Tardiness is another way by which employees may exhibit their dissatisfaction with job conditions. A tardy employee is one who arrives late at work. Tardiness is a type of short period absenteeism ranging froma few minutes to several hours for each event, and it is another way by which employees withdraw from active involvement in the organization. This may impede the timely completion of work and disrupt productive relationships with coworkers.

Job Satisfaction and Turnover

Satisfaction is also negatively related to turnover, but the correlation is way stronger than that in the case of job satisfaction and absenteeism. Yet there are various factors such as labor-market conditions, expectations about alternative job opportunities, and length of tenure with the organization are important constraints on the actual decision to leave one’s current job for some other work. Evidence indicates that an important moderator of the satisfaction-turnover relationship is the employee’s level of performance i. e, it is said that level of satisfaction is less important in predicting turnover for superior employees as compared to the poor performers. But studies suggest that job satisfaction should be more important in influencing poor performers to stay than the superior performers because regardless of level of satisfaction, the high performers are likely to remain with the organization only on account of receipt of recognition, praise and other rewards.

MOTIVATION THEORIES

It has been evidenced to consider Job satisfaction as one aspect of life satisfaction because what a person does on the job reflects while he is off the job. A person’s job satisfaction can actually impact his life, a person works to earn a living and therefore his entire personal and professional life depends upon his job therefore a single factor leading to dissatisfaction can cause a great deal of damage to his overall life satisfaction and vice versa (Davis and Newstrom, 1989). Similarly, it is important for managers to monitor the employees’ attitudes towards their life along with their attitude towards their job and also work environment. Motivating employees so that they work more productively and efficiently is one of the crucial problems facing today’s organizations. This in turn helps in increasing their feelings of satisfaction, involvement and commitment.

Two Factor Theory (Motivator-Hygiene Theory)

The two factor theory, also called as motivation-hygiene theory proposed by psychologist Federick Herzberg was used in order to understand the factors affecting peoples’ attitudes about their work. This theory states that satisfaction and dissatisfaction are driven by different factors that are intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Intrinsic factors which are also known as satisfiers are related to job content (work itself). It also includes achievement, recognition, work itself and responsibility. It is stated that motivation can be seen as an inner force that drives individuals to attain personal and organizational goals (Hoskinson, Porter & Wrench). These motivating factors those aspects of the job that make people want to perform, and provide people with satisfaction. While the extrinsic factors which also know as the hygiene factors are related to the job context (work environment). It involves company policy, administration, supervision, salary, interpersonal relations and working conditions. According to this theory, the factors leading to job satisfaction are separate and distinct from those that lead to job dissatisfaction. The opposite of job dissatisfaction is, no job dissatisfaction but instead: ‘not satisfaction’ (Herzberg et al, 1959).

Job Characteristics Model (JCM)

The Job Characteristics Model was proposed by Hackman & Oldham which is widely used in many organizations to study how particular job characteristics impact the job outcomes, including job satisfaction. The model states that there are five core job characteristics (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback) which impacts three critical psychological states (experienced meaningfulness, experienced responsibility for outcomes and knowledge of the actual results) which in turn influences the work outcomes of the employees (which covers aspects like job satisfaction, absenteeism, work motivation etc). These five core job characteristics can be combined to form a motivating potential score for a job which can be used as an index of how likely a job is going to affect an employee’s attitudes and behaviors.

Attitudes are generally acquired over a long period of time. Similarly, job satisfaction or dissatisfaction emerges as an employee gains more and more information about the workplace. Nevertheless, job satisfaction is dynamic, since it can decline even more quickly than it develops. Managers cannot certify the conditions that lead to high satisfaction because the employee needs fluctuates very quickly. Managers need to pay serious attention to employee attitudes on a very regular basis.

Every organization’s managers should be interested in their employees’ attitudes because attitudes give warnings of potential problems and because they influence behavior in return. Satisfied and committed employees, for instance, have lower rates of turnover, absenteeism and withdrawal behaviors. Managers at all costs should do things that would generate positive job attitudes. One of the most important thing managers can do to raise employee satisfaction is to focus on the intrinsic parts of the job, such as making the work challenging and interesting in nature. Managers should realize that high pay alone cannot help in satisfying their employees or in attracting and retaining high quality performers.

CONCLUSION

A Happy Worker is a Productive Worker

Behavior gets influenced by the attitudes that the employees carry in their minds and it is these attitudes only which turn out to be the indicators of potential problems that an organization can encounter. Job responsibilities, achievements, growth, self fulfillment and recognition help in enhancing job satisfaction levels of employees. In order to excel in their work organizations and managers must ensure employee satisfaction at all levels.

With changing times the employees expect to get more satisfaction from their work than ever before. As the importance of job satisfaction increases in the minds of workers, they are more likely to consider it as a reason to either keep their current job or to accept a job offer elsewhere (Robbins, 2005). In today’s work environment the human resources are the most important assets for a company. This is especially true for service organizations as they rely heavily on that their front line employees provide high-quality services to their customers (Palmer, 2001). Heskett, Jones, Loveman, Sasser & Schlesinger (1994) argue that the financial performance in a company has shown to be derived from customer satisfaction that in turn is highly influenced from employee performance, which in turn is derived from employee satisfaction. Job satisfaction is therefore in the heart of the organization.

Assuring job satisfaction for a long term requires careful planning and effort from both the management and by workers. Managers are encouraged to consider such theories as Herzberg’s (1957), JCM model and Maslow’s (1943) in order to create a stimulating, challenging, supportive and rewarding work environment for all it’s employees. It is also important that the salaries be tied to job responsibilities and that pay increases should be tied to performance rather than seniority. Job satisfaction is a product of the events and conditions that people experience on their jobs. A comprehensive approach to organizational behavior suggests that managers should consider ways in which the work environment can help produce all three key employee attitudes- job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational commitment.

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