Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Factors of Job Satisfaction

Good Essays
1610 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Factors of Job Satisfaction
Unit 2- What Factors Are Most Important to Your Job Satisfaction?

Kaplan University
School of Business and Management
MT302 Organizational Behavior
Author: Kedner Poux
Professor: Sapham Perez
Date: October 27, 2012

Everyone has their own way to express their satisfaction about their employee, however, job Satisfaction, according to Williams J., is defined as "the extent to which people like (satisfaction) or dislike (dissatisfaction) their jobs" (Spector, 1997, p. 2). This definition suggests job satisfaction is a general or global affective reaction that individuals hold about their job. However, according to Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A Judge, job satisfaction is defined as a positive feeling about ones job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics. There are so many factors that can explain how much people feel about their job and why they are changing jobs over and over. Between all of those factors the ones that I chose are the following starting from the highest level to the lowest one: job security, opportunities to use skills and abilities, safety in the work environment, career advancement opportunities and Benefits. How those factors become very important for my job satisfaction?
Job security is the primary factor that people are looking for when applying for jobs. Everyone wants to be secured about their jobs; they want to make sure this is a job that they can count on even if the company does not pay too much but they job is safe they don’t have to worry about losing it at any time or their job is moving anywhere, they just to have a job that is stable. However, the Global Workforce Study of 20,000 employees, by professional services company Towers Watson, found that, when asked to rate what is most important for them in their jobs, 81% of employees said stability and security was the most crucial aspect (Personnel Today, Tuesday 16th March, 2010). But only 43% believed their current organisation was able to offer a secure and stable position. It is a desire for everyone to have a job stable and secure so they don’t have to work too many jobs at once during their working life. According to the survey 72%of respondents want to work for only one to three organizations throughout their careers and about 35% of them are looking to work for only one company. Nick Tatchell, a senior consultant at Towers Watson, told Personnel Today: "The recession has reminded people of some of the fundamentals of what they desire from work, and that is security and stability.
One other option that I considered as a second most important factor of job satisfaction is “Opportunities to use skills and abilities”. According to Wikipedia, employability refers to person’s capability for gaining and maintaining employment (Hillage and Pollard, 1998). For individuals, employability depends on the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) they possess, the way they present those assets to employers, and the context (e.g. personal circumstances and labor market environment) within which they seek work (Hind and Moss, 2011). As such employability is affected by both supply-side and demand-side factors which are often outside of an individual 's control. However, lot of people when looking for job, for example graduate or vocational students or professional, they are looking for companies that willing to hire them and give them the opportunity to use their skills and their knowledge’s which can also allow to this employee to make their career with this organization or to get as much as knowledge they can in order to get a better job in the future. According to SHRM (Society for human resource management) 2012 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement “Sixty-three (63%) percent of employees rated opportunities to use their skills and abilities at work as the most important contributor to their job satisfaction, displacing job security for the number one spot”. Employees are very satisfied with their employers when they feel they have used their skills in order to help their organization to be successful and also they are satisfied with the jobs they have done for this organization. Not only Opportunities to Use Skills and Abilities is considering as a second most important factor in job satisfaction but also safety in the work environment is another factor that plays a very important role into a lot of people when they are looking for jobs. Lot of people before they look for job with an organization they try to find out a lot about them and more precisely if the workplace is safe enough to works by asking all those types of questions such as” do they follow all the OSHA safety rules, what types of safety condition they have in order to keep everyone safe against violence. According to SHRM research, “27% of Human Resources professionals reported that their current organization experienced an incident of workplace violence within the past five years; 15% indicated that incidents of violence had increased in frequency” (SHRM 2012 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement). However most of women think safety into the workplace is considered as one of the very most important factor when it is come to job satisfaction.
According to Examiner.com in one of the its article from society and culture by Sharalyn Hartwell,” Career advancement opportunities, not flexible schedules, are the highest motivating factors for Generation Y in the workplace, according to study conducted by AchieveGlobal, a consulting firm which implements and researches training programs for corporations worldwide. Lot of people when looking for job the first thing they have in mind is what types of careers opportunities that such and such employer is giving in order to get a job with them, they are looking for that in order to help them in their career for their future. Thirty-seven percent of Gen Y’ers said career advancement was their most important goal, or the factor that motivated them the most at work, while 37 percent of Baby Boomers said “Flexibility in my schedule/time off to do the things I enjoy outside of work” was the most motivating factor. These results make sense. Gen Y is in the building phase of their careers and Baby Boomers are getting ready for retirement.
The fifth but not the last factor that has a lot of importance in job satisfaction is: the Benefits. It is considered one of the most important factor into anyone career when looking for job especially the single parents because health insurance is becoming so expensive, they have to look for organization that offers those benefits in order to keep their family in good health, such as health care, paid time off, and so one. According to a SHRM news report on June 29, 2010, it said when it comes to benefits, health care reigns supreme, according to employees and HR professionals, though paid time off was a close second. However, even though 65% of employees said such benefits were “very important,” just 38% said they were “very satisfied” with the health care/medical benefits provided by their employer. By comparison, 54% of employees said they were very satisfied with paid time off benefits.
Job satisfaction, according to Brian Francis Redmond, is considered as one of the most widely investigated job attitude as well as one of the most extensively researched subjects in Industrial/Organizational Psychology (Judge & Church, 2000). Many work motivation theories have represented the implied role of job satisfaction. In addition, many work satisfaction theories have tried to explain job satisfaction and its influence, such as: Maslow’s (1943) Hierarchy of Needs, Hertzberg’s (1968) Two-Factor (Motivator-Hygiene) Theory, Adam’s (1965) Equity Theory, Porter and Lawler’s (1968) modified version of Vroom’s (1964) VIE Model, Locke’s (1969) Discrepancy Theory, Hackman and Oldham’s (1976) Job Characteristics Model, Locke’s (1976) Range of Affect Theory, Bandura’s (1977) Social Learning Theory, and Landy’s (1978) Opponent Process Theory. As a result of this research, job satisfaction has been linked to productivity, motivation, absenteeism/tardiness, accidents, mental/physical health, and general life satisfaction (Landy, 1978). A common idea of the research has been that, to some extent, the emotional state of an individual is affected by interactions with their work environment. People identify themselves by their profession, such as a doctor, lawyer, or teacher. A person’s individual well-being at work, therefore, is a very significant aspect of research (Judge & Klinger, 2007). However, one of the most widely accepted explanation of job satisfaction was presented by Locke (1976), who defined job satisfaction as “a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences” (p. 1304). Additionally, job satisfaction has emotional, cognitive and behavioral components (Bernstein & Nash, 2008.
And finally job satisfaction is categorized into two (2) types which are based on the level of employee’s feeling based on their job. The first, and most studied, is global job satisfaction, which refers to employees ' overall feelings about their jobs (Mueller & Kim, 2008). The second is job facet satisfaction, which refers to feelings about specific job aspects, such as salary, benefits, and the quality of relationships with one 's co-workers (Mueller & Kim, 2008)

References Pages

1- Williams, J. (2004). Job satisfaction and organizational commitment, a Sloan Work and Family Encyclopedia entry. 2- Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A Judge, 15th edition Organizational Behavior 3- Personnel Today, Tuesday16th march, 2010 Jobs security tops employee wish-list during recession. (http://www.personneltoday.com/Articles/16/03/2010/54845/job-security-tops-employee-wish-lists-during-recession.htm). 4- Examiner.com by Hartwell, January 4th, 2010 Gen Y most motivated by career advancement opportunities. 5- Brian Francis Redmond, on Mar 30, 2012 Work attitude and job motivation

References: Pages 1- Williams, J. (2004). Job satisfaction and organizational commitment, a Sloan Work and Family Encyclopedia entry. 2- Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A Judge, 15th edition Organizational Behavior 3- Personnel Today, Tuesday16th march, 2010 Jobs security tops employee wish-list during recession. (http://www.personneltoday.com/Articles/16/03/2010/54845/job-security-tops-employee-wish-lists-during-recession.htm). 4- Examiner.com by Hartwell, January 4th, 2010 Gen Y most motivated by career advancement opportunities. 5- Brian Francis Redmond, on Mar 30, 2012 Work attitude and job motivation

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Job satisfaction has often been described as employees’ emotional response to the current job position. When an employee decides to remain with a company or organization that is called job satisfaction. When employees speak about job satisfaction, another factor for consideration is motivation in the workplace. For companies or organizations to be successful and sustain a competitive advantage, a partnership with employees is needed. Job satisfaction has several factors: “Relationships with direct reports, workplace environments, fulfillment or personal fulfillment in job duties.”(McNamara, 2009)…

    • 2201 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Compare the difference between job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Determine which is more strongly related to performance.…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This mini rope covers a number of topics. Mr. Marsh noticed the employees’ needs for coffee and satisfied them.…

    • 377 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Organizational commitment is one of the widely researched areas among Researchers, psychologist and human resource management practitioners. The objectives will be presented the study about to analyze the relationship between overall job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The focus will be the study towards analyzing the general behavior of the private sector employees towards work motivation and job satisfaction which may build higher levels of organizational commitment. The sample size will be consisted on males and females employees who will randomly be selected. Data collect will be analyzed by the application of statistical tests i.e., Pearson correlation and multiple regression.…

    • 3298 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Job satisfaction can be known to some people as an important element in their lives. Other parts of their lives can be affected, if an individual is unhappy with their occupation. Job satisfaction can be viewed as what one has in a job as to what one wants in their current job. Job satisfaction can be defined as an attitude or feeling one can have toward ones job. Job satisfaction can also be defined as "the extent to which people like (satisfaction) or dislike (dissatisfaction) in their jobs” (Specter, 1997). Job satisfaction is positively affected in a variety of ways including pay, perks, fringe benefits and perks. Job satisfaction can be affected by a sense that pay does not reflect work, lack of pay, or a lack of belief the organization values him or her. Worker dissatisfaction can lead to a lower level of organizational commitment. Job satisfaction is a key to employee retention. Employees yearn to know the work he or she provides has value to the organization he or she works for. All these different factors can affect ones job satisfaction.…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Job satisfaction can plainly be described as an enjoyable emotional state occurring from the evaluation of a person’s job; an intuitive response to a person’s job, and a mental outlook towards a person’s job. Job satisfaction can also be described as the…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Job satisfaction is the way a person feels about his or her job (Jex & Britt, 2008). Job satisfaction is also the attitude a person possesses towards his or her job. A person may feel like his or her job is demanding, interesting, rewarding, or outright stressful, and demeaning. A person who is happy with his or her job demonstrates a positive attitude about the job. Several factors play a key role in how a person feels about his or her job such as emotional intelligence of management, work conditions, pay, promotions, compensation, advancement opportunities, benefits, communication, and recognition.…

    • 1510 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Job Satisfaction Paper

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The research of the definition of job satisfaction yielded a variety of the same version. Job satisfaction refers to the way an individual feels about his job. According to the encyclopedia of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, “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” (Parker, 2007, p.406). Job satisfaction is an outcome to an individual’s work life, which in turn can affect personal and organizational outcomes. Many factors affect job satisfaction, such as feelings over the workplace, coworkers, and job performance among others. According to author Sharon K. Parker, the three causes of job satisfaction are the situation, the person and the interaction between the situation and the person(2007).…

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the most important aspects among employees in the workplace is that they have the sense that their work makes a positive contribution to the organization. Job Satisfaction is the scope of contentment workers has with their job. In other words, job satisfaction is the extent to which a person likes his or her job. The dynamics of job satisfaction and occupational success is personal contentment, self-confidence, sense of worth, and self development. The most obvious consequences of job satisfaction are a pleasurable emotional state that most often results in a positive work attitude. Another notable effect of job satisfaction is the worker becomes more resourceful, flexible, inventive, and committed.…

    • 360 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lutzenberger, T. (nd). Why are career pathways important? eHow Money. Retrieved on January 13, 2012 from http://www.ehow.com/about_6615820_career-pathways-important_.html…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are many factors involved when determining job satisfaction, some have more effect, some less (most will have a marginal effect). But there are three factors that stand out above all others. You have all three – you are ecstatic, you have none – you’re miserable. I call them the three pillars of job satisfaction and they are:…

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Soybean is a leguminous vegetable of the pea family which consist more than 36% protein, 30% carbohydrates, 20% oil and excellent amounts of dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals. It is the only crop that provides an inexpensive and high quality source of protein for both livestock and human populations as compared to meat, poultry and eggs making it more valuable in Zimbabwe. Due to increased uses of soybean and its by-products in recent years, the demand for crop has also increased in Zimbabwe. This paper will analyze the determinants of soybean output, employing variables such as capital available, area planted, household size and composition, experience, land size, family headship, type of labour hired, fertilizer amount and seed.…

    • 296 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Job satisfaction means different things to different people, but at its simplest, it reflects a person’s overall assessment of their job, particularly their emotions, behaviors, and attitudes about their work experience. On the surface, it bears a lot of resemblance to employee engagement, but the two are distinct: employee engagement involves employees’ discretionary effort they apply to their jobs, how committed and motivated they go beyond merely having the jobs meet their satisfaction.…

    • 1244 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Generation Gap

    • 7345 Words
    • 30 Pages

    The authors Hui-Chun, Yu is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate in the Graduate College of Management of Southern Cross University, New South Wales, Australia. Dr Peter Miller is a senior lecturer in the School of Social and Workplace Development at Southern Cross University, New South Wales, Australia. Contact details: Southern Cross University Division of Business PO Box 42 Tweed Heads NSW 2485 Australia Phone Fax +61 7 55 06 9311 +61 7 55 06 9301…

    • 7345 Words
    • 30 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Basis for Job Satisfaction

    • 3802 Words
    • 24 Pages

    THE PERSONALITY TRAITS AND PERCEIVED STRESS AMONG THE NON-TEACHING STAFF OF CEU MAKATI: BASIS FOR JOB SATISFACTION…

    • 3802 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays