Job Satisfaction essay
Conceptual explanations for Job Satisfaction
Introduction
Nowadays job satisfaction is considered to be the one of the most complex and significant issues of organizational behavior. The companies are interested in such researches, because in modern world with its rapidly changing economic situation the human resources become the organization’s key asset. And during the last years this issue attracts more and more attention of employers, as the different surveys proved that low level of job satisfaction can result in costly turnover, absenteeism, tardiness, and even poor mental health. Of special interest to managers is the correlation between job satisfaction and various job behaviors and other outcomes in the work-place. There is commonsense notion that job satisfaction leads to higher level of work performance, as the happier employee more appreciates his job and works better. And although the empirical studies have shown that often there is no direct link between these two variables, the level employees’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction can be a serious indicator and provide to managers the useful information about the internal situation in the company. Moreover , today an average person spends the one third of his life, so the level of job satisfaction has a great influence on his general life satisfaction and thus on the society prosperity in general.
This essay is devoted to the analysis of the main concepts explaining job satisfaction issues. The content, process and situational approaches will be regarded and explained and then compared in terms of the possibility to implement them in managerial practice.
The definition of job satisfaction
The different researches have been provided various definitions of job satisfaction. The classical one is the Locke’s description of the phenomenon as “a pleasurable state resulting from an appraisal of one’s job or job experience”.1 Basing on this concept, Hulin and Judge explained the notion of job satisfaction as
Introduction
Nowadays job satisfaction is considered to be the one of the most complex and significant issues of organizational behavior. The companies are interested in such researches, because in modern world with its rapidly changing economic situation the human resources become the organization’s key asset. And during the last years this issue attracts more and more attention of employers, as the different surveys proved that low level of job satisfaction can result in costly turnover, absenteeism, tardiness, and even poor mental health. Of special interest to managers is the correlation between job satisfaction and various job behaviors and other outcomes in the work-place. There is commonsense notion that job satisfaction leads to higher level of work performance, as the happier employee more appreciates his job and works better. And although the empirical studies have shown that often there is no direct link between these two variables, the level employees’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction can be a serious indicator and provide to managers the useful information about the internal situation in the company. Moreover , today an average person spends the one third of his life, so the level of job satisfaction has a great influence on his general life satisfaction and thus on the society prosperity in general.
This essay is devoted to the analysis of the main concepts explaining job satisfaction issues. The content, process and situational approaches will be regarded and explained and then compared in terms of the possibility to implement them in managerial practice.
The definition of job satisfaction
The different researches have been provided various definitions of job satisfaction. The classical one is the Locke’s description of the phenomenon as “a pleasurable state resulting from an appraisal of one’s job or job experience”.1 Basing on this concept, Hulin and Judge explained the notion of job satisfaction as
References: 2012Annual Report: Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement // SHRM. - P.5 Hulin C.L., Judge T.A. Job attitudes. // Handbook of psychology: Industrial and organizational psychology. – NY: Wiley, 2003. - pp. 255-276 Judge T.A., Klinger R. Job satisfaction: Subjective well-being at work // M. Eid, R. Larsen (Eds.). The science of subjective well-being - New York: Guilford Publications, 2007. - pp. 393-413.. Locke, cited in Brief, A. P., Weiss, H. M. Organizational behavior: affect in the workplace // Annual Review of Psychology, vol-53, p.279-307 Maslow, A. H. (1943) A theory of human motivation // Psychological Review, July, 370-396. Quarstein V.A., McAfee R.B., Glassman M. The situational occurrences theory of job satisfaction// Human Relations – 1992. –Vol. 45. – pp. 859-873 Saif S.K, Navaz A., Ali Jan F., Imran Khan M. Synthesizing the theories of job satisfaction across the cultural/attitudinal dimensions// Interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business. – 2012. – Vol.3, #9 Syptak J.M., Marsland D.W., Ulmer D. Job Satisfaction: Putting Theory Into Practice. http://www.aafp.org/fpm/1999/1000/p26.html Tietjen M.A., Myers R.M. Motivation and job satisfaction // Management Decision. – 1998. - Vol. 36, Iss: 4. - pp. 226 - 231