Confucius said,
A pretty commonly heard phrase, yet holds so much meaning even over time
In today’s world, work or being at the workplace has become a significant part of every individual’s life. Individuals spend a majority of the time at work or engaging themselves with work. Income is not the only factor that employees look out for as other factors are also constantly affecting individuals lives. Hence, satisfaction at work is not just about the work or pay aspect itself, it is also about the role that emotions (such as happiness, stress, anxiety) play in conjunction. Satisfaction requires some form of benefits in order to meet these other potential requirements that an employee would need.
Job Satisfaction can, hence, be defined as a combination of psychological, physiological, and environmental circumstances that cause a person to truthfully say they are satisfied with a job role (Hoppock, 1935). Job satisfaction involves both favourable/positive and unfavourable/negative feelings, associations, and emotions one may have towards their work and workplace. Job satisfaction is a personalised metric, varying from one employee to another in the same workplace and same conditions, even in the same team or role. Hence, job satisfaction seems to show the need for a multidimensional approach which is also suited for the specific employee.
Job satisfaction is for both the employees and employers in an organisation. A satisfied individual or employee would be able to uphold a better work life balance and at the same time would be able to work on a steady career growth for themselves. They would also be able to work on developing a stable job/work environment which is beneficial in both short and long run. Moreover, they feel more positive, healthy, and happy with a balanced mental health space. A satisfied employee in a workplace would be able to perform to the best of their abilities which is an essential part of any workplace. An an individual that appreciates their working environment has the ability to contribute more efficiently to the company and aid in its growth with a stronger commitment.
Job Charactertics Model
The Hackman and Oldham’s Job Characteristics Theory (1976) is developed as a framework for analysing some characteristics of a job that affect satisfaction outcomes. These led to the production of three critical psychological states that the employee would experience. These psychological states help in the mediation of the relationship between the characteristics and positive outcomes. That is, they lead to beneficial outcomes for the employee and in their performance.
The five key dimensions in their model as part of the core ‘job characteristics’:
- Skill Variety- A range of skills that can be utilised by the employee for their tasks.
- Task Identity- A responsibility towards an entire piece of work rather than just one of the tasks within the whole.
- Task Significance- Their or their tasks impact is worthwhile, either inside or outside the organisation.
- Autonomy- They sense a feeling of freedom in a varied range of areas such as planning, scheduling, their own work etc.
- Feedback- Clear, honest, and critical feedback that has a stepping stone for growth outcomes.
Two-Factory Theory
Fredrick Herzberg (1959) proposed the twofactor theory outlining that job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are two separate attributes where a set of factors cause satisfaction and another set of factors cause dissatisfaction. According to this model individuals look out for higher level needs (in the Maslow’s hierarchy) such as self-esteem and meaningful relationships in order to gain some form of satisfaction. Essentially, the basic lower-needs (physiological and safety needs) are not sufficient for reaching a level of satisfaction of individuals.
Two factors:
- Motivational Factors- Sense of satisfaction from achieved from the job itself or intrinsic factors. Also known as ‘Satisdiers’.
- Hygiene Factors- Dissatisfaction caused from lack of development in working conditions or extrincite elements. Also known as as ‘Dissatisfiers’.
These factors lead to four possible combinations of workers:
Measuring job satisfaction is not a simple task as there are multiple factors involved, some may also be personal factors which cannot be controlled by the organisation. However, from the organisational point of view, there are some tools that can help measure some important factors.
These are psychometric tests that can be utilized to gain insights into working conditions, how to improve, and gaining more knowledge:
- The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (Weiss, Dawis, and England, 1967)
- Walton’s Quality of Working Life (Walton, 1974)
- Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 1985)
- Job Description Index (Castanheira, 2014)
Employees need to feel respected, safe, and feel like they have opportunities to advance while the company would like to work on a stronger, more stable, and profitable future for themselves. Job satisfaction, like any other relationship, is a twoway street. Employees and employers would need to work with each other to push for highest potential through satisfaction. It involves motivation, involvement, and understanding with the individuals involved in order to reap the benefits.
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