Job satisfaction is : the extent to which people like or dislike their job an attitudinal variable - until the 1970s

0s it was researched mainly as a perspective of inherent need fulfillment but researchers today focus on the cognitive process of satisfaction the most frequently studied variable in organizational behavior research Humanitarian perspective people deserve to be treated fairly and with respect Utilitarian perspective job satisfaction can lead to behavior that affects orginzational functioning

Importance of job satisfaction:

Job satisfaction can be analyzed globally or on various aspects of the job. Common aspects of job satisfaction : Appreciation Communication Coworkers Fringe benefits Job conditions Nature of the work itself Organization itself Organizations policies and procedures Pay Personal growth Promotion opportunities Recognition Security Supervision

Correlations between some aspects lead to the distinction of 4 areas : Rewards Other people Nature of the work

Organizational context

Job satisfaction is usually measured with : Questionnaires/surveys Cheap easy to standarize and quantify responses

Interviews more expensive answers offer extensive information less constrained format allows unexpected aspects to come to light used primarily as an initial step in designing a questionnaire

Different approaches have shown that other individuals can be, to some extent, aware of another persons job satisfaction (supervisor->employee, husband->wife, child>parent,observer->subject) but their opinions are never as reliable as asking the subject itself.

The more reliable way of assessing job satisfaction is to use an existing scale. Advantages: Their reliability and validity was established in previous studies They cover the major facets of satisfaction They have been used a sufficients number of times to provide norms for evaluation and comparisons within a given population (ex : private sector managers in the United States) They save the cost and time to develop a new scale from scratch

Disadvantages: Limited to the facets that the developers chose to place in their instrument They are applicable to most organizations but they are not very reliable for very specific organizations and situations (a manufacturing company is likely to have different satisfaction facets as opposed to a hospital) Most scales are copyrighted and come with a cost for surveying employees : the current price for copies of the Job Descriptive Index is 47$ per hundred.

Job satisfaction scales described in the book : Scales which analyze facets of job satisfaction 1. JSS Job Satisfaction Survey 2. JDI - Job Descriptive Index 3. MSQ - Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire 4. JDS Job Diagnostic Survey Scales which analyze global job satisfaction (reminder aici ) 1. JIG Job in General Scale 2. Michigan Organizational Assessment Questionnaire

JSS The Job Satisfaction Survey Assesses 9 facets of job satisfaction as well as overall satisfaction (by combining all of the items) The 9 facets are : 1.Pay satisfaction with pay and pay rises 2.Promotion satisfaction with promotion opportunities 3.Supervision Satisfaction with the persons immediate supervisor 4.Fringe benefits Satisfaction with fringe benefits Fringe or employment benefits, also known as benefits in kind, are compensations made to an employee beyond regular wages or salaries. Some types such as paid vacation are fairly standard, but others such as the use of a company jet are more rare. Different offers a company groups together for an employee are collectively known as a fringe benefits package. 5.Contingent rewards Satisfaction with rewards ( not necessarily monetary) given for good performance 6.Operating conditions Satisfaction with rules and procedures 7.Coworkers satisfaction with coworkers 8.Nature of Work satisfaction with the type of work done

9.Communication Satisfaction with communication within the organization SCORING : The JSS can yield 10 scores 9 facets and 1 total score Each of the 9 subscales has 4 items(questiones) belonging to them. Each item is scored by the subject from 1 to 6. Items are generally scored in a positive direction if they are positively worded or in a negative direction(reversed) if they are negatively worded. Examples : Item I feel I am being paid a fair amount for the work I do is positively worded => 1 = Disagree very much 6 = Agree very much If the subject ticks 6 Agree very much than the item is scored 6 points Item Raises are too few and far between is negatively worded => 1 = Disagree very much 6 = Agree very much If the subject ticks 6 Agree very much than the item is scored 1 point, rather than 6 to be relevant in accordance to the negativity. The scoring table will list negatively worded items with an r so that their score is reversed using the following formula ITEM X = 7 ITEM X

Item scores for each facet are to be summed so that they range from 4 to 24 (1 is the lowest possible score for an item and 6 is the highest and there are 4 items for each facet) The total score ranges from 36 to 216 there are 36 items in total with a minimum score of 1 and a maximum score of 6. Reliability There are 2 types of reliability estimates which are important for evaluating a scale : 1. Internal consistency reflects the assessment of the same underlying variable. It is also called coefficient alpha. The table below shows the coefficient alphas from a large sample of individuals who completed the JSS. The lowest coefficient alpha is 0.60 for the coworker subscale and the highest is 0.91 for the total scale. The widely accepted minimum standard is 0.70. 2. Test-retest reliability reflects the stability of the scale over time. Reliability data for the JSS are available from only one small sample of 43 employees. These reliabilities ranged from 0.37 to 0.74. The relative stability of satisfaction is remarkable in a timespan of 18

months during which several major changes occurred(reorganization, layoffs, change of administration)

Validity Validity evidence for job satisfaction scales is provided by studies that compared different scales with one another on the same employees. Five of the JSS subscales (pay, promotion, supervision, coworkers and nature of work) correlate well with corresponding subscales of the JDI which is probably the most carefully validated scale of job satisfaction. These correlations range from 0.61 for coworkers to 0.80 for supervision. Norms Norms for the JSS are shown in the table below. The table shows the mean subscale and total job satisfaction scores across many employees and many samples. Most samples represent a single organization altough several represent two or more organizations.

How people feel about work A Gallup Poll in 1991 showed that 83% of Americans are satisfied with their job. A Gallup Poll in 1995 showed that, of 18 countries around the world, 46% of people are satisfied with their jobs. The typical American pattern is to be with the nature of the work itself, coworkers and supervision but not very satisfied with rewards

Americans tend to expect to advance at work and experience an increase in standard of living as a result of hard work -> they are often dissatisfied with their career and salary progress.

Cultural and demographic differences in job satisfaction o Age: Research shows that age and job satisfaction are related In general job satisfaction increases with age, especially after the age of 45. Potential reasons: 1. expectations and values of Americans have changed over time so older workers are more accepting of authority and expect less from their jobs. 2. older workers have better jobs and more skill than their younger counterparts due to more experience. 3. People adapt to the job b adjusting their expectations to be realistic so they are happier with less as they get older o Country differences Studies show that there are differences in job satisfaction and in patterns of facet satisfaction across countries but they do not provide much insinght into the reasons for this. Potential reasons : 1. Different work conditions 2. Differente expectations of people 3. Bias -> people are afraid to express dissatisfaction o Gender Relations between gender and job satisfaction have been extremely inconsistent across studies The very low correlations between job satisfaction and gender tend to show that men and women would have the same levels of job satisfaction despite having different jobs. Potential reasons:

1. Women may expect less from work and thus are satisfied with less due to historic background 2. Men and women may have different values o Racial differences in the United States Studies are largely inconsistent about correlations between race and job satisfaction There is no clear evidence to support any distinguishable differences between blacks and whites for job satisfaction

Antecedents of Job Satisfaction Antecedents of job satisfaction can be classified into 2 major categories: 1. Job environment and factors associated with the job 2. Individual factors that the person brings to the job such as personality and prior experience Environmental antecedents of job satisfaction Job characteristics theory The monst influential theory of how job characteristics affect people is Hackman and Oldhams job characteristics theory It states that people can be motivated by the intrinsic satisfaction they find in doing job tasks.If work is enjoyable and meaningful, people will like their jobs and be motivated to perform well. The theory lists 5 core characteristics which can be applied to any job 1. Skill variety 2. Task identity 3. Task significance 4. Autonomy 5. Job feedback

Skill variety, task identity and task significance indue experienced meaninfulnes of work Autonomy leads to feelings of responsibility Feedback results in knowledge of results about the products of work These 5 characteristics determine how motivating a job is. A Motivation Potential Score or MPS can be calculated for a job :

MPS = [(SV + TI + TS)/3] * Auton. * Feed. The theory also includes a personality variable : Growth need strength or GNS. GNS reflects an individuals need for fulfillment and it moderates the MPS. The authors of the theory developed the JDS Job Diagnostic Survey

The most popular alternative to the JDS is the JCI Job Characteristics Index -> it is considered more reliable because it has a greater number of items per subscale Another alternative is the MJDQ Multimethod Job Design Questionnaire which has the main distinction of also including physical features of the job The JDS is generally well correlated to job satisfaction levels across studies The relevance of the JDS and other measurements of job characteristics for levels of job satisfaction has been criticised as being somewhat inconclusive. Critical arguments: The correlation between job characteristics and job satisfaction does not necessarily prove that the first determines the second. Critics have argued that it may be the job satisfaction which influences the subjects perception of the job characteristics An study made in 1991 by Griffin showed that a major job redesign improved job satisfaction levels immediately after the change but then it dropped back to the same levels prior to the change within 2 years despite no more alterations of the job characteristics. However the JDS score improved after the redesign and remained constantly high for the 2 years showing that the impact of the job characteristics was transitory

Organizational constraints Conditions of the job environment that interfere with employee job performance are called organizational constraints. Organizational constraints have been shown to affect both job performance and job satisfaction Rolve variables A role is the required pattern of behavior for an individual in the organization. Roles can be associated with positions and titles but they are not identical as each individual can have several roles and different people with the same job can have different roles. A person develops a role by taking on a task that others assume will become that persons responsibility(managing the cofee pot) Role conflict exists when people experience incompatbile demands o Intra-role conflict involves different people at work or different functions(a supervisor tells you to run an errand while another asks you to take a phonecall) o Extra-role conflicts involves conflicts between work and non-work(family vs work) Role ambiguity occurs when the expectations of supervisors are not clear Both role ambiguity and role conflict affect job satisfaction and are mainly associated with supervisor satisfaction. Work-family conflict This conflict is especially troublesome for two-career couples with children and single parents. 34% of Americans experience a considerable amount of work-family conflict. 14% of men and women felt that both parents should work outside of the home 39% said that one parent should work while the other stayed home to take care of the children Work-family conflict correlates with job satisfaction more for men than for women

Studies have shown that work-family conflict affects job satisfaction which in turn affects parental practices which in turn affect childrens performance in school Organizational procedures to reduce the conflict such as a flexible schedule have been shown to improve job satisfaction

Pay The correlation between level of pay and job satisfaction tens to be surprisingly small While pay level is not an important issue, pay fairness is very important People are often concerned that other people with the same job earn more and as a result become dissatisfied. Job stress Studies show that job stress can have a detrimental impact on both physical health and emotional well-being, both short-term and long-term. It correlates well with job satisfaction

Workload Studies have been inconsistent regarding the correlation between workload(either qualitative workload or quantitative workload) and job satisfaction Control Control is the freedom that employees are given to make decisions about their work Control has a significant impact on job stress and job strains, especially psychological ones however it has not been determined to have a direct impact on job satisfaction An exception are employees whose work pace is determined by a machine or computer where current studies show that the job satisfaction of such employees is lower due to a lack of control. The demand/control model

The demand/control model hypothesizes that control and job stressors interact in their effects, including job dissatisfaction. Research support for the demand/control model has been inconsistent While it is potentially important because of its implications for employee health and wellbeing, the current lack of empirical support suggests that the model may be an oversimplification of an issue

Work schedules The standard work shift is 8 daylight hours per day for 5 weekdays each week. Nonstandard work schedules are spreading : flexible work schedule, long work shifts, night shifts and part-time work. 1. Flexible schedules It is generally believed that flexible schedules have a positive impact on job satisfaction but studies have been inconclusive regarding the extent of the importance 2. Long shifts The most commonly notes problem with long shifts is fatigue Studies report that some employees who work 12 hours shifts have a perceived notion of less fatigue due to having more free time se vede ca asta e gandire de americani unde daca ai tura de 12 ore automat nu mai lucrezi 5 zile pe saptamana.riiiight Long shifts have a general positive effect on job satisfaction as employees will prefer working longer shifts to have more free time. 3. Night shifts Both night shifts and rotating shifts have detrimental effects on employees Employees working permanent night shifts eventually dont suffer from the same problems as those working rotating shifts(sleep disturbance, digestive problems) Temporary night shifts lead to lower job satisfaction than permanent night shifts and permanent night shifts do not seem to affect job satisfaction 4. Part-time work

Despite being given less benefits(ex medical insurance) part-timers seem to have a higher job satisfaction than full timers. This can be due to the fact that most part-timers will perceive their job as temporary Current research is not very conclusive on how and why reactions of parttimers differ from full-timers.

Personal antecedents of job satisfaction Studies have shown that some people are predisposed to like their jobs despite changing jobs/employers while others are predisposed not to like their jobs. The main criticism of this concept is that job satisfaction can be stable across multiple jobs for individuals because they tend to choose good jobs whereas others do not. A 50-year lifespan longitudinal study showed that job satisfaction measured in adolescence significantly correlates to job satisfaction measured up to 50 years later for the same individuals. A different study showed that there is a genetic component of job satisfaction by studying a group of identical twins and finding correlated job satisfaction levels. It is estimated that about 30% of the variance in job satisfaction is attributable to genetic factors. Personality traits and job satisfaction Locus of control o Is a cognitive variable that represents and individuals generalized belief in his or her ability to control positive and negative reinforcements in life o Many studies have shown a significant correlation between locus of control and many work variables such as job performance, leadership behavior, perceptions of the jobs, work motivation and job satisfaction o It is generally believed that the connection between locus of control and job satisfaction is job performance as people who perform better at their job are more likely to be satisfied with their work

Negative affectivity o Also calles NA is a personality variable that reflects a persons tendency to experience negative emotions, such as anxiety or depression. o Studies have shown that high NA results in lower job satisfaction

Person-job fit Research on this matter looks at the interaction between job and person factors to see if certain types of people respond differently to certain types of jobs. Correlations were made such as people with high GNS(reminder aici) are more likely to respond favorably to high-scope jobs but overall the aspect of person-job fit is elusive.

Potential effects of job satisfaction Job performance Studies show that the correlation between job satisfaction and job performance is surpisingly low It is currently believed that this is due to problematic job performance measurements Studies have also shown that it is more likely for job performance to cause job satisfaction rather than the opposite Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) OCB is behavior by an employee intended to help coworkers or the organization. OCB goes beyond the formal requirements of a job OCB was categoriez into two types: 1. Altruism behavior that helps other people 2. Compliance - doing what is required of the job without being closely monitored and reminded.

Studies show a tendency for job satisfaction to lead to OCB but are inconclusive regarding the actual reason behind it.

Withdrawal behavior Theories hypothesize that employees who dislike their job will try to avoid them either by quitting or by coming in late, skipping,etc. Absence o organizations are concerned about absence due to its high costs o common sense would dictate that job satisfaction plays a critical role in an employees decision to be absent o however research has shown that correlations between job satisfaction and absence have been inconsistent. o The reason for absence should be considered when evaluation correlations between job satisfaction and absence(being ill or fatigued for example). o It has been shown that absence factors just as important or even more important than job satisfaction are the organizations policy for absence and family. o A less restrictive policy as well as having primary child care responsibilities will lead to more absence more consistently than low job satisfaction Turnover o Studies have been consistent about a correlation between job dissatisfaction and tendency to find alternative employment. o Alternative employment opportunities are important as a person is less likely to quit without another job offer o Labor market factors interact with job satisfaction in predicting quitting. Burnout o Burnout is a distressed emotional/psychological state experienced on the job o Job satisfaction is an attitudinal response whereas burnout is more of an emotional response o There are 3 components of burnout 1. Depersonalization the emotional distancing from direct care clients that results in an uncaring attitudie toward others.

2. Emotional exhaustion is the feeling of fatigue and lack of entushiasm 3. Reduced personal accomplishment is the sense that nothing of value is being done at work by the person o Burnout correlates highly with low job satisfaction Physical health and psychological well-being o Attempts to link job satisfaction to direct physiological measures of health have not been successful o Research has well established that job satisfaction does however relate to psychological and psychosomatic symptoms such as : headaches, upset stomach, anxiety and depression Counterproductive behavior o It is the opposite of OCB and it consists of either intentional or unintentional acts committed by an employee which hurt the organization o Aggression against coworkers,employers,sabotage,theft,etc. o While this behavior has many causes it is often associated with job dissatisfaction and reasearch has shown that a strong correlation exists Life satisfaction o life satisfaction refers to a persons feeling about life in general o it can assessed on the facet level as satisfaction with specific areas of life such as family or recreation or it can be assessen globally as overall satisfaction with life. o There are 3 major theories regarding how job satisfaction is related to life satisfaction: 1. Spillover hypothesis suggests that feelings in one area of life affect feeling in the other areas 2. Compensation hypothesis states that people will compensate for dissatisfaction in one area of life by cultivating satisfaction in another 3. Segmentation hypothesis posits that people compartmentalize their lives, making work and nonwork separate o Research clearly favors the spillover hypothesis, with a moderate and positive correlation between job satisfaction and life satisfaction.