Job satisfaction

Job satisfaction

• a pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job

  • How you feel about your job

  • What you think about your job

Value-percept theory

• argues that job satisfaction depends on whether you perceive that your job supplies the things that you value

  • Dissatisfaction = (V_want - V_have) (V_importance)

Overall job satisfaction

• Pay — are employees getting paid enough? (weakest)

• Promotion 

• Supervision — is the boss likeable?

• Co-workers

• Work itself (STRONGEST)

Job enlargement

• adds more tasks at the same level of responsibility, primarily to increase variety and reduce monotony.

Job enrichment

increases the responsibility and complexity of a job, giving employees more autonomy and decision-making power.

• meaningfulness of work — “Does it matter?”

• Variety: degree to which job requires different activities and tasks

• Identity: The extent to which an employee is involved in a project; employee feels a sense of beginning and closure 

• Significance (impact): Degree to which the work has an impact on the lives of others and the world at large

• Responsibility for outcomes — “Am I a key driver of quality output?”

• Autonomy: freedom to decide

Knowledge of results

• the extent to which employees know how well (or how poorly) they’re doing

  • Feedback obtained from the job itself (not higher-ups!)

Moods

• longer-lived; low in intensity; cannot be pinpointed to anything

  • Ex: “I’m feeling grouchy”

2 mandatory conditions to trigger intense positive mood:

• Activity has to be challenging

• employee must possess unique skills needed to meet challenges

affective events theory

• workplace events having the ability to generate affective reactions

Emotions

• intense; last for short periods of time; clearly directed at an object

  • Ex: “I’m feeling angry at my boss.”

emotional labour

• the need to manage emotions to complete job duties successfully