Employee Satisfaction and Commitment Flashcards

Employee Satisfaction and Commitment

Week 9 Learning Objectives

• Understand job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and their connection.
• Explain the antecedents and consequences of job satisfaction.
• List standardized instruments for measuring job satisfaction.
• Explain ways to boost job satisfaction among employees.

Key Concepts

• Workers develop preferences (liking/disliking) towards their jobs.
• Most workers have opinions (positive/negative) about their job and organization.
• Feelings of liking/disliking progress into attachment or commitment.

Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment

• Job Satisfaction: Positive and negative feelings about one's job.
• Organizational Commitment: Identifying with and being involved in an organization.

Antecedents and Consequences of Job Satisfaction

• Antecedents:
  • Individual Predispositions
  • Perception of Fairness
  • Organizational Fit
  • The Job Itself
• Consequences:
  • Commitment
  • Absenteeism
  • Turnover
  • Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)

Antecedents: Individual Predispositions

• Job satisfaction can be based on dispositional variables (personality, traits, genetic factors) in addition to the job or work environment.
• Limitation: Imprecise as to which dispositions are related to job satisfaction.

Genetics Factor and Personality Traits

• Refer to the diagram showcasing traits like Gratitude, Compassion, Kindness, Humility, Sympathy, Patience, Empathy, Sincerity, Self-Awareness, Ability to Rise Up
• The Big Five personality traits: Neuroticism, Openness, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Extraversion.

Antecedents: Social Information Processing

• Workers develop attitudes like job satisfaction by processing information through their social environment.
• Social Comparison Theory (Festinger, 1954): People look to others to interpret and make sense of their environment.
• Others' feelings, thoughts, and behaviors toward their jobs can change an individual's feelings, thoughts, and behaviors toward their own job.

Antecedents: Perception of Fairness

• Equity Theory (Adams, 1965): Workers are motivated by a desire to be treated fairly.
• Job satisfaction is achieved if workers perceive fair treatment, leading to steady performance.

Organizational Justice

• Employees who perceive fair treatment are more likely to be satisfied and motivated.
  • Distributive Justice: Perceived fairness of decisions made.
  • Procedural Justice: Perceived fairness of the methods used to make decisions.
  • Interactional Justice: Perceived fairness of interpersonal treatment.

Antecedents: Organizational Fit

• Workers compare what the organization provides (reality) with what they want (hope).
• Job satisfaction is achieved if there is a match between the reality of the job and what they are hoping it would be.
• Reality \approx 70-90\% Hope = Higher Job Satisfaction.
• Reality < 60\% Hope = Lower Job Satisfaction.

Antecedents: The Job Itself

• Job characteristics determine job satisfaction.
• If the job allows for variety of skills, gives identity to the task, and impacts others, it can increase job satisfaction.

Consequences: Organizational Commitment

• Definition: Employees are dedicated to the organization, willing to work on its behalf, and likely to maintain membership.
• Commitment includes both feeling (affective commitment) and behavioral tendencies toward the organization.

Meyer and Allen's 3-Component Model of Commitment (1997)

• Affective Commitment: Identifying with and being loyal to the organization.
• Continuance Commitment: Perceptions of investment (time, expenses, effort) in the organization and costs of leaving.
• Normative Commitment: Feeling of obligation to the organization, where remaining a member is the morally right thing to do.

Affective Commitment Details

• Workers give affective commitment when they perceive the organization as supportive and fair.
• Affective commitment is positively related to perceived organizational support (POS).
• Affective commitment increases when the organization is seen as a source of rewarding outcomes, and employees feel important and competent.

Continuance Commitment Details

• Relies on the amount of benefits and advantages workers receive/invest in their current employment and the costs of alternative employment.
• Examples: Seniority based on tenure, social relationships with coworkers.
• Continuance commitment is higher among workers who perceive few alternatives to their current employment.

Normative Commitment Details

• Personal characteristics and the nature of transactions with the organization impact normative commitment.
• Individuals may differ in terms of whether their early socialization emphasized loyalty and moral obligation to their employer.
• Another determinant is the psychological contract between workers and the organization.
• Psychological contract refers to the employee's perceptions on what is reasonable treatment as a member of the organization.

Consequences: Absenteeism

• Workers satisfied with their jobs tend to have less absenteeism.
• Scott and Taylor (1985) found absence frequency to be strongly related to overall satisfaction, satisfaction with coworkers, and satisfaction with the work itself.
• Two Forms of Absenteeism:
  • Voluntary Absenteeism: Workers miss work because they want to do something else.
  • Involuntary Absenteeism: Workers have a legitimate excuse (e.g., illness).

Consequences: Turnover

• Job satisfaction has a strong negative impact on a worker's decision to search for another job.
• Workers with low job satisfaction are more likely to quit their jobs and change careers (Cooper-Hakim & Viswesvaran, 2005; Tett & Meyer, 1993; Lee, Carswell & Allen, 2000).
• Two Types of Turnover:
  • Voluntary Turnover: Competent and capable workers leave to work elsewhere.
  • Involuntary Turnover: A worker is fired or laid off.

Consequences: Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)

• Satisfied and committed employees are more likely to