Job Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction Notes

Reminders

  • Team video presentation – opportunity to meet; ensure all members are available and ready to contribute.

  • Complete the quiz this week; don't forget that the quiz covers all materials discussed until this week.

  • Social loafing is not tolerated; all students must contribute according to guidelines, or grades will be deducted. Every member’s contribution is crucial for the team's success.

Learning Outcomes

  • LO1: Understand the characteristics and causes of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Delve into factors influencing both states and their implications.

  • LO2: Identify measures of job satisfaction to effectively analyze employee satisfaction. Learn which tools and methodologies provide the most accurate insights.

  • LO3: Recognize and manage the implications and outcomes of job dissatisfaction. Develop strategies to mitigate negative impacts effectively.

  • LO4: Critically analyze the impacts of changing work trends on job satisfaction and meaningful work. Stay abreast of how modern work dynamics affect employee morale and purpose.

Agenda

  • What is job satisfaction? Explore the definition and theoretical underpinnings of job satisfaction.

  • How do we measure satisfaction? Discuss methodologies and tools used to gauge job satisfaction.

  • What leads to job satisfaction? Analyze the determinants and factors influencing job satisfaction.

  • What are the outcomes? Investigate the consequences and results stemming from job satisfaction.

  • Important considerations: Discuss pertinent elements to consider when evaluating job satisfaction.

The Key Concept: Job Satisfaction

  • "Having a positive feeling about your job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics" (Robbins et al., 2020, p. 58)

  • Factors:

    • What makes you satisfied with your work? Consider intrinsic and extrinsic factors.

    • Your opinion about it? How do personal perceptions shape satisfaction?

    • Your feelings about it? The role of emotions in job satisfaction.

    • How will you react to it? Behavioral responses to job satisfaction levels.

    • Personal belonging

    • Salary

    • Feedback

Why Do We Care?

  • Job satisfaction is important as it leads to organizational citizenship behaviors and lessens withdrawal intentions. When employees are satisfied, they're more likely to go the extra mile and less likely to leave.

  • To customers, co workers and other stakeholders

  • Performance, productivity, wellbeing of workers.

  • Loyalty and retention, wanting to stay in the organisations , not looking for other jobs. Shows organisation satsify their needs and wants.

Job Satisfaction in New Zealand

  • Refer to: https://www.stats.govt.nz/reports/job-satisfaction-and-wellbeing

  • Interesting findings are available in the report; this offers a localized perspective.

Job Satisfaction: Key Factors and Outcomes

  • Overview of key elements influencing and resulting from job satisfaction. This section synthesizes major points.

  • Job satisfaction, there is no difference in dissatisafaction level for those owrking longer hours. If you like you job youre willing to work those extra hours.

  • onlu 3% of those with flexiable hours reported being dissatisfaied with their mian job compared to 6% of those with no flexitime (hospotaility workers/entry level jobs?)

  • Across all level of autonomy, those with low auto showed more disatisfaction.

How Do We Measure Job Satisfaction?

  • Staff surveys are most common, but be cautious about their design and execution.

  • Are you actually measuring satisfaction? Ensure questions align with true metrics of satisfaction.

  • What you get depends on what you ask, and what you ask depends on what you think satisfaction is. The clearer the objective, the more accurate our data.

  • Consider the difference between:

    • Affective satisfaction measures: Captures emotional states related to the job.

    • Feels' ‘ happy they are working here’. Could be lots of different reasons for being satisfied.

      • ‘feelingloved and appreciated’ that could be feedback vis manager or relationship with co workers.

    • Cognitive satisfaction measures: Assesses rational evaluations about the job.- how someone feels about their

    • - thoughts beliefs, elvalutation

    • More reflective

    • work responsibility are managable

Example: Google & the People Analytics Team

  • Google uses HAPPYORNOT for feedback. A simple and quick way to gauge the general sentiment of employees.

  • "At Google, we strive for all people decisions to be informed by data and analytics." - Kathryn Dekas; data-driven decision-making is key in modern HR.

    • from the outside is looks satisfied.

    • If they give you everything you could want they expect productivity back.

    • feels like a prison,

  • outside consultants, no bias and adgenda.

What Creates Job Satisfaction?

  • Job conditions: Includes the working environment and task characteristics.

    • feedback

    • socialising

    • development

    • Mentoring

  • Personality: Individual traits influencing inherent job satisfaction levels.

    • Cater to employee. Adapt the job to the skills shown (employee)

    • tailor the job to the employee so they are satisfied and you dont lose them.

  • Pay: Compensation and benefits affecting financial contentment

    • If employee feels their work is equitable to the pay they recieve.

    • equity

  • Value alignment: Congruence between personal and organizational values.

    • no one wants to work for a organ that is not aligning with personal values.

    • feeeling like you are working from something bigger than just a business.

    • Overtime this will effect employee

    • work identity and personal identity are connected.

  • Importance of doing work worth doing: The need for meaningful contributions.

Job Conditions

  • Nature of the work (e.g., interesting jobs, challenging work, variation, development): Tasks that stimulate and allow growth.

  • Social interactions and support: Positive relations with colleagues and superiors.

  • Supervision and the quality of exchanges: Fair management and open communication.

Core Self-Evaluations

  • ‘Bottom line conclusions individuals have about their capabilities, competence and worth as a person’ (Robbins, et al., 2020, p. 65)

  • People with positive CSE (Core Self-Evaluations) are more satisfied in their jobs; as they perceive their work in a positive light.

    • self esteem

    • emotional stabiltiy

    • compentency in tasks

Salary

  • Compensation; fair and competitive pay is crucial.

  • exit the company, unethical

Meaningful Work

  • Satisfaction with work and a need for purpose and meaning are increasingly becoming sought together. People want to derive a sense of purpose from their jobs.

  • “…meaning-based, job-related well-being could be characterized as satisfaction with the WHY or purposes of work in the context of a human life in social community” (Rothausen & Henderson 2019, p. 357); connecting job roles to larger life goals.

Deloitte Global 2021 Millennial & Gen Z Survey

  • “Our capacity to attract, retain and manage executive talent does not depend on the compensation package, but rather on our ability to create a sense of belonging to an organisation that offers a long-term relationship and a professional development opportunity, and that has a clear conception of itself, of what it wants to be, and of how to achieve it.” - Armando Garza Sada, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Alfa SAB de CV; this underscores the importance of culture and development.

Ideal Outcomes of Satisfaction

  • Enhanced job performance: Satisfied employees tend to perform better.

  • Organizational citizenship: Greater involvement in organizational activities.

  • Customer satisfaction: Happy employees often lead to happy customers.

  • Life satisfaction: Job satisfaction contributes to overall well-being.

  • work life balance : work sustains you life. taking home the arguement with manager.

  • work identity impacts personal identity

  • “Ratings of how worthwhile a person finds their life show a similar pattern to overall life satisfaction. For all employed people, the mean score was 8.1, but for those who were dissatisfied with their job this dropped to 7.4” (Stats NZ 2019); this highlights the significant impact on quality of life.

Effect of Job Satisfaction on Employee Performance

  • Satisfaction and Productivity

    • Satisfied workers aren't necessarily more productive; it's more complex than a direct correlation.

    • Worker productivity is higher in organizations with more satisfied workers; a positive work environment fosters better output.

  • Satisfaction and Absenteeism

    • Satisfied employees have fewer avoidable absences; they are more committed and less inclined to take unnecessary time off.

  • Satisfaction and Turnover

    • Satisfied employees are less likely to quit; reducing turnover saves the company significant resources.

    • Organizations take actions to cultivate high performers and to weed out lower performers; maintaining a high-performance culture.

    • disatisfyed employees still may not quit. (retirement, job sercurity, stabilty, social connection)

Important Considerations

  • There’s no point in doing a survey on satisfaction if you don’t intend to act on the outcomes. Actionable insights are key.

  • Measuring satisfaction requires research skills; it’s easy to not actually measure satisfaction if you’re not careful. Use well-validated survey tools.

  • Using consultancies is common due to complexity and time. Experts can provide in-depth analysis.

  • communication with manager is key.

  • Job satisfaction is a broad concept, and the key to understanding it is in recognizing its causes, its outcomes, and its measures. Comprehending the full spectrum.

Dissatisfaction

  • And challenges to satisfaction; understanding the counterparts.

Key Questions

  • What is job dissatisfaction, and what are the outcomes? Recognizing the negative aspects.

  • Challenges to satisfaction

    • Changing world of work.

    • Possible impacts post Covid-19

What is Dissatisfaction?

  • Often considered detrimental to organizational performance; impacting the bottom line.

  • Discontentment with the status quo; a proactive state.

  • Can be functional in certain environments (Zhou & George, 2001); potentially triggering positive changes.

  • The generally accepted model is that employees respond in one of four ways… outlining the ways dissatisfaction is expressed.

Responses to Dissatisfaction

  • Four responses categorized by activity and constructiveness:

    • Exit: Destructive, Active; leaving the job.

    • Neglect: Destructive, Passive; allowing conditions to worsen.

    • Voice: Constructive, Active; trying to improve conditions.

    • Loyalty: Constructive, Passive; waiting for improvement.

How Employees Can Express Dissatisfaction

  • Exit: Dissatisfaction expressed through behavior directed toward leaving the organization. Quitting or transferring.

  • Voice: Dissatisfaction expressed through active and constructive attempts to improve conditions. Suggesting solutions or raising concerns.

  • Loyalty: Dissatisfaction expressed by passively waiting for conditions to improve. Hoping the situation resolves itself. (managers, co workers, customers will notice?”)

  • Neglect: Dissatisfaction expressed through allowing conditions to worsen. Reduced effort or increased errors.

Question:

Loyalty : assuming the manager will notice and sort it out for him. Contine to complete his task dilegently. Defending the company to others. Keeping concerns to himself.

Voice : continue to express his frustaration and ask for development. Offer poitentual solution. Being proactive in constructive manner.

Neglect : Wouldn’t take action and start rumors about the company with the other employyees that are in his social group. Neglecting relationships with managers

If voice doesn’t work then exit would be the final option.

Managing Dissatisfaction

  • Move peope towars voice

  • Use survey data to prioristise key areas of dissatisfaction

  • Communcate orgn response

  • Identify counterproduct work behavioru and understand

  • Continually get feedback of whether it works.

Challenges: Future of Work post Covid-19

  • Considerations for the evolving work environment; remote work, hybrid models, etc.

Thinking More Critically

  • A lot more short term contracts

  • using cameras for online meetings/servalent

  • “We are witnessing the growing precarity of employment under neoliberal regimes in many Western democracies, with the onus shifting onto the individual to manage their work and careers in many cases without the safety-net of a stable contract of employment. Human–machine interactions and technological surveillance are growing, with unknown consequences for meaningful work (Barratt, 2003)” (Bailey et al., 2018, p. 1); The changing nature of job security.

Covid-19 and Job Satisfaction

  • Virtual work (telework) is not always satisfying; isolation can be a significant drawback.

  • Social alienation and connection; maintaining relationships is crucial.

  • More aware of idiosyncrasies; increased scrutiny of company practices.

  • More trust and autonomy to come? A potential positive outcome.

  • Increased focus on wellbeing (https://www.pwc.com/us/en/about-us/be-well-work-well/habit-bank.html#tab=1); companies prioritizing their employees' health.

Future of Work and Job Satisfaction

  • Design the future of work

    • For well-being.

    • Towards dynamic stability

  • Work-life balance is a significant antecedent; crucial for long-term happiness.

  • Paying more attention to ethical issues; values-driven work.

  • Work with AI (https://www2.deloitte.com/cn/en/pages/human-capital/articles/global-human-capital-trends-2020.html); adapting to new technological interfaces.

Conclusion

  • Critically Analyze: Critically analyze the impacts of changing work trends post COVID-19 on job satisfaction and meaningful work.

  • Recognize and Manage: Recognize and manage the implications and outcomes of job dissatisfaction.

  • Identify: Identify measures of job satisfaction in order to effectively analyze employee satisfaction.

  • Understand: Understand the characteristics and causes of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

Key References

  • Wood, A., Graham, M., Lehdonvirta, V. and Hjorth, I. (2019) Good gig, bad gig: Autonomy and algorithmic control in the global gig economy. Work, Employment and Society, 33(1)

  • Findlay, P. and Thompson, P. (2017) Contemporary work: Its meanings and demands. Journal of Industrial Relations, 59(2)

  • Bailey, C., Lips-Wiersma, M., Madden, A., Yeoman, R., Thompson, M. and Chalofsky, N. (20