Description
The father of scientific management Taylor's (1911) approach to job satisfaction was based on a most pragmatic & essentially pessimistic philosophy that man is motivation by money alone. That the workers are essentially 'stupid & phlegmatic' & that they would be satisfied with work if they get higher economic benefit from it.
Project Report on J ob Satisfaction of Employees
Project Report on J ob Satisfaction of Employees
Introduction towards Project Report Job Satisfaction :
The father of scientific management Taylor's (1911) approach to job satisfaction was based
on a most pragmatic & essentially pessimistic philosophy that man is motivation by money
alone. That the workers are essentially 'stupid & phlegmatic' & that they would be satisfied
with work if they get higher economic benefit from it. But with the passage of time Taylor's
solely monetary approach has been changed to a more humanistic approach. It has come a
long way from a simple explanation based on money to a more realistic but complex
approach to job satisfaction. New dimensions of knowledge are added every day & with
increasing understanding of new variables & their inter play, the field of job satisfaction has
become difficult to comprehend.
The term Job Satisfaction was brought to limelight by Hoppock (1935). He reviewed 32
studies on job satisfaction conducted prior to 1933 & observed that job satisfaction is a
combination of psychological, physiological & environmental circumstances that cause a
person to say. 'I am satisfied with my job'. Locke defines job satisfaction as a "pleasurable
or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experiences". To
the extent that a person's job fulfils his dominant need & is consistent with his expectations
& values, the job will be satisfying.
J ob Satisfaction - Theory :
One way to define Job Satisfaction may be to say that it is the end state of feeling. The
word 'end' emphasises the fact that the feeling is experienced after a task is accomplished
or an activity has taken place whether it is highly individualistic effort of writing a book or a
collective endeavour of constructing a building. These activities may be minute or large. But
in all cases, they satisfy a certain need. The feeling could be positive or negative depending
upon whether need is satisfied or not & could be a function of the effort of the individual on
one hand & on the other the situational opportunities available to him.
This can be better understood by taking example of a foreman in an engineering industry.
He has been assigned the task to complete a special order by a certain, deadline. Person
may experience positive job satisfaction because he has been chosen to complete the task.
It gives him a special status & feeling that he has been trusted and given a special task, he
likes such kind of rush job and it may get him extra wages. The same could be the sources
of his dissatisfaction if he does not like rush work, has no need for extra wages. Each one of
these variables lead to an end state of feeling, called satisfaction.
Sinha (1974) defines Job Satisfaction an 'a reintegration of affect produced by individual's
perception of fulfillment of his needs in relation to his work & the situations surrounding it'.
Another Theories of J ob-Satisfaction :
There are 3 major theories of job satisfaction.
? Herzberg's Motivation - Hygiene theory.
? Need fulfilment theory.
? Social reference - group theory.
Herzberg's Motivation - Hygiene Theory :
This theory was proposed by Herzberg & his assistants in 1969. On the basis of his study of
200 engineers and accountants of the Pittsburgh area in the USA, he established that there
are two separate sets of conditions (and not one) which are responsible for the motivation &
dissatisfaction of workers. When one set of conditions (called 'motivator') is present in the
organisation, workers feel motivated but its absence does not dissatisfy them. Similarly,
when another set of conditions (called hygiene factors) is absent in the organisation, the
workers feel dissatisfied but its presence does not motivate them. The two sets are
unidirectional, that is, their effect can be seen in one direction only.
According to Herzberg following factors acts as motivators:
Achievement, Recognition, Advancement, Work itself, Possibility of growth & Responsibility.
Hygiene factors are : Company policy & administration, Technical supervision, Inter-
personal relations with supervisors, peers & Subordinates, Salary. Job security, Personal
life, Working Conditions, & Status.
Herzberg used semi-structured interviews (the method is called critical incident method). In
this technique subjects were asked to describe those events on the job which had made
them extremely satisfied or dissatisfied. Herzberg found that events which led people to
extreme satisfaction were generally characterised by 'motivators' & those which led people
to extreme dissatisfaction were generally characterized by a totally different set of factors
which were called 'hygiene factors'.
Hygiene factors are those factors which remove pain from the environment. Hence, they are
also known as job - environment or job - context factors. Motivators are factors which result
in psychological growth. They are mostly job - centered. Hence they are also known as job -
content factors.
The theory postulated that motivators and hygiene factors are independent & absence of
one does not mean presence of the other. In pleasant situations motivators appear more
frequently than hygiene factors while their predominance is reversed in unpleasant
situations.
Need Fulfillment Theory :
Under the need-fulfillment theory it is believed that a person is satisfied if he gets what he
wants & the more he wants something or the more important it is to him, the more satisfied
he is when he gets it & the more dissatisfied he is when he does not get it. Needs may be
need for personal achievement, social achievement & for influence.
a) Need for Personal Achievement :
Desires for personal career development, improvement in one's own life standards, better
education & prospects for children & desire for improving one's own work performance.
b) Need for Social Achievement :
A drive for some kind of collective success is relation to some standards of excellence. It is
indexed in terms of desires to increase overall productivity, increased national prosperity,
better life community & safety for everyone.
c) Need for Influence :
A desire to influence other people & surroundings environment. In the works situation, it
means to have power status & being important as reflected in initiative taking and
participation in decision making.
In summary, this theory tell us that job satisfaction is a function of, or is positively related to
the degree to which one's personal & social needs are fulfilled in the job situation.
Social References - Group Theory :
It takes into account the point of view & opinions of the group to whom the individual looks
for the guidance. Such groups are defined as the 'reference-group' for the individual in that
they define the way in which he should look at the world and evaluate various phenomena
in the environment (including himself). It would be predicted, according to this theory that if
a job meets the interest, desires and requirements of a person's reference group, he will like
it & if it does not, he will not like it.
A good example of this theory has been given by C.L. Hulin. He measures the effects of
community characteristics on job satisfaction of female clerical workers employed in 300
different catalogue order offices. He found that with job conditions held constant job
satisfaction was less among persons living in a well-to-do neighborhood than among those
whose neighborhood was poor. Hulin, thus provides strong evidence that such frames of
reference for evaluation may be provided by one's social groups and general social
environment.
To sum up, we can say, Job satisfaction is a function of or is positively related to the degree
to which the characteristics of the job meet with approved & the desires of the group to
which the individual looks for guidance in evaluating the world & defining social reality.
Relationship among Motivation, Attitude and J ob Satisfaction :
Motivation implies the willingness to work or produce. A person may be talented and
equipped with all kinds of abilities & skills but may have no will to work. Satisfaction, on the
other hand, implies a positive emotional state which may be totally unrelated to productivity.
Similarly in the literature the terms job attitude and job satisfaction are used
interchangeably. However a closer analysis may reveal that perhaps, they measure two
different anchor points. Attitudes are predispositions that make the individual behave in a
characteristic way across the situations.
They are precursors to behaviour & determine its intensity and direction. Job satisfaction,
on the other hand is an end state of feeling which may influence subsequent behaviour. In
this respect, job attitude and job satisfaction may have something in common. But if we
freeze behaviour, attitude would initiate it which job satisfaction would result from it.
Relationship Between Morale & J ob Satisfaction :
According to Seashore (1959), morale is a condition which exists in a context where people
are :
a) motivated towards high productivity.
b) want to remain with organization.
c) act effectively in crisis.
d) accept necessary changes without resentment or resistance.
e) actually promote the interest of the organization and
f) are satisfied with their job.
According to this description of morale, job satisfaction is an important dimension of morale
itself.
Morale is a general attitude of the worker and relates to group while job satisfaction is an
individual feeling which could be caused by a variety of factors including group. This point
has been summarized by Sinha (1974) when he suggests that industrial morale is a
collective phenomenon and job satisfaction is a distributed one. In other words, job
satisfaction refers to a general attitude towards work by an individual works. On the other
hand, morale is group phenomenon which emerges as a result of adherence to group goals
and confidence in the desirability of these goals.
Relationship Between J ob Satisfaction and Work Behaviour :
Generally, the level of job satisfaction seems to have some relation with various aspects of
work behaviour like absenteeism, adjustments, accidents, productivity and union
recognition. Although several studies have shown varying degrees of relationship between
them and job satisfaction, it is not quite clear whether these relationships are correlative or
casual. In other words, whether work behaviour make him more positively inclined to his job
and there would be a lesser probability of getting to an unexpected, incorrect or
uncontrolled event in which either his action or the reaction of an object or person may
result in personal injury.
J ob Satisfaction and Productivity :
Experiments have shown that there is very little positive relationship between the job
satisfaction & job performance of an individual. This is because the two are caused by quite
different factors. Job satisfaction is closely affected by the amount of rewards that an
individual derives from his job, while his level of performance is closely affected by the basis
for attainment of rewards. An individual is satisfied with his job to the extent that his job
provides him with what he desires, and he performs effectively in his job to the extent that
effective performance leads to the attainment of what he desires. This means that instead of
maximizing satisfaction generally an organisation should be more concerned about
maximizing the positive relationship between performance and reward. It should be ensured
that the poor performers do not get more rewards than the good performers. Thus, when a
better performer gets more rewards he will naturally feel more satisfied.
J ob Satisfaction and Absenteeism :
One can find a consistent negative relationship between satisfaction and absenteeism, but
the correlation is moderate-usually less than 0.40. While it certainly makes sense that
dissatisfied Sales Persons are more likely to miss work, other factors have an impact on the
relationship and reduce the correlation coefficient. e.g. Organizations that provide liberal
sick leave benefits are encouraging all their Sales Persons, including those who are highly
satisfied, to take days off. So, outside factors can act to reduce the correlation.
J ob Satisfaction and Turnover :
Satisfaction is also negatively related to turnover, but the correlation is stronger than what
we found for absenteeism. Yet, again, other factors such as labour market conditions,
expectations about alternative job opportunities, and length of tenure with the organization
are important constraints on the actual decision to leave one's current job.
Evidence indicates that an important moderator of the satisfaction-turnover relationship is
the Sales Person's level of performance. Specifically, level of satisfaction is less important
in predicting turnover for superior performers because the organization typically makes
considerable efforts to keep these people. Just the opposite tends to apply to poor
performers. Few attempts are made by the organization to retain them. So one could
expect, therefore, that job satisfaction is more important in influencing poor performers to
stay than superior performers.
J ob Satisfaction and Adjustment :
It the Sales Person is facing problems in general adjustment, it is likely to affect his work
life. Although it is difficult to define adjustment, most psychologists and organisational
behaviourists have been able to narrow it down to what they call neuroticism and anxiety.
Generally deviation from socially expected behaviour has come to be identified as neurotic
behaviour. Though it may be easy to identify symptoms of neuroticism, it is very difficult to
know what causes. Family tensions, job tensions, social isolation, emotional stress, fear,
anxiety or any such sources could be a source of neuroticism.
Anxiety, on the other hand, has a little more clearer base. It is generally seen as a mental
state of vague fear and apprehension which influences the mode of thinking. Anxiety usually
shows itself in such mental state as depression, impulsiveness, excessive worry and
nervousness. While everyone aspires for a perfect state of peace and tranquility, the fact is
that some anxiety is almost necessary for an individual to be effective because it provides
the necessary push for efforts to achieve excellence.
Adjustment problems usually show themselves in the level of job satisfaction. For long, both
theorists and practitioners have been concerned with Sales Persons' adjustment and have
provided vocational guidance and training to them to minimise it's impact on work
behaviour. Most literature, in this area, generally suggests a positive relationship between
adjustment and job satisfaction. People with lower level of anxiety and low neuroticism have
been found to be more satisfied with their jobs.
Determinants of J ob Satisfaction :
According to Abrahan A. Korman, there are two types of variables which determine the job
satisfaction of an individual. These are :
1) Organisational variables ; and
2) Personal Variables.
Organisational Variable :
1) Occupational Level :
The higher the level of the job, the greater is the satisfaction of the individual. This is
because higher level jobs carry greater prestige and self control.
2) Job Content :
Greater the variation in job content and the less repetitiveness with which the tasks must be
performed, the greater is the satisfaction of the individual involved.
3) Considerate Leadership :
People like to be treated with consideration. Hence considerate leadership results in higher
job satisfaction than inconsiderate leadership.
4) Pay and Promotional Opportunities :
All other things being equal these two variables are positively related to job satisfaction.
5) Interaction in the work group :
Here the question is : When is interaction in the work group a source of job satisfaction and
when it is not ? Interaction is most satisfying when -
(a) It results in the cognition that other person's attitudes are similar to one's own. Since this
permits the ready calculability of the others behaviour and constitutes a validation of one's
self ;
(b) It results in being accepted by others ; and
(c) It facilitates the achievements of goals.
Personal Variables :
For some people, it appears most jobs will be dissatisfying irrespective of the organisational
condition involved, whereas for others, most jobs will be satisfying. Personal variables like
age, educational level, sex, etc. are responsible for this difference.
(1) Age :
Most of the evidence on the relation between age and job satisfaction, holding such factors
as occupational level constant, seems to indicate that there is generally a positive
relationship between the two variales up to the pre-retirement years and then there is a
sharp decrease in satisfaction. An individual aspires for better and more prestigious jobs in
later years of his life. Finding his channels for advancement blocked, his satisfaction
declines.
(2) Educational Level :
With occupational level held constant there is a negative relationship between the
educational level and job satisfaction. The higher the education, the higher the reference
group which the individual looks to for guidance to evaluate his job rewards.
(3) Role Perception :
Different individuals hold different perceptions about their role, i.e. the kind of activities and
behaviours they should engage in to perform there job successfully. Job satisfaction is
determined by this factor also. The more accurate the role perception of an individual, the
greater his satisfaction.
(4) Sex :
There is as yet no consistent evidence as to whether women are more satisfied with their
jobs than men, holding such factors as job and occupational level constant. One might
predict this to be the case, considering the generally low occupational aspiration of women.
Some other determines of job satisfaction are as follows:
(i) General Working Conditions.
(ii) Grievance handling procedure.
(iii) Fair evaluation of work done.
(iv) Job security.
(v) Company prestige.
(vi) Working hours etc.
How Sales Persons Can Express Dissatisfaction
Sales Person dissatisfaction can be expressed in a number of ways. For example, rather
than quit, Sales Persons can complain, be insubordinate, steal organisational property, or
shirk a part of their work responsibilities. In the following figure, four responses are given
along to dimensions : Constructiveness / Destructiveness and Activity / Passivity. These are
defined as follow :
Exit : Behaviour directed towards leaving the organisation. Includes looking for a new
position as well as resigning.
Active
Exit Voice
Destructive Constructive
Neglect Loyalty
Passive
Voice : Actively and constructively attempting to improve conditions includes suggesting
improvements, discussing problems with superiors, and some forms of union activity.
Loyalty : Passively but optimistically waiting for conditions to improve. Includes speaking up
for the organisation in the face of external criticism and trusting the organisation and its
management to 'do the right thing'.
Neglect : Passively allowing the conditions to worsen. Includes chronic absenteeism or
lateness, reduced effort, and increased error rate.
Exit and neglect behaviours encompass our performances variables-productivity,
absenteeism and turnover. But this model expands Sales Person response to include voice
and loyalty, constructive behaviours that allow individuals to tolerate unpleasant situations
or to revive satisfactory working conditions.
Importance of High Job Satisfaction :
The importance of job satisfaction is obvious. Managers should be concerned with the level
of job satisfaction in their organisations for at least three reasons:
(1) There is clear evidence that dissatisfied Sales Persons skip work more often and are
more likely to resign ;
(2) It has been demonstrated that satisfied Sales Persons have better health and live longer
; and
(3) Satisfaction on the job carries over to the Sales Person's life outside the job.
Satisfied Sales Persons have lower rate of both turnover and absenteeism. Specifically,
satisfaction is strongly and consistently negatively related to an Sales Person's decision to
leave the organisation. Although satisfaction and absence are also negatively related,
conclusions regarding the relationship should be more guarded.
An often overlooked dimension of job satisfaction is its relationship to Sales Person health.
Several studies have shown that Sales Persons who are dissatisfied with their jobs are
prone to health setbacks ranging from headaches to heart disease. For managers, this
means that even if satisfaction did not lead to less voluntary turn over and absence, the
goal of a satisfied work force might be jutificable because it would reduced medical costs
and the premature loss of valued Sales Persons by way of heart disease or strokes.
Job satisfaction's importance is its spin off effect that job satisfaction has for society as a
whole. When Sales Persons are happy with their jobs, it improves their lives off the job. In
contrast, the dissatisfied Sales Person carries that negative attitude home.
Some benefits of job satisfaction accure to every citizen in society. Satisfied Sales Persons
are more likely to be satisfied citizens. These people will hold a more positive attitude
towards life in general and make for a society of more psychologically healthy people.
So job satisfaction is very important. For management, a satisfied work force translates into
higher productivity due to fewer disruptions caused by absenteeism or good Sales Persons
quitting, as well as into lower medical and life insurance costs. Additionally, there are
benefits for society in general. Satisfaction on the job carries over to the Sales Person's off
the job hours. So the goal of high job satisfaction for Sales Persons can be defended in
terms of both money and social responsibility.
doc_913111096.docx
The father of scientific management Taylor's (1911) approach to job satisfaction was based on a most pragmatic & essentially pessimistic philosophy that man is motivation by money alone. That the workers are essentially 'stupid & phlegmatic' & that they would be satisfied with work if they get higher economic benefit from it.
Project Report on J ob Satisfaction of Employees
Project Report on J ob Satisfaction of Employees
Introduction towards Project Report Job Satisfaction :
The father of scientific management Taylor's (1911) approach to job satisfaction was based
on a most pragmatic & essentially pessimistic philosophy that man is motivation by money
alone. That the workers are essentially 'stupid & phlegmatic' & that they would be satisfied
with work if they get higher economic benefit from it. But with the passage of time Taylor's
solely monetary approach has been changed to a more humanistic approach. It has come a
long way from a simple explanation based on money to a more realistic but complex
approach to job satisfaction. New dimensions of knowledge are added every day & with
increasing understanding of new variables & their inter play, the field of job satisfaction has
become difficult to comprehend.
The term Job Satisfaction was brought to limelight by Hoppock (1935). He reviewed 32
studies on job satisfaction conducted prior to 1933 & observed that job satisfaction is a
combination of psychological, physiological & environmental circumstances that cause a
person to say. 'I am satisfied with my job'. Locke defines job satisfaction as a "pleasurable
or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experiences". To
the extent that a person's job fulfils his dominant need & is consistent with his expectations
& values, the job will be satisfying.
J ob Satisfaction - Theory :
One way to define Job Satisfaction may be to say that it is the end state of feeling. The
word 'end' emphasises the fact that the feeling is experienced after a task is accomplished
or an activity has taken place whether it is highly individualistic effort of writing a book or a
collective endeavour of constructing a building. These activities may be minute or large. But
in all cases, they satisfy a certain need. The feeling could be positive or negative depending
upon whether need is satisfied or not & could be a function of the effort of the individual on
one hand & on the other the situational opportunities available to him.
This can be better understood by taking example of a foreman in an engineering industry.
He has been assigned the task to complete a special order by a certain, deadline. Person
may experience positive job satisfaction because he has been chosen to complete the task.
It gives him a special status & feeling that he has been trusted and given a special task, he
likes such kind of rush job and it may get him extra wages. The same could be the sources
of his dissatisfaction if he does not like rush work, has no need for extra wages. Each one of
these variables lead to an end state of feeling, called satisfaction.
Sinha (1974) defines Job Satisfaction an 'a reintegration of affect produced by individual's
perception of fulfillment of his needs in relation to his work & the situations surrounding it'.
Another Theories of J ob-Satisfaction :
There are 3 major theories of job satisfaction.
? Herzberg's Motivation - Hygiene theory.
? Need fulfilment theory.
? Social reference - group theory.
Herzberg's Motivation - Hygiene Theory :
This theory was proposed by Herzberg & his assistants in 1969. On the basis of his study of
200 engineers and accountants of the Pittsburgh area in the USA, he established that there
are two separate sets of conditions (and not one) which are responsible for the motivation &
dissatisfaction of workers. When one set of conditions (called 'motivator') is present in the
organisation, workers feel motivated but its absence does not dissatisfy them. Similarly,
when another set of conditions (called hygiene factors) is absent in the organisation, the
workers feel dissatisfied but its presence does not motivate them. The two sets are
unidirectional, that is, their effect can be seen in one direction only.
According to Herzberg following factors acts as motivators:
Achievement, Recognition, Advancement, Work itself, Possibility of growth & Responsibility.
Hygiene factors are : Company policy & administration, Technical supervision, Inter-
personal relations with supervisors, peers & Subordinates, Salary. Job security, Personal
life, Working Conditions, & Status.
Herzberg used semi-structured interviews (the method is called critical incident method). In
this technique subjects were asked to describe those events on the job which had made
them extremely satisfied or dissatisfied. Herzberg found that events which led people to
extreme satisfaction were generally characterised by 'motivators' & those which led people
to extreme dissatisfaction were generally characterized by a totally different set of factors
which were called 'hygiene factors'.
Hygiene factors are those factors which remove pain from the environment. Hence, they are
also known as job - environment or job - context factors. Motivators are factors which result
in psychological growth. They are mostly job - centered. Hence they are also known as job -
content factors.
The theory postulated that motivators and hygiene factors are independent & absence of
one does not mean presence of the other. In pleasant situations motivators appear more
frequently than hygiene factors while their predominance is reversed in unpleasant
situations.
Need Fulfillment Theory :
Under the need-fulfillment theory it is believed that a person is satisfied if he gets what he
wants & the more he wants something or the more important it is to him, the more satisfied
he is when he gets it & the more dissatisfied he is when he does not get it. Needs may be
need for personal achievement, social achievement & for influence.
a) Need for Personal Achievement :
Desires for personal career development, improvement in one's own life standards, better
education & prospects for children & desire for improving one's own work performance.
b) Need for Social Achievement :
A drive for some kind of collective success is relation to some standards of excellence. It is
indexed in terms of desires to increase overall productivity, increased national prosperity,
better life community & safety for everyone.
c) Need for Influence :
A desire to influence other people & surroundings environment. In the works situation, it
means to have power status & being important as reflected in initiative taking and
participation in decision making.
In summary, this theory tell us that job satisfaction is a function of, or is positively related to
the degree to which one's personal & social needs are fulfilled in the job situation.
Social References - Group Theory :
It takes into account the point of view & opinions of the group to whom the individual looks
for the guidance. Such groups are defined as the 'reference-group' for the individual in that
they define the way in which he should look at the world and evaluate various phenomena
in the environment (including himself). It would be predicted, according to this theory that if
a job meets the interest, desires and requirements of a person's reference group, he will like
it & if it does not, he will not like it.
A good example of this theory has been given by C.L. Hulin. He measures the effects of
community characteristics on job satisfaction of female clerical workers employed in 300
different catalogue order offices. He found that with job conditions held constant job
satisfaction was less among persons living in a well-to-do neighborhood than among those
whose neighborhood was poor. Hulin, thus provides strong evidence that such frames of
reference for evaluation may be provided by one's social groups and general social
environment.
To sum up, we can say, Job satisfaction is a function of or is positively related to the degree
to which the characteristics of the job meet with approved & the desires of the group to
which the individual looks for guidance in evaluating the world & defining social reality.
Relationship among Motivation, Attitude and J ob Satisfaction :
Motivation implies the willingness to work or produce. A person may be talented and
equipped with all kinds of abilities & skills but may have no will to work. Satisfaction, on the
other hand, implies a positive emotional state which may be totally unrelated to productivity.
Similarly in the literature the terms job attitude and job satisfaction are used
interchangeably. However a closer analysis may reveal that perhaps, they measure two
different anchor points. Attitudes are predispositions that make the individual behave in a
characteristic way across the situations.
They are precursors to behaviour & determine its intensity and direction. Job satisfaction,
on the other hand is an end state of feeling which may influence subsequent behaviour. In
this respect, job attitude and job satisfaction may have something in common. But if we
freeze behaviour, attitude would initiate it which job satisfaction would result from it.
Relationship Between Morale & J ob Satisfaction :
According to Seashore (1959), morale is a condition which exists in a context where people
are :
a) motivated towards high productivity.
b) want to remain with organization.
c) act effectively in crisis.
d) accept necessary changes without resentment or resistance.
e) actually promote the interest of the organization and
f) are satisfied with their job.
According to this description of morale, job satisfaction is an important dimension of morale
itself.
Morale is a general attitude of the worker and relates to group while job satisfaction is an
individual feeling which could be caused by a variety of factors including group. This point
has been summarized by Sinha (1974) when he suggests that industrial morale is a
collective phenomenon and job satisfaction is a distributed one. In other words, job
satisfaction refers to a general attitude towards work by an individual works. On the other
hand, morale is group phenomenon which emerges as a result of adherence to group goals
and confidence in the desirability of these goals.
Relationship Between J ob Satisfaction and Work Behaviour :
Generally, the level of job satisfaction seems to have some relation with various aspects of
work behaviour like absenteeism, adjustments, accidents, productivity and union
recognition. Although several studies have shown varying degrees of relationship between
them and job satisfaction, it is not quite clear whether these relationships are correlative or
casual. In other words, whether work behaviour make him more positively inclined to his job
and there would be a lesser probability of getting to an unexpected, incorrect or
uncontrolled event in which either his action or the reaction of an object or person may
result in personal injury.
J ob Satisfaction and Productivity :
Experiments have shown that there is very little positive relationship between the job
satisfaction & job performance of an individual. This is because the two are caused by quite
different factors. Job satisfaction is closely affected by the amount of rewards that an
individual derives from his job, while his level of performance is closely affected by the basis
for attainment of rewards. An individual is satisfied with his job to the extent that his job
provides him with what he desires, and he performs effectively in his job to the extent that
effective performance leads to the attainment of what he desires. This means that instead of
maximizing satisfaction generally an organisation should be more concerned about
maximizing the positive relationship between performance and reward. It should be ensured
that the poor performers do not get more rewards than the good performers. Thus, when a
better performer gets more rewards he will naturally feel more satisfied.
J ob Satisfaction and Absenteeism :
One can find a consistent negative relationship between satisfaction and absenteeism, but
the correlation is moderate-usually less than 0.40. While it certainly makes sense that
dissatisfied Sales Persons are more likely to miss work, other factors have an impact on the
relationship and reduce the correlation coefficient. e.g. Organizations that provide liberal
sick leave benefits are encouraging all their Sales Persons, including those who are highly
satisfied, to take days off. So, outside factors can act to reduce the correlation.
J ob Satisfaction and Turnover :
Satisfaction is also negatively related to turnover, but the correlation is stronger than what
we found for absenteeism. Yet, again, other factors such as labour market conditions,
expectations about alternative job opportunities, and length of tenure with the organization
are important constraints on the actual decision to leave one's current job.
Evidence indicates that an important moderator of the satisfaction-turnover relationship is
the Sales Person's level of performance. Specifically, level of satisfaction is less important
in predicting turnover for superior performers because the organization typically makes
considerable efforts to keep these people. Just the opposite tends to apply to poor
performers. Few attempts are made by the organization to retain them. So one could
expect, therefore, that job satisfaction is more important in influencing poor performers to
stay than superior performers.
J ob Satisfaction and Adjustment :
It the Sales Person is facing problems in general adjustment, it is likely to affect his work
life. Although it is difficult to define adjustment, most psychologists and organisational
behaviourists have been able to narrow it down to what they call neuroticism and anxiety.
Generally deviation from socially expected behaviour has come to be identified as neurotic
behaviour. Though it may be easy to identify symptoms of neuroticism, it is very difficult to
know what causes. Family tensions, job tensions, social isolation, emotional stress, fear,
anxiety or any such sources could be a source of neuroticism.
Anxiety, on the other hand, has a little more clearer base. It is generally seen as a mental
state of vague fear and apprehension which influences the mode of thinking. Anxiety usually
shows itself in such mental state as depression, impulsiveness, excessive worry and
nervousness. While everyone aspires for a perfect state of peace and tranquility, the fact is
that some anxiety is almost necessary for an individual to be effective because it provides
the necessary push for efforts to achieve excellence.
Adjustment problems usually show themselves in the level of job satisfaction. For long, both
theorists and practitioners have been concerned with Sales Persons' adjustment and have
provided vocational guidance and training to them to minimise it's impact on work
behaviour. Most literature, in this area, generally suggests a positive relationship between
adjustment and job satisfaction. People with lower level of anxiety and low neuroticism have
been found to be more satisfied with their jobs.
Determinants of J ob Satisfaction :
According to Abrahan A. Korman, there are two types of variables which determine the job
satisfaction of an individual. These are :
1) Organisational variables ; and
2) Personal Variables.
Organisational Variable :
1) Occupational Level :
The higher the level of the job, the greater is the satisfaction of the individual. This is
because higher level jobs carry greater prestige and self control.
2) Job Content :
Greater the variation in job content and the less repetitiveness with which the tasks must be
performed, the greater is the satisfaction of the individual involved.
3) Considerate Leadership :
People like to be treated with consideration. Hence considerate leadership results in higher
job satisfaction than inconsiderate leadership.
4) Pay and Promotional Opportunities :
All other things being equal these two variables are positively related to job satisfaction.
5) Interaction in the work group :
Here the question is : When is interaction in the work group a source of job satisfaction and
when it is not ? Interaction is most satisfying when -
(a) It results in the cognition that other person's attitudes are similar to one's own. Since this
permits the ready calculability of the others behaviour and constitutes a validation of one's
self ;
(b) It results in being accepted by others ; and
(c) It facilitates the achievements of goals.
Personal Variables :
For some people, it appears most jobs will be dissatisfying irrespective of the organisational
condition involved, whereas for others, most jobs will be satisfying. Personal variables like
age, educational level, sex, etc. are responsible for this difference.
(1) Age :
Most of the evidence on the relation between age and job satisfaction, holding such factors
as occupational level constant, seems to indicate that there is generally a positive
relationship between the two variales up to the pre-retirement years and then there is a
sharp decrease in satisfaction. An individual aspires for better and more prestigious jobs in
later years of his life. Finding his channels for advancement blocked, his satisfaction
declines.
(2) Educational Level :
With occupational level held constant there is a negative relationship between the
educational level and job satisfaction. The higher the education, the higher the reference
group which the individual looks to for guidance to evaluate his job rewards.
(3) Role Perception :
Different individuals hold different perceptions about their role, i.e. the kind of activities and
behaviours they should engage in to perform there job successfully. Job satisfaction is
determined by this factor also. The more accurate the role perception of an individual, the
greater his satisfaction.
(4) Sex :
There is as yet no consistent evidence as to whether women are more satisfied with their
jobs than men, holding such factors as job and occupational level constant. One might
predict this to be the case, considering the generally low occupational aspiration of women.
Some other determines of job satisfaction are as follows:
(i) General Working Conditions.
(ii) Grievance handling procedure.
(iii) Fair evaluation of work done.
(iv) Job security.
(v) Company prestige.
(vi) Working hours etc.
How Sales Persons Can Express Dissatisfaction
Sales Person dissatisfaction can be expressed in a number of ways. For example, rather
than quit, Sales Persons can complain, be insubordinate, steal organisational property, or
shirk a part of their work responsibilities. In the following figure, four responses are given
along to dimensions : Constructiveness / Destructiveness and Activity / Passivity. These are
defined as follow :
Exit : Behaviour directed towards leaving the organisation. Includes looking for a new
position as well as resigning.
Active
Exit Voice
Destructive Constructive
Neglect Loyalty
Passive
Voice : Actively and constructively attempting to improve conditions includes suggesting
improvements, discussing problems with superiors, and some forms of union activity.
Loyalty : Passively but optimistically waiting for conditions to improve. Includes speaking up
for the organisation in the face of external criticism and trusting the organisation and its
management to 'do the right thing'.
Neglect : Passively allowing the conditions to worsen. Includes chronic absenteeism or
lateness, reduced effort, and increased error rate.
Exit and neglect behaviours encompass our performances variables-productivity,
absenteeism and turnover. But this model expands Sales Person response to include voice
and loyalty, constructive behaviours that allow individuals to tolerate unpleasant situations
or to revive satisfactory working conditions.
Importance of High Job Satisfaction :
The importance of job satisfaction is obvious. Managers should be concerned with the level
of job satisfaction in their organisations for at least three reasons:
(1) There is clear evidence that dissatisfied Sales Persons skip work more often and are
more likely to resign ;
(2) It has been demonstrated that satisfied Sales Persons have better health and live longer
; and
(3) Satisfaction on the job carries over to the Sales Person's life outside the job.
Satisfied Sales Persons have lower rate of both turnover and absenteeism. Specifically,
satisfaction is strongly and consistently negatively related to an Sales Person's decision to
leave the organisation. Although satisfaction and absence are also negatively related,
conclusions regarding the relationship should be more guarded.
An often overlooked dimension of job satisfaction is its relationship to Sales Person health.
Several studies have shown that Sales Persons who are dissatisfied with their jobs are
prone to health setbacks ranging from headaches to heart disease. For managers, this
means that even if satisfaction did not lead to less voluntary turn over and absence, the
goal of a satisfied work force might be jutificable because it would reduced medical costs
and the premature loss of valued Sales Persons by way of heart disease or strokes.
Job satisfaction's importance is its spin off effect that job satisfaction has for society as a
whole. When Sales Persons are happy with their jobs, it improves their lives off the job. In
contrast, the dissatisfied Sales Person carries that negative attitude home.
Some benefits of job satisfaction accure to every citizen in society. Satisfied Sales Persons
are more likely to be satisfied citizens. These people will hold a more positive attitude
towards life in general and make for a society of more psychologically healthy people.
So job satisfaction is very important. For management, a satisfied work force translates into
higher productivity due to fewer disruptions caused by absenteeism or good Sales Persons
quitting, as well as into lower medical and life insurance costs. Additionally, there are
benefits for society in general. Satisfaction on the job carries over to the Sales Person's off
the job hours. So the goal of high job satisfaction for Sales Persons can be defended in
terms of both money and social responsibility.
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