Employee Satisfaction: Work-Related and Personal Factors
Employee Satisfaction: Work-Related and Personal Factors
Satisfaction:
Work-Related
And
Personal
In recent times, huge interest has been given by organisations to examine conditions or factors that foster greater job satisfaction. The interest is to be believed that the behaviours of satisfied employees will make positive contributions to the organisational effectiveness and performance. The current study intended to reveal the relationships between employees job satisfaction and work environmental and personal variables. Three hundred and thirty-three employees were surveyed. T-Test and ANOVA were used to analyse the differences among employees work and personal variables with job satisfaction. The findings of this study could be served as a guideline for managers who intent to improve their employees job satisfaction.
1. Introduction
Employee is one of the key factors of the organisation success. No organisation can succeed without a certain level of commitment and effort from its employees. Organisations often attempt to satisfy its employees to gain their commitment and loyalty. However, it is not easy for the organisations to be successful in making individual satisfied because people work for a wide variety of different reasons, some want material success while others might emphasize job challenging. From an individual standpoint, job satisfaction might be one of the most desirable outcomes that employees could obtain. From a pragmatic managerial and organisation effectiveness perspective, it is important to know how to measure he level of job satisfaction and how job satisfaction relates to other organisational variables. Research indicates that job satisfaction may not necessary lead to individual performance but does also lead to the organisational-level improvement (Luthans, 2001). In recent times there has been a convergence of interest on the efforts by organisations to examine conditions or factors that foster greater job satisfaction and that will make positive contributions to the organisation (Bartolo and Furlonger, 1999). Why job satisfaction? Robbins (2003) said that impressive evidences exist concerning the significant of job satisfaction. A satisfied workforce leads to higher productivity because of fewer disruptions such as absenteeism, turnover, and negative behaviours.
1
Kanjana Kessuwan is with Bayer Thai Co., Ltd., Thailand, E-mail: [email protected] 2 Dr. Nuttawuth Muenjohn is with School of Management, RMIT University, Melbourne. E-mail: [email protected]
1
Society in general also benefits because satisfaction on the job contributes to satisfaction off the job. The current study intended to reveal the relationship between employees job satisfaction and work environmental factors and personal variables. More specially, the purposes of this study were to: a) measure the employee job satisfaction toward worked-related variables, including work itself, supervision, coworkers, pay, fringe benefits, opportunity for advancement, contingent rewards, and communication; b) determine the degrees of importance among the variables that influenced the levels of satisfaction from the employees perspectives; and c) investigate the relationships between job satisfaction and employees personal variables such as age, gender, educational, and position levels.
more likely to increase absenteeism. Absence is influenced not only by job satisfaction but also by, for example, pressure or lack of pressure to attend (Luthans, 2001).
traditional promotion opportunities. Employees who are given opportunities to learn to widen their knowledge and improve their skills are more satisfied with their jobs (Waskiewicz, 1999; Luthans, 2001). Styles and quality of supervision also play an important role on job satisfaction. A number of research indicated that employees attitude was directly related to the quality of supervision provided to them (i.e. DeMato, 2001). In terms of organisational communication, Brunetto (2002) found that there is a positive relationship between the satisfaction with organisational communication and employee commitment.
3. Research Method
This research was designed to apply the quantitative technique to conduct the research by using self-administration questionnaire. Such questionnaire was developed base on the framework of Smith, Kendall, and Hulin (1969) or JDI and Spector (1994) or JSS because of their validity and reliability. The target respondents were asked about their attitudes toward specific aspects of job satisfaction which were the work itself, supervision, coworkers, pay, fringe benefits, opportunity for advancement, contingent rewards, and communication. Also, the target respondents were asked to determine the degrees of importance on the research variables. The sample of this study was comprised of all employees who had been working for a multinational cooperation in Thailand. The total number of employees was 579 employees. The questionnaires were delivered by hand to section managers and were distributed to all 579 potential respondents by their respective section manager. At the end of the collection data, three hundred and thirty-three questionnaires were returned representing the returned rate of 57.51%.
4. Results
The results indicated that 76.58% was males and 23.42% was females, 48.65% of the respondents age less than 30 years, 42.43% graduated bachelor degree, 81.98% was non-managerial workers, and almost 32.43% had been working for the company less than 3 years. Table 1 indicated that the respondents expressed moderate level of job satisfaction with the whole job situations with mean score of 3.43. The attitudes were not diverse as standard deviation was at 0.52.
TABLE 1: OVERALL JOB SATISFACTION N Overall Job Satisfaction Valid Number (N) 330 330 Mean 3.43 SD 0.52 Degree Moderate
Note: Mean 1.00-2.49 means the employees have low level of job satisfaction. Mean 2.50-3.49 means the employees have moderate level of job satisfaction. Mean 3.50-5.00 means the employees have high level of job satisfaction.
TABLE 2: CURRENT JOB SATISFACTION ON WORK-RELATED VARIABLE Factor Independent Variable Valid 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. The Work Itself Supervision Coworkers Pay Fringe Benefits Opportunity for Advancement Contingent Rewards Communication 333 333 331 331 331 331 332 332 Descriptive Statistics N Missing 0 0 2 2 2 2 1 1 3.67 3.55 3.70 3.05 3.35 3.34 3.33 3.42 0.61 0.85 0.62 0.85 0.84 0.75 0.70 0.73 High High High Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderate Mean SD Degree
had moderate level of job satisfaction toward pay (3.05), fringe benefits (3.35), opportunity for advancement (3.34), contingent rewards (3.33), and communication (3.42).
Of
Importance
Influencing
Employee
Job
TABLE 3: THE DEGREES OF IMPORTANCE INFLUENCING EMPLOYEE JOB SATISFACTION Factor Statistics Independent Variable N Mean Valid Missing 1. Pay 330 3 4.15 2. Fringe Benefits 330 3 4.07 3. Coworkers 330 3 4.03 4. Opportunity for Advancement 330 3 3.98 5. Communication 330 3 3.93 6. The Work Itself 330 3 3.77 7. Supervision 330 3 3.77 8. Contingent Rewards 330 3 3.62
As shown in Table 3, employees perceived Pay (4.15); Fringe benefits (4.07); Coworkers (4.03); and Opportunity for advancement (3.98) were the most four important factors influencing their job satisfaction.
job-component satisfaction toward the work itself indicated that mean of age less than 30 (mean = 3.60) was significantly different with mean of age between 40-49 (mean = 3.89).
2.262
2.730
Supervision
1.033
Coworkers
0.821
Pay
1.973
Fringe Benefits
2.245
0.605
2.325
Communication
0.655
TABLE 4: T-TEST DIFFERENCE OF GENDER AND JOB SATISFACTION Factor Overall Job Satisfaction The Work Itself Supervision Coworkers Pay Fringe Benefits Opportunity for Advancement Contingent Rewards Communication
Note: Signification Level 0.05
Gender Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female
Mean 3.42 3.46 3.67 3.71 3.52 3.67 3.67 3.80 3.01 3.18 3.35 3.33 3.35 3.29 3.30 3.42 3.46 3.29
Sig.
The results indicated that there were no significant differences among the educational levels toward the current level of job satisfaction with the whole job situations and with job components satisfaction. There were no significant differences between managerial level and non-managerial level toward the current level of job satisfaction with the whole job situations and with job components satisfaction in exception of the work itself (t = 2.133, p = 0.03).
0.556
0.645
1.690
0.169
Supervision
1.030
0.380
Coworkers
0.261
0.853
Pay
1.576
0.195
Fringe Benefits
1.014
0.387
0.938
0.423
0.659
0.578
Communication
0.735
0.532
5. Discussion
TABLE 7: T-TEST - DIFFERENCE OF POSITION AND JOB SATISFACTION
Position Overall Job Satisfaction Managerial Non-Managerial The Work Itself Managerial Non-Managerial Supervision Managerial Non-Managerial Coworkers Managerial Non-Managerial Pay Managerial Non-Managerial Fringe Benefits Managerial Non-Managerial Opportunity for Advancement Contingent Rewards Managerial Non-Managerial Managerial Non-Managerial Communication Note: Signification Level 0.05 Managerial Non-Managerial N 59 271 60 273 60 273 59 272 59 272 59 272 59 272 60 272 60 272 Mean 3.49 3.41 3.83 3.64 3.67 3.53 3.79 3.68 3.13 3.03 3.52 3.31 3.26 3.35 3.39 3.32 3.33 3.44 -1.029 0.304 0.713 0.476 -0.834 0.405 1.776 0.077 0.983 0.328 1.532 0.128 1.340 0.183 2.133 0.034 1.144 0.255 t Sig.
Job satisfaction was viewed as the employees attitudes or feelings about their present jobs and job situations. Results revealed that employees in this study were moderately satisfied with their present jobs. The possible reason for this might be the prestige of the company. The company is one of the biggest multinational corporations with great a reputation. Its employees are seen as talented and professional as treated as such. The employees were highly satisfied with the work itself because they perceived their job as meaningful, interesting, challenging, and enjoyable and they had enough authority and freedom to perform their job. This made them had a sense of pride in doing their job. Moreover, they were very happy that their supervisor provided them with feedback on the effectiveness of their work performance. Also, good encouragement and support were provided by their supervisors. The findings also indicated that employees were highly satisfied with coworkers because their coworkers were highly competent in doing their job. They received good cooperation and supports form their coworkers and there were no bickering and fighting at work. However, employees in this study seemed to be moderately satisfied with monetary rewards or benefits. Some respondents perceived that pay was not fair as they perceived that significant differences of salary base among similar positions were existed. Furthermore, some employees also perceived that the benefits they received were not as good as other organizations in the same industry offered. The respondents seemed to have similar attitude toward opportunity for advancement and communication. Most employees felt that they got a fair chance of being promoted and were satisfied with their chances for promotion. In addition, they were encouraged and supported to participate in training and development programs and were highly satisfied with the chance to attend those. Gender issue seems to have a little impact on employees attitude in this study. No significant differences between male and female were found. The results were congruent with the results of other study dedicated to the relationship between gender and job satisfaction (i.e. Ivancevich and Donnelly, 1968; Green, 2000; Jariyavidyanont, 1978). Similar to gender, age groups of respondents had little influence toward the current level of job satisfaction and this supported Coll and Rices study when they stated that age was not related to job satisfaction (in Green, 2000). Education levels and position held in the company produced similar results. Based on the results in this study, it revealed that personal variables seemed to have very little linkage with the levels of job satisfaction. Drawing from the research findings, some recommendations can be given to improved and enhance grater employees job satisfaction and that leads to the high level of organisation performance. Pay: From the findings, it showed that pay was recognized as the most important factor influencing employee job satisfaction. Thus improvement in some aspects of pay would increase employees level of satisfaction with the job for example, standardize the pay systems and pay based on performance or profit. Fringe Benefits: Fringe benefits was rated as the second important factor affecting employee job satisfaction. Hence, the management should review the current benefits and improve the inappropriate ones in order to enhance job satisfaction. For example,
the management may increase the annual budget of outpatient claim, increase the premium of health insurance to cover all medical expenses, provide the educational fund or loan for employees, and provide the housing fund or loan for employees. Opportunity for Advancement: Opportunity for advancement was considered as one of the most important factors influencing employee job satisfaction especially for the management level. They recognized opportunity for advancement as the second most important factor affecting their job satisfaction. Consequently, to retain talented employees, the management should provide them with chances for promotion or opportunities for personnel development as following instances: a) a fair chance for promotion; b) succession planning; c) systematic job rotation; and d) development opportunities in a management career path or a specialist career path. Communication: Communication was rated as the fifth out of eight factors influencing employee job satisfaction. To improve the communication within the organisation, the management should emphasize on openness and honesty in communication/information, discussion forums for all staffs, and discussion of corporate issues within employee function. Contingent Rewards: Contingent rewards or performance-based rewards was also an important factor to foster greater job satisfaction even though it was rated as the last out of eight factors. In term of monetary rewards such as bonus, the management should develop the profit-related and performance-related bonus system as many employees claimed that bonus is not related to the company profit and their work performance. In term of non-monetary rewards such as appreciation and recognition, the management should give appreciation and recognition not only to the managerial level but also non-managerial level since a lot of non-managerial level claimed that the management does not value them as one of important parts of the organisation and they are not treated fairly by the management.
perceived different degrees of importance. The non-managerial employees perceived pay, fringe benefits and coworker as the most three important would be because these motivational factors could fulfill their basic needs according to the Maslows Hierarchy of Needs (Moorhead and Griffin, 1998). On the other hand, the employees at the managerial level rated coworkers, opportunity for advancement, and work itself as the most important factor influencing their job satisfaction. This might be because a good work group or effective team could easily helped them achieved the best results. Similarly, the work itself allowed them to apply their abilities and skills and embody a diversity of tasks, freedom, and performance feedback. Regarding the relationships between the personal variables of the employees and their job satisfaction, it appeared that there was very little relationships between these two variables. The current research was conducted within one multinational company and therefore would not represent employees attitude for the whole industry. Also, theories in motivation and job satisfaction proposed a number of factors affecting employee job satisfaction but only eight work-related factors were identified in this study. Finally, quantitative research was employed to assess employees attitude toward their job in the current study. A number of researchers suggested qualitative research should be considered to get an in-depth attitude from respondents.
7. References
Arnold, J.H., and D.C. Feldman, 1986, Job Satisfaction, Organisational Behaviour, McGraw-Hill, Inc., USA, pp. 85-113 Bartolo, K. and B. Furlonger, 2000, Leadership and Job Satisfaction Among Aviation Fire Fighters in Australia, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 87-97 Brunetto Y., 2002, The Impact of Supervisor Communication on the Job Satisfaction on Early Career Police Officers, IFSAM 2002 Conference Gold Coast , Queenland, Australia Carrell, M.R., D.F. Jennings, and C. Heavrin, J.D., 1997, Decision Making, Job Satisfaction, and Work Stress, Fundamentals of Organisational Behaviour , pp. 135141 DeMato, D.S., 2001, Job Satisfaction Among Elementary School Counselors in Virginia: Thirteen Years Later, Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA Green, J., 2000, Job Satisfaction of Community College Chairpersons, Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA Jariyavidyanont, S., 1978, Job Satisfaction of NIDA Faculty Members, Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Indiana University, USA Luthans, F., 2001, Job Satisfaction, Organisational Behaviour, 9th ed., pp. 230-235
McAfee, B., V. Quarstein, and A. Ardalan, 1995, The Effect of Discretion, Outcome Feedback, and Process Feedback on Employee Job Satisfaction, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 95, No. 5, pp. 7-12 Moorhead, G. and R.W. Griffin, 1998, Organisational Behaviour: Managing People and Organisations, 5th ed., Houghton Mifflin Company, USA Robbins, S. P. (2003) Essentials of Organisational Behaviour (7th ed), Prentice Hall: US. Rue, L.W. and L.L. Byars, 1999, Motivating Todays Employee, Supervision Key Link to Productivity, 6th ed., The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., USA, pp. 271-285 Simintiras, A.C., G.A. Lancaster, and J.W. Cadogan, 1994, Perceptions and Attitudes of Salespeople towards the Overall Sales Job and the Work Itself, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 9, No. 7, pp. 3-10 Smith, P. C. Kendall, L. M. and Hulin, C. L. (1969) The measurement of satisfaction in work and retirement, Rand McNally: Chicago Spector, P.E., 1997, Job Satisfaction: Application, Assessment, Cause, and Consequences, SAGE Publications, Inc., USA Soranun, K., 1994, Job Satisfaction and Factors Affecting Job Satisfaction of Academic Staffs and Non-Academic Staffs at Chulalongkorn University, Unpublished Master Thesis, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand Steers R.M., L.W. Porter, and G.A. Bigley, 1996, Job Attitudes and Employee Behaviour, Motivation and Leadership at Work , 6th ed., The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., USA, pp. 383-420 Tilburg E.V., 1998, Performance-Reward Contingencies: The Role and Relationships of Perceived Equity in the Job Performance and Job Satisfaction, The Journal of the AATEA, pp. 25-31 Wangphanich, P., 1984, Job Satisfaction of Faculty Members at Srinakharinwirot University, Thailand, , Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Kansas University, USA Waskiewicz, S.P., 1999, Variables that Contribute to Job Satisfaction of Secondary School Assistant Principals, , Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA
Appendix:
DESCRIPTION OF WORK-RELATED FACTORS Factor Description The work itself Tasks of a job of employees. It includes intrinsic interest, variety, opportunity for learning, difficulty, amount, and control over pace and method. Supervision Function of control which evaluates current action while in progress and attempts to assure that execution is taking place in accordance with plans and instructions. It includes supervisory style and influence, competence, human relations, and administrative skills. Coworkers Relationship between respondents and their coworkers which including competence, helpfulness, and friendliness. Pay Monetary form of compensation paid at regular intervals to employees for services rendered. It includes amount, and fairness or equity. Fringe benefits Benefits provided by the company to employees such as medical, insurance, pension, provident fund, annual leave, uniform, and transportation. Opportunity for Chance for an actual change in the status or the position of employees as well as an advancement improvement in abilities and skills of employees which including promotion opportunities and training and development opportunities. Contingent Monetary and non-monetary rewards given for good performance such as bonus rewards and recognition. Communicatio Communication channels/types within the organisation. n