1. Chapter 3: Job Satisfaction
Chapter 3 discusses the important concept of job satisfaction. In order to help you focus your studying of the material, you should keep in mind the following questions: what is job satisfaction? What are values, how do they affect job satisfaction? What are the facets of job satisfaction? Which characteristics of the job can create a sense of satisfaction with the work itself? How is job satisfaction affected by day-to-day events? Additionally, you should be able to define mood and emotions and describe the specific forms they take. Finally, understand how job satisfaction affects job performance and organizational commitment, as well as how it affects life satisfaction.
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
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2. Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction is a pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences.
It represents how you feel about your job and what you think about your job.
49 percent of Americans are satisfied with their jobs, down from 58 percent a decade ago.
OB often uses concepts in precise ways. Job satisfaction is a key variable in the study of OB. We define job satisfaction as a pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experiences. In a sense, it represents how you feel about your job and what you think about your job. Job satisfaction has been showing signs of decline in the United States. Up until 10 years ago, job satisfaction levels had remained very stable and positive. However, today only 49 percent of Americans are satisfied with their jobs compared to 58 percent ten years ago.

3. Why Are Some Employees More Satisfied than Others?
At a general level, employees are satisfied when their job provides the things that they value.
Values are those things that people consciously or subconsciously want to seek or attain.
What explains why some employees are more satisfied with their jobs than others? When jobs provide things that employees value, they are generally satisfied. What employees' value is a key element to understanding job satisfaction. What do employees value? What do you want to get from your job? What things do you want your job to give you? Money? A sense of achievement? Co-workers who are fun to be around? What employees value in their jobs differs from individual to individual. Formally defined, values are those things that people consciously or subconsciously want to seek or attain.
Table 3-1 presents work values that have been frequently studied and measured. The table provides the general categories of the work values and associates that category with specific values. For example, the general category of supervision is associated with the specific values of good supervisory relations and supervisors who give praise for good work. Familiarize yourself with these general work values as we continue our discussion of job satisfaction.
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4. Dissatisfaction = (Vwant - Vhave) X (Vimportance)
Value-Percept Theory
Value-percept theory argues that job satisfaction depends on whether you perceive that your job supplies the things that you value.
People evaluate job satisfaction according to specific “facets” of the job.
Dissatisfaction = (Vwant - Vhave) X (Vimportance)
Vwant reflects how much of a value an employee wants
Vhave indicates how much of that value the job supplies
Vimportance reflects how important the value is to the employee
Values are critical in understanding and explaining job satisfaction. One approach to the study of job satisfaction is the value-percept theory. The theory postulates that job satisfaction depends on whether you perceive that your job supplies the things that you value. The theory is based on how much of a value an employee wants relative to how much of that value the job provides, relative to the importance of that value to the employee. For example, if you want to be making $60,000 per year but are currently earning only $40,000 per year there is a discrepancy between what you want or value, and what you currently have. That discrepancy can be expressed as a difference of $20,000 dollars. Can you conclude that you feel a great deal of pay dissatisfaction? You can IF pay is the most important job related value to you.
The Value-Percept Theory of Job Satisfaction is depicted in Figure 3-1 in the text. Overall job satisfaction derives from the combined levels of satisfaction for the various elements of ones job. We call these elements, facets. Or facet-specific elements of job satisfaction. The facets of job satisfaction are pay, promotion, supervision and coworkers. The overall level of job satisfaction is determined by the combination of the levels of facet-specific satisfaction with each of the facets specified. Each facet specific level of satisfaction is determined by the difference between what one has and what one wants and the level of importance of that facet to the individual. Combining these facets and their importance determines one's overall job satisfaction. Thus, one could be somewhat dissatisfied with the level of pay, but very satisfied with one's supervisors and coworkers leading to overall positive job satisfaction. We can see how individual differences in values can affect ones overall job satisfaction.
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5. Value-Percept Theory, Cont’d
Pay satisfaction refers to employees’ feelings about their pay, including whether it is as much as they deserve, secure, and adequate for both normal expenses and luxury items.
Promotion satisfaction refers to employees’ feelings about the company’s promotion policies and their execution, including whether promotions are frequent, fair, and based on ability.
The Value-Percept Theory of job satisfaction is based on job facets. Pay satisfaction is one facet and refers to the employees' feelings about their pay, including whether it is as much as they deserve or value. Promotion satisfaction is the job facet that refers to employees' feelings about the company's promotion policies and how they are carried out.
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6. Value-Percept Theory, Cont’d
Supervision satisfaction reflects employees’ feelings about their boss, including whether the boss is competent, polite, and a good communicator.
“Can they help me attain the things that I value?”
“Are they generally likable?”
Coworker satisfaction refers to employees’ feelings about their fellow employees, including whether coworkers are smart, responsible, helpful, fun, and interesting as opposed to lazy, gossipy, unpleasant, and boring.
“Can they help me do my job?”
“Do I enjoy being around them?”
Supervision satisfaction reflects employees' feelings about their boss, whether the boss is competent, fair, polite, and a good communicator. Employees are concerned about whether the supervisor provides rewards for good performance and if they help the employee attain the things that they value. Coworker satisfaction refers to employees' feelings about their fellow employees. Employees' values about coworkers are based on their feelings about whether coworkers are helpful, interesting, responsible, and so on. Employees ask the same types of questions about their coworkers as they do about their supervisors.
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7. Value-Percept Theory, Cont’d
Satisfaction with the work itself reflects employees’ feelings about their actual work tasks, including whether those tasks are challenging, interesting, respected, and make use of key skills rather than being dull, repetitive, and uncomfortable.
The last facet in the Value-Percept Theory is satisfaction with the work itself. This facet reflects employees' feelings about their actual work tasks including whether those tasks are challenging, interesting, respected, and whether they make use of the key skills rather than being dull, repetitive, and uncomfortable.
Correlations between satisfaction facets and overall job satisfaction are shown in Figure 3-2 from the text. As can be seen, pay and promotion are moderately correlated with overall satisfaction and the facets of supervision, coworkers and the work itself have strong correlations with overall job satisfaction.
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8. Job Characteristics Theory
Critical Psychological States
Meaningfulness of work reflects the degree to which work tasks are viewed as something that “counts” in the employee’s system of philosophies and beliefs.
Responsibility for outcomes captures the degree to which employees feel that they are key drivers of the quality of the unit’s work.
Knowledge of results reflects the extent to which employees know how well (or how poorly) they are doing.
What type of tasks create these psychological states?
Research suggests that three critical psychological states make work satisfying. The first psychological state is believing in the meaningfulness of work. This reflects the degree to which work tasks are seen as something that counts in the employees belief system. Trivial tasks are less satisfying than those that make employees feel that they are making a contribution. The second psychological state is responsibility for outcomes. This is the degree to which employees feel that they are important drivers in the quality of the work that is being done. The third psychological state is knowledge of results. This reflects the extent to which employees know how well or poorly they are doing. Far too often, employees work in jobs in which they never find out how well they have done.
Figure 3-3 illustrates the job characteristics theory. This theory attempts to answer the question "what kinds of tasks create the three critical psychological states. The theory suggests that five core job characteristics, variety, identity, significance, autonomy, and feedback, have direct and measurable impact on the three psychological states making work tasks more satisfying. A useful acronym to remember for the five core job characteristics is VISAF.
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9. Job Characteristics Theory, Cont’d
Variety is the degree to which the job requires a number of different activities that involve a number of different skills and talents.
Identity is the degree to which the job requires completing a whole, identifiable, piece of work from beginning to end with a visible outcome.
Significance is the degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the lives of other people, particularly people in the world at large.
Autonomy is the degree to which the job provides freedom, independence, and discretion to the individual performing the work.
Feedback is the degree to which carrying out the activities required by the job provides the worker with clear information about how well he or she is performing.
Let's discuss each of the five core job characteristics from the Job Characteristics Theory. The first is task variety which is the degree to which the job requires a number of different activities involving a number of skills and talents. When variety is high, every work day can be different in some way and reduces the feelings of monotony or repetition. Task identity is the degree to which the job requires completing a whole, identifiable, piece of work from beginning to end with a visible outcome. When a job has high identity, employees can point to something and say, I did that. The employee feels a distinct sense of beginning and closure. The third core job characteristic is significance. This is the degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the lives of other people, particularly people in the world at large. Significance as a core job characteristic captures the belief that this job really matters. That if the job was taken away, society would be the worse for it. Autonomy is the degree to which the job provides freedom, independence and discretion to the individual who is performing the work. Autonomy comes in multiple forms including the freedom to control the timing, scheduling and sequencing of work as well as the procedures used to complete the tasks. Feedback is the final core job characteristic from the theory. This is the degree to which carrying out the activities required by the job provides the individual with clear information about how well he or she is performing. This core job characteristic is feedback from the job itself as opposed to feedback from coworkers or supervisors. When the job provides its own feedback, that feedback can be experienced on a daily basis.
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10. Job Characteristic Moderators
Knowledge and skill
Growth need strength
Captures whether employees have strong needs for personal accomplishment or developing themselves beyond where they currently are.
Both of these increase the strength of the relationships within the model
A meta analysis of 75 different research studies suggests that the five core job characteristics are moderately to strongly related to work satisfaction. This doesn't mean that every employee wants more variety, autonomy, feedback and so on from the job. There are two other variables, knowledge and skill and growth need strength that act as moderating variables in the theory. When these variables are included in the model, the strength of the relationships with overall job satisfaction is strengthened.
Figure 3-4 in the textbook shows how the relationship between the levels of the five core job characteristics and satisfaction with the work itself is strengthened when growth need strengths are included as a moderator of the job characteristic effects.
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11. Job Enrichment
Job enrichment occurs when the duties and responsibilities associated with a job are expanded to provide more variety, identity, autonomy, and so forth.
Can boost job satisfaction levels
Can heighten work accuracy and customer satisfaction, though training and labor costs tend to rise as a result of such changes
Given the fact that the five core job characteristics have a strong relationship to job satisfaction, organizations have used the job characteristics theory to improve satisfaction among their employees. Job enrichment has been implemented by organizations to create more job satisfaction among employees. This process expands the duties and responsibilities associated with a job to provide more variety, identity, autonomy, feedback, and significance. Research has demonstrated that job enrichment programs have increased job satisfaction levels. These efforts can also increase work accuracy and customer satisfaction.
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12. Moods and Emotions
Job satisfaction reflects what you think and feel about your job.
Rational
Emotional
A satisfied employee feels good about his or her job on average.
Moods are states of feeling that are often mild in intensity, last for an extended period of time, and are not explicitly directed at or caused by anything.
Research has shown that employees job satisfaction levels rise and fall over time. Even though pay and other aspects of the job may remain stable, the levels of satisfaction do change. Part of the reason for this is due to the fact that job satisfaction reflects what you think and feel about your job. Part of this is rational while the other aspects influencing job satisfaction are emotional. Overall, it is true that a satisfied employee feels good about her job on average. So what can cause fluctuations in job satisfaction on a day-to-day basis? Part of the answer can be found in individual's moods and emotions. Moods are defined as states of feeling that are often mild in intensity, last for an extended period of time, and are not explicitly directed at or caused by anything. Moods are states such as pleasantness, engagement, or captured in the statement "I'm feeling grouchy."
Ask yourself right now, what kind of mood are you in? Good? Bad? As you can see, moods do vary with individuals and with events. Figure 3-5 from the text illustrates the hour-by-hour fluctuations in job satisfaction during the work day. While moods do impact the satisfaction at any given time of the day, the overall job satisfaction remains somewhat constant. Figure 3-6 provides information on different kinds of mood. As depicted in the diagram, individuals can be grouchy or sad or blue; they can be bored or sluggish, or drowsy. They can also be enthusiastic, excited, and elated. As you can imagine, at different times of the day, moods do change, and so does one's immediate job satisfaction.
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13. Moods and Emotions, Cont’d
Emotions are states of feeling that are often intense, last for only a few minutes, and are clearly directed at (and caused by) someone or some circumstance.
Positive emotions include joy, pride, relief, hope, love, and compassion.
Negative emotions include anger, anxiety, fear, guilt, shame, sadness, envy, and disgust.
Emotional labor is the need to manage emotions to complete job duties successfully.
Emotional contagion shows that one person can “catch” or “be infected by” the emotions of another person.
We have seen that moods are mild in intensity and are not caused by anything in particular. Emotions, on the other hand, are states of feeling that are often intense, last for only a few minutes, and are clearly directed at and caused by someone or some thing. Emotions can be either positive or negative. Positive emotions include joy, pride, relief, hope, love, and compassion. Negative emotions can include anger, anxiety, fear, guilt, shame, sadness, envy and disgust. Remember, while moods are not directed toward anyone or anything, emotions are always about something or someone. Feeling emotions at work and showing those emotions at work may not be appropriate. Sometimes, employees who have to deal with unpleasant customers must hide their emotions of anger, or anxiety. These kinds of jobs are high in emotional labor. Emotional labor is the need to manage emotions to complete job duties successfully. If a customer service representative shows his anger with a customer, the customer can become angry in return, thus escalating the conflict. Emotions can be transferred from one person to another. This is called emotional contagion.
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14. How Important is Satisfaction?
Job satisfaction does influence job performance.
It is moderately correlated with task performance. Satisfied employees do a better job of fulfilling the duties described in their job descriptions.
Job satisfaction is correlated moderately with citizenship behavior.
Satisfied employees engage in more frequent “extra mile” behaviors to help their coworkers and their organization.
Job satisfaction influences organizational commitment.
Job satisfaction is strongly correlated with affective commitment, so satisfied employees are more likely to want to stay with the organization.
Does job satisfaction have a significant impact on job performance and organization commitment? These are important outcomes in our integrative model of Organizational Behavior. Job satisfaction does influence job performance. It is moderately correlated with task performance. Research suggests that satisfied employees do a better job of fulfilling the duties described in their job descriptions. Job satisfaction is also correlated moderately with citizenship behavior. It appears that satisfied employees are more frequently engaged in going the "extra mile" to help their coworkers and companies. Job satisfaction also influences organizational commitment. Research findings suggest that job satisfaction is strongly correlated with affective commitment, so that satisfied employees are more likely to want to stay with the organization. The Effects of Job Satisfaction on Performance and Commitment are identified further in Figure 3-7 as shown in the textbook.
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15. Life Satisfaction
Job satisfaction is strongly related to life satisfaction, or the degree to which employees feel a sense of happiness with their lives.
People feel better about their lives when they feel better about their jobs.
Increases in job satisfaction have a stronger impact on life satisfaction than do increases in salary or income.
We should be aware that job satisfaction is important beyond job performance and organizational commitment. In fact, job satisfaction has been shown to be strongly related to life satisfaction. People feel better about their lives when they feel better about their jobs. Interestingly, increased job satisfaction has a stronger impact on life satisfaction than does either increases in salary or income.
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