History of Job Satisfaction
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History of Job Satisfaction
One of the biggest preludes to the study of job satisfaction was the Hawthorne studies. These studies (1924-1933), primarily credited to Elton Mayo of the Harvard Business School, sought to find the effects of various conditions (most notably illumination) on workers productivity. These studies ultimately showed that novel changes in work conditions temporarily increase productivity (called the Hawthorne Effect). It was later found that this increase resulted, not from the new conditions, but from the knowledge of being observed. This finding provided strong evidence that people work for purposes other than pay, which paved the way for researchers to investigate other factors in job satisfaction.
Scientific Management (aka Taylorism) also had a significant impact on the study of job satisfaction. Frederick Winslow Taylors 1911 book, Principles of Scientific Management, argued that there was a single best way to perform any given work task. This book contributed to a change in industrial production philosophies, causing a shift from skilled labor and piece work towards the more modern of assembly line and hourly wage. The initial use of scientific management by industries greatly increased productivity because workers were forced to work at a faster pace. However, workers became exhausted and dissatisfied, thus leaving researchers with new questions to answer regarding job satisfaction. It should also be noted that the work of W.L. Bryan, Walter Dill Scott, and Hugo Munsterberg set the tone for Taylors work.
Some argue that Maslow Hierarchy Need theory, a motivation theory, laid the foundation for job satisfaction theory. This theory explains that people seek to satisfy five specific needs in life – physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, self-esteem needs, and self-actualization. This model served as a good basis from which early researchers could develop job satisfaction theories.
Job satisfaction can also be seen within the broader context of the range of issues which affect an individuals experience of work, or their quality of working life. Job satisfaction can be understood in terms of its relationships with other key factors, such as general well-being, stress at work, control at work, home-work interface, and working conditions.
Importance of Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction is an important indicator of how employees feel about their job and a predictor of work behavior such as organizational, citizenship, absenteeism, and turnover.
Job satisfaction ca partially mediates the relationship of personally variables and work behavior.
Common research finding is that job satisfaction is correlated with life style. This correlation is reciprocal meaning the people who are satisfied their jobs tends to satisfied with their life.
This is vital piece of information that is job satisfaction and job performance is directly related to one another. Thus it can be said that, “A happy worker is a productive worker.”
It gives clear evidence that dissatisfied employees skip work more often and more like to resign and satisfied worker likely to work longer with the organization.
Importance to worker and organization
Job satisfaction and occupational success are major factors in personal satisfaction, self-respect, self-esteem, and self-development. To the worker, job satisfaction brings a pleasurable emotional state that can often leads to a positive work attitude. A satisfied worker is more likely to be creative, flexible, innovative, and loyal.
For the organization, job satisfaction of its workers means a work force that is motivated and committed to high quality performance. Increased productivity the quantity and quality of output per hour worked-seems to be a byproduct of improved quality of working life. It is important to note that the literature on the relationship between job satisfaction and productivity is neither conclusive nor consistent.
However, studies dating back to Herzbergs (1957) have shown at least low correlation between high morale and high productivity and it does seem logical that more satisfied workers will tend to add more value to an organization.
Unhappy employees, who are motivated by fear of loss of job, will not give 100 percent of their effort for very long. Though fear is a powerful motivator, it is also a temporary one, and also as soon as the threat is lifted performance will decline.
Job satisfaction benefits the organization includes reduction in complaints and grievances, absenteeism, turnover, and termination; as well as improved punctuality and worker morale. Job satisfaction is also linked with a healthier work force and has been found to be a good indicator of longevity.
Although only little correlation has been found between job satisfaction and productivity, Brown (1996) notes that some employers have found that satisfying or delighting employees is a prerequisite to satisfying or delighting customers, thus protecting the “bottom line”.
Different Aspects of Job Satisfaction
There are different aspects to job satisfaction, some will agree whole-heartedly to this and some will disagree-
Individual elements – this means personality, education, intellect, age and marital status. These individual elements play an important role in job satisfaction.
Social elements – social elements are all things in the social environment of the work place, such as working relationship with colleagues, interaction and informal association with colleagues.
Cultural elements – these are a persons beliefs, attitude, values, religious elements.
Organizational elements – these are elements directly related to the organization like the size of the organization, structure of the organization, employee-employer relationships, management abilities, leaderships, delegation and all such things are factors affecting job satisfaction.
Environmental elements – these are elements of influences on the environment around working, like economic, social, technical and even governmental or political influences.
All these factors, elements or dimensions are very different for each individual and his or her perspective of job satisfaction. One of the best ways people have realized to get a grip on job satisfaction is to establish the right kind of culture in their organizations; this is often called corporate culture.
Factors of Job Satisfaction
Hoppock, the earliest