Job Satisfaction: What is it Where does it come from Does it really matter

1. Job Satisfaction: What is it? Where does it come from? Does it really matter? Joseph W. Huff Presentation to the Central Illinois Chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management July 15, 2009 Today’s presentation represents some of the research that I’ve been conducting over the past couple of years that relate to my main basic research interests. I do have other interests, and we can talk about them later. The 3 general goals of this research stream include: Encourage application of attitude theory to the study of job satisfaction Identify properties of attitudes that are neglected in satisfaction research Apply these properties to questions of interest to satisfaction researchers Today’s presentation represents some of the research that I’ve been conducting over the past couple of years that relate to my main basic research interests. I do have other interests, and we can talk about them later. The 3 general goals of this research stream include: Encourage application of attitude theory to the study of job satisfaction Identify properties of attitudes that are neglected in satisfaction research Apply these properties to questions of interest to satisfaction researchers

2. General Outline for Today What is job satisfaction? General definitions; Comparison to social attitudes How is it assessed? General versus facet satisfaction From where does job satisfaction originate? Role of emotion and cognition Does job satisfaction really matter? Relationships with valued outcome variables

3. What is Job Satisfaction? a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences an affective reaction to a job resulting from a comparison between personal needs and perceived job outcomes an attitudinal variable that reflects how people feel about their jobs overall as well as various aspects of them an internal state that is expressed by affectively and/or cognitively evaluating an experienced job with some degree of favor or disfavor. a positive or negative evaluative judgment of one’s job

4. Types of Satisfaction Two general approaches: Global approach treats job satisfaction as a single overall feeling toward the job Facet approach assesses satisfaction with different aspects of a job (job facets). Pay Benefits Supervision and co-workers Nature of the work itself Organizational environment and job conditions

5. Sample Global Job Satisfaction Items

6. Global Satisfaction Measures Job Diagnostic Scale Job In General Scale Faces Scale

7. Affect, Cognition and Measurement Definitional emphasis on affect over cognition Satisfaction measures are both affectively and cognitively laden (Brief & Roberson, 1989) “failure . . . to adequately attend to the distinctiveness of the cognitive and affective components of organizational attitudes” (Brief, 1998)

8. Attitude Research An attitude is defined as: “a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor” (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993) Consists of multiple components: Evaluation – summary judgment Affect – feelings, moods, or emotions Behavior – past behavior and future intentions Cognition – thoughts and beliefs

9. My Definition and Items A relatively enduring positive or negative evaluation of a job or job facet based upon three components See the job evaluation scale Similar to other measures, notably JIG Correlates strongly with other measures May demonstrate different relationships with outcome variables

10. Job Evaluation Items

11. Facet Satisfaction Measures Job Descriptive Index (JDI) Five facets of satisfaction Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire 20 facets Fall into two general factors Job Satisfaction Survey Available free for research Single item measures of facets

12. From Where Does Satisfaction Come? Environmental Sources: Job characteristics (skill variety; task identity; task significance; autonomy; feedback) Role variables (ambiguity; conflict; overload) Organizational policies (pay; procedural and distributive justice) Social interactions (co-workers; supervisors; workgroups)

13. From Where Does Satisfaction Come? (2) Personal (Dispositional) Sources: Needs, wants, personal and cultural values Personality (PA/NA; Locus of control) Specific emotional states Person and the Environment Person- (job, group, organization, vocation) fit Have-want discrepancies

14. Does Job Satisfaction Really Matter? What is the big deal with satisfaction anyway? Historical significance Frequently studied because: Believed to a “cause” of job performance, turnover, and employee health Central variable in many organizational theories Commonly assessed and object of interventions in organizations

15. “Consequences” of Job Satisfaction To what is it (not) related? Performance; Organizational Citizenship Behavior and/or Contextual Performance Health and Well-being; Life Satisfaction Absenteeism; Commitment; Turnover

16. Satisfaction ? Performance The “Holy Grail” of job satisfaction research Many truly believe that a happy/satisfied employee is a productive employee Research demonstrates a small to modest correlation with performance: r=.21 (Brayfield & Crockett, 1955) r=.17 (Iaffaldino & Muchinsky, 1985) r=.30 (Judge et al. 2001)

17. Satisfaction ? Performance (2) Why should we not expect satisfaction and performance to be related? A predictor and/or criterion problem Level of analysis issues Cause vs. consequence of performance? Satisfaction a group-level construct? Need to examine moderator variables

18. Health and Well-Being Stress, physical health, psychological health, and life satisfaction all are related to JS Dissatisfied employees generally report more stress, physical symptoms and more negative emotions than satisfied employees Unclear if dissatisfaction is the root or direct cause Personality differences could be causing all three responses (NA, locus of control, Neuroticism, etc.)

19. Employee Engagement and Retention Can examine three specific issues: Absence Organizational commitment Namely affective commitment to the organization (Voluntary) turnover

20. Absenteeism Low negative relationship with job satisfaction Many things other than satisfaction influence absenteeism (e.g., illness, family conflict, penalties for absence, loss of pay, etc.) Hard to measure absences due to (dis)satisfaction Absenteeism rates may affect satisfaction? The role of “absence culture”

21. Organizational Commitment

22. Turnover First off, what does turnover cost? Relation between JS and turnover is higher (r = -.4; Higher JS = less turnover) Why higher than for absenteeism? Because turnover is more under employee control Why not higher than it is? Because external factors keep people who want to quit from quitting Stronger with intent to quit!

23. Promoting Job Satisfaction Is job satisfaction important? What can be done to increase it? What do you do to promote job satisfaction? Some “simple” fixes: Create an enjoyable workplace Treat/pay people fairly Match the job to people Avoid boring, repetitive work Talk to, communicate with, survey employees

24. Review and Wrap Up Understanding job satisfaction can help us understand other perceptual constructs Climate/culture; person-environment fit Involvement and commitment Evaluations of self/others Job satisfaction is related to valued outcomes Employee engagement and turnover Health and well-being Empowering climate and culture Facets may be most useful Benchmarking purposes More direct relations to specific behaviors and outcomes