how to write a research paper on job satisfaction

Job satisfaction as a determinant of employees’ optimal well-being in an instrumental variable approach

Published: 07 January 2019
Volume 53 , pages 1721–1742, ( 2019 )

Cite this article

how to write a research paper on job satisfaction

Emiliano Sironi ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9129-3133 1

3142 Accesses

32 Citations

3 Altmetric

Explore all metrics

The correlation between measures of a high level of job satisfaction and well-being is well documented in the literature; however, such a relationship may be potentially bidirectional. If an increase in job satisfaction affects optimal well-being, the reverse relationship can also be hypothesized. In addition, the relationship between job satisfaction and well-being may be polluted by the presence of omitted variables that can be correlated both with the satisfaction in the workplace and with a measure of optimal wellbeing. Using the sixth round of the European Social Survey, this paper utilizes an instrumental variable approach to isolate the effect of job satisfaction on optimal well-being variation that is independent of unobserved individual characteristics. After having controlled for the role of socio-economic profiles of interviewed individuals, our findings confirm a strong and significantly positive influence of job satisfaction on optimal well-being. The novelty of our analysis is twofold: firstly, we employ an instrumental variable approach to correct for endogeneity that might the effect of job satisfaction on well-being. Secondly, we use an innovative measure of optimal well-being, which we adopt as an outcome variable for measuring a multi-dimensional definition of well-being dealing with both hedonic and eudemonic streams.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

Work engagement and employee satisfaction in the practice of sustainable human resource management – based on the study of Polish employees

Work–Life Balance: Definitions, Causes, and Consequences

Eastern (post - communist) countries include Estonia, Bulgaria, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine. Continental category includes Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Nordic category includes Denmark, Finland, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, Anglo-Saxon category includes United Kingdom and Ireland; Mediterranean countries are Spain, Portugal and Cyprus. Other is a residual category including the remaining countries which have controversial or mixed attributions (e.g. include both traits from post-communist and continental).

Results from the model do not change after varying the cut-point. In particular, if we separate micro enterprises (below 10 workers) from the others, the regression results are exactly the same.

Baptiste, N.R.: Tightening the link between employee wellbeing at work and performance: a new dimension for HRM. Manag. Decis. 46 , 284–309 (2008)

Article Google Scholar

Baum, C.F., Schaffer, M.E., Stillman, S.: Instrumental variables and GMM: estimation and testing. Stata J. 3 (1), 1–31 (2003)

Blanchflower, D.G., Oswald, A.J.: Is well-being U-shaped over the life cycle?. NBER Working Paper No. 12935. National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge (2007)

Bowling, N.A., Eschleman, K.J., Wang, Q.: A meta-analytic examination of the relationship between job satisfaction and subjective well-being. J. Occup. Organ. Psychol. 83 (4), 915–934 (2010)

Campbell, A.: The Sense of Well-Being in America: Recent Patterns and Trends. McGraw Hill, New York (1981)

Google Scholar

Campbell, A., Converse, P.E., Rodgers, W.L.: The Quality of American Life. Russell Sage Foundation, New York (1976)

Chen, W.C.: How education enhances happiness: comparison of mediating factors in four East Asian countries. Soc. Indic. Res. 106 (1), 117–131 (2012)

Cheung, F., Lucas, R.E.: Assessing the validity of single-item life satisfaction measures: results from three large samples. Qual. Life Res. 23 (10), 2809–2818 (2014)

Clark, A.E., Oswald, A.J.: Unhappiness and unemployment. Econ. J. 104 (424), 648–659 (1994)

Crisp, R.: Well-Being. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford (2008)

De Neve, J.E., Diener, E., Tay, L., Xuereb, C.: The Objective Benefits of Subjective Well-Being. World Happiness Report 2013. UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, New York (2013)

Diener, E.: Subjective well-being. Psychol. Bull. 95 , 542–575 (1984)

Diener, E., Sandvik, E., Seidlitz, L., Diener, M.: The relationship between income and subjective well-being: relative or absolute? Soc. Indic. Res. 28 (3), 195–223 (1993)

Diener, E., Suh, E.M., Lucas, R.E., Smith, H.L.: Subjective well-being: three decades of progress. Psychol. Bull. 125 (2), 276–303 (1999)

Dolbier, C.L., Webster, J.A., McCalister, K.T., Mallon, M.W., Steinhardt, M.A.: Reliability and validity of a single-item measure of job satisfaction. Am. J. Health Promot. 19 (3), 194–198 (2005)

Donegani, C.P., McKay, S.: Is there a paradox of lower job satisfaction among trade union members? European evidence. Eur. Rev. Labour Res. 18 (4), 471–489 (2012)

Easterlin, R.A.: Does economic growth improve the human lot? Some empirical evidence. In: David, P.A., Reder, M.W. (eds.) Nations and Households in Economic Growth: Essays in Honor of Moses Abramowitz, pp. 89–125. Academic Press, New York (1974)

Edwards, J.R., Rothbard, N.P.: Work and family stress and well-being: an examination of person-environment fit in the work and family domains. Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process. 77 (2), 85–129 (1999)

ESS Round 6: European Social Survey Round 6 Data, file edition 2.3. NSD—Norwegian Centre for Research Data, Norway—Data Archive and distributor of ESS data for ESS ERIC (2012)

Faragher, E.B., Cass, M., Cooper, C.L.: The relationship between job satisfaction and health: a meta-analysis. Occup. Environ. Med. 62 (2), 105–112 (2005)

Flavin, P., Shufeldt, G.: Labor union membership and life satisfaction in the United States. Labor Stud. J. 41 (2), 171–184 (2016)

Foote, D.A., Li-Ping Tang, T.: Job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) does team commitment make a difference in self-directed teams? Manag. Decis. 46 , 933–947 (2008)

Frey, B., Stutzer, A.: The economics of happiness. World Econ. 3 (1), 25–41 (2002)

García-Serrano, C.: Does size matter? The influence of firm size on working conditions, job satisfaction and quit intentions. Scott. J. Polit. Econ. 58 (2), 221–247 (2011)

Giovannini, E., Rondinella, T.: Measuring equitable and sustainable wellbeing in Italy. In: Maggino, F., Nuvolati, G. (eds.) Quality of Life in Italy, pp. 9–25. Springer, Dordrecht (2012)

Chapter Google Scholar

Green, F., Zhu, Y.: Overqualification, job dissatisfaction and increasing dispersion in the returns to graduate education. Oxf. Econ. Pap. 62 , 740–763 (2010)

Headey, B., Veenhoven, R., Wearing, A.: Top-down versus bottom-up theories of subjective well-being. Soc. Indic. Res. 24 , 81–100 (1991)

Herzberg, F.: One more time: how do you motivate employees. Harvard Bus. Rev. 46 (1), 53–62 (1968)

Hipp, L., Givan, R.K.: What do unions do? A cross-national reexamination of the relationship between unionization and job satisfaction. Soc. Forces 94 (1), 349–377 (2015)

Huppert, F.A., So, T.T.: Flourishing across Europe: application of a new conceptual framework for defining well-being. Soc. Indic. Res. 110 (3), 837–861 (2013)

Judge, T.A., Hulin, C.L.: Job satisfaction as a reflection of disposition: a multiple source causal analysis. Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process. 56 , 388–421 (1993)

Judge, T.A., Locke, E.A.: Effect of dysfunctional thought processes on subjective well-being and job satisfaction. J. Appl. Psychol. 78 (3), 475–490 (1993)

Judge, T.A., Watanabe, S.: Another look at the job satisfaction–life satisfaction relationship. J. Appl. Psychol. 78 , 939–948 (1993)

Judge, T.A., Watanabe, S.: Individual differences in the nature of the relationship between job and life satisfaction. J. Occup. Organ. Psychol. 67 (2), 101–107 (1994)

Judge, T.A., Locke, E.A., Durham, C.C., Kluger, A.N.: Dispositional effects on job and life satisfaction: the role of core evaluations. J. Appl. Psychol. 83 , 17–34 (1998)

Judge, T.A., Thoresen, C.J., Bono, J.E., Patton, G.K.: The job satisfaction–job performance relationship: a qualitative and quantitative review. Psychol. Bull. 127 (3), 376–407 (2001)

Kabanoff, B.: Work and nonwork: a review of models, methods, and findings. Psychol. Bull. 88 (1), 60–77 (1980)

Kahneman, D., Deaton, A.: High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 107 (38), 16489–16493 (2010)

Kahneman, D., Diener, E., Schwarz, N.: Well-Being: Foundations of Hedonic Psychology. Russell Sage Foundation, New York (1999)

Kunin, T.: The construction of a new type of attitude measure. Pers. Psychol. 8 (1), 65–77 (1955)

LaPiere, R.T.: Attitudes vs. actions. Soc. Forces 13 (2), 230–237 (1934)

Locke, E.A.: The nature and causes of job satisfaction. In: Dunnette, M.D. (ed.) Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, pp. 1297–1343. Rand McNally, Chicago (1976)

Millán, J.M., Hessels, J., Thurik, R., Aguado, R.: Determinants of job satisfaction: a European comparison of self-employed and paid employees. Small Bus. Econ. 40 (3), 651–670 (2013)

Moorman, R.H.: The influence of cognitive and affective based job satisfaction measures on the relationship between satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior. Hum. Relat. 46 (6), 756–776 (1993)

Morrone, A., Piscitelli, A., D’Ambrosio, A.: How disadvantages shape life satisfaction: an alternative methodological approach. Soc. Indic. Res. (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1825-8

Musick, K., Bumpass, L.: Reexamining the case for marriage: union formation and changes in well-being. J. Marriage Fam. 74 (1), 1–18 (2012)

Nagy, M.S.: Using a single-item approach to measure facet job satisfaction. J. Occup. Organ. Psychol. 75 (1), 77–86 (2002)

Nussbaum, M., Sen, A.: The Quality of Life. Clarendon Press, Oxford (1993)

Book Google Scholar

Pder, K., Kerem, K.: Social models in a European comparison. East. Eur. Econ. 49 (5), 55–74 (2011)

Prendergast, K.B., Schofield, G.M., Mackay, L.M.: Associations between lifestyle behaviours and optimal wellbeing in a diverse sample of New Zealand adults. BMC Public Health 16 (1), 1–11 (2016)

Quoidbach, J., Dunn, E.W., Petrides, K.V., Mikolajczak, M.: Money giveth, money taketh away: the dual effect of wealth on happiness. Psychol. Sci. 21 (6), 759–763 (2010)

Rain, J.S., Lane, I.M., Steiner, D.D.: A current look at the job satisfaction/life satisfaction relationship: review and future considerations. Hum. Relat. 44 (3), 287–307 (1991)

Rice, R.W., Near, J.P., Hunt, R.G.: The job-satisfaction/life-satisfaction relationship: a review of empirical research. Basic Appl. Soc. Psychol. 1 , 37–64 (1980)

Rivers, D., Vuong, Q.H.: Limited information estimators and exogeneity tests for simultaneous probit models. J. Econom. 39 , 347–366 (1988)

Robins, L., Reiger, D.: Psychiatric Disorders in America: The Epidemiological Catchment Area Study. Free Press, New York (1991)

Ryan, R.M., Deci, E.L.: On happiness and human potentials: a review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 52 (1), 141–166 (2001)

Ryff, C.D., Singer, B.H.: Know thyself and become what you are: a eudaimonic approach to psychological well-being. J. Happiness Stud. 9 (1), 13–39 (2008)

Saridakis, G., Muñoz-Torres, R., Tracey, P.: The endogeneity bias in the relationship between employee commitment and job satisfaction. Cambridge Judge Business School, Working Paper Series, vol. 2009, no. 3, pp. 1–15 (2009)

Shmotkin, D.: Happiness in the face of adversity: reformulating the dynamic and modular bases of subjective well-being. Rev. Gen. Psychol. 9 , 291–325 (1990)

Smith, P.C., Kendall, L.M., Hulin, C.L.: The Measurement of Satisfaction in Work and Retirement: A Strategy for the Study of Attitudes. Rand McNally, Chicago (1969)

Spector, P.E.: Job Satisfaction: Applications, Assessment, Causes and Consequences. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks (1997)

Statt, D.: The Routledge Dictionary of Business Management, 3rd edn. Routledge Publishing, Detroit (2004)

Thompson, E.R., Phua, F.T.: A brief index of affective job satisfaction. Group Org. Manag. 37 (3), 275–307 (2012)

Thuen, F., Reime, M.H., Skrautvoll, K.: The effect of widowhood on psychological wellbeing and social support in the oldest groups of the elderly. J. Ment. Health 6 (3), 265–274 (1997)

Verbakel, E.: Subjective well-being by partnership status and its dependence on the normative climate. Eur. J. Popul. 28 (2), 205–232 (2012)

Wanous, J.P., Reichers, A.E., Hudy, M.J.: Overall job satisfaction: how good are single-item measures? J. Appl. Psychol. 82 (2), 247–252 (1997)

Warr, P.: Work, Unemployment, and Mental Health. Clarendon Press, Oxford (1987)

Weiss, H.M., Nicholas, J.P., Daus, C.S.: An examination of the joint effects of affective experiences and job beliefs on job satisfaction and variations in affective experiences over time. Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process. 78 (1), 1–24 (1999)

Wright, T.A., Cropanzano, R.: Psychological well-being and job satisfaction as predictors of job performance. J. Occup. Health Psychol. 5 (1), 84–94 (2000)

Yahyagil, M.Y.: Values, feelings, job satisfaction and well-being: the Turkish case. Manag. Decis. 53 (10), 2268–2286 (2015)

Yu, Z., Chen, L.: Income and well-being: relative income and absolute income weaken negative emotion, but only relative income improves positive emotion. Front. Psychol. 7 (2012), 1–6 (2016). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.02012

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Statistical Sciences, Catholic University, Largo Gemelli 1, 20123, Milan, Italy

Emiliano Sironi

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emiliano Sironi .

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Sironi, E. Job satisfaction as a determinant of employees’ optimal well-being in an instrumental variable approach. Qual Quant 53 , 1721–1742 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-019-00835-3

Download citation

Published : 07 January 2019

Issue Date : 15 July 2019

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-019-00835-3

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Job satisfaction
Optimal well-being
Instrumental variables
Find a journal
Publish with us
Track your research

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Publications
Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

Advanced Search
Journal List
Elsevier - PMC COVID-19 Collection

The Impact of Work Environment on Job Satisfaction

Nursing is challenging work. Burnout, dissatisfaction, disengagement, as well as exodus from the profession are rampant, and COVID-19 has amplified these issues. Although nurse leaders cannot change the work, they can create work environments that support nurse satisfaction, enjoyment, and meaning at work. A literature review on work environment and job satisfaction conducted pre-COVID for a dissertation project revealed several factors that support healthy work environments. This article defines and describes the qualities of both unhealthy and healthy work environments, discusses the impact they have on employees, and offers suggestions for nurse leaders to improve the work environment in their organization.

• The psychosocial work environment is created by the interactions of staff and leadership and impacts how people behave and how they feel about their work.
• Work environment and the experience one has at work impact employee health, well-being, and satisfaction.
• Managers play a key role in creating and supporting the psychosocial work environment.

Health care is challenging work; it is emotionally and physically demanding. The environment within which work is performed can either support or hinder productivity and worker health. Toxic and unhealthy work environments create negative outcomes for staff, management, and the organization, as well as the community at large because the individual returns to the community following interactions in the work environment. Facing escalating suicide rates, burnout, turnover, and exodus from health care professions, leaders seek new ways of managing staff to support personal and professional well-being.

COVID-19 has amplified and intensified these issues, especially within the nursing profession. The pandemic has shined a spotlight on the problems faced by nursing professionals and the damage the problems cause physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Strategies for improving the nursing work environment are more important than ever before.

Although nurse leaders cannot necessarily change the work, they can behave in ways that support the workforce by creating safe, healthy work environments where all staff can be their best, be productive, and thrive. Managers play a key role in shaping the work environment through the procedures they implement and how they behave as a leader. A literature review conducted pre-COVID on work environment and job satisfaction revealed several factors that support a healthy work environment. Nurse leaders can use this information to inform decisions that will shape the future of health care today by creating work environments that support staff well-being and increase employee engagement and organizational commitment.

The Demands of the Work

Health care workers must create a safe space for patients to heal and improve. Because the nature of nursing service work is about caring for people, there is great personal responsibility for providing good, high quality service; connecting with patients; and caring for patient well-being. 1 High workloads, increased acuity, and emotional demands for caring for other’s well-being places physical and emotional demands on staff. Because nursing professionals typically assume great responsibility in providing quality care, they often put the needs of others first and do whatever is necessary to help the patient. This often means working long hours with little opportunity to rest and recover.

The nature of health care places staff at risk due to the stressful situations faced daily. Combine the normal demands of health care service with a lack of teamwork, poor communication, bullying, lateral violence, lack of support from leadership, equipment issues, a blaming and fearful culture, an inability to share one’s expertise or make decisions, and a work environment that discourages free expression of ideas and concerns, and this becomes a recipe for disaster.

Work Environment Defined

The work environment is the space that we create within which people come together to perform their work and achieve outcomes. It’s how we experience our work together. Also known as psychological climate, the work environment causes a psychological impact on the individual’s well-being. 2 The person–environment interaction determines the psychological and social dimensions of that environment, which then influences how one behaves in that environment. 3 This is an important definition because how the individual behaves in the environment and the reactions to that behavior then determines how the environment supports continued actions within that environment.

Nursing Job Satisfaction

Feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction occur in response to the individuals’ experience within the environment. In other words, satisfaction is an emotional response to the job and results from mentally challenging and interesting work, positive recognition for performance, feelings of personal accomplishment, and the support received from others. 4 This corresponds with the research on burnout, which is contrary and includes cynicism, exhaustion, and inefficacy. 5 Researchers found burnout to be a function of factors within the organizational context including work environment and leader effectiveness. 6 Whether positive or negative, research concludes that leader effectiveness and work environment affect employee outcomes.

The Impact of the Work Environment

As social beings, the environment created by the interactions of staff and leadership impacts how people behave and how they feel about their work. The experience people have at work impacts their personal well-being as well as job satisfaction. The occupational health movement of the 1960s grew from a need to explore the environmental hazards that created dangerous conditions for workers and to provide adequate safety interventions for protecting employees. 7 Over the past few decades, much research has focused on the psychosocial impact of the work environment on individual health and well-being.

The psychosocial work environment encompasses those factors that impact individuals and contribute to worker health, including both individual factors and the social work environment. Psychosocial factors include work demands; work organization including influence, freedom, meaning of work, and possibilities for development; interpersonal relations such as leadership and coworkers, a sense of community, role clarity, feedback, and support; and individual health and personal factors, including one’s ability to cope and family supports. 8 All these factors come together to create a space within which people interact and perform. Depending on how these elements support or hurt the individual determines the outcomes to that individual and how effectively they perform.

The pandemic has forced people to explore their personal resources for well-being and resilience and implement self-care strategies. People are taking more of an interest in health affirming activities. Family time has a different meaning today and people are re-exploring their priorities. Restorative practices have been found to lessen the sufferings, anxieties, and concerns generated in the workplace and provide inner peace and spiritual support. 9 Assuming responsibility for one’s health and well-being is important to being a contributing member of the workforce and to society at large. Managers must find ways to support these efforts as part of life at work.

Contributions to and Costs of Unhealthy Work Environments

Several factors contribute to a negative work environment. Traditionally, poor salaries and working conditions, and a lack of respect for nurses have led to high turnover and an increase in nurses leaving the profession. 10 Other factors include the lack of support, being short staffed, and an increased workload. 11 Lateral violence, bullying, and abuse by coworkers and physicians, as well as ineffective responses to such incidents by leadership, cause job strain, turnover, and exodus from the profession. 12

Much research has been done on bullying and its impact on the individuals involved, the organization, as well as the quality of patient care. Researchers found these negative behaviors led to increased errors, decreased quality, absenteeism, lost productivity, and turnover. 12 As the profession of nursing is already struggling to retain the nursing workforce and attract needed newcomers, creating a work environment that is supportive, satisfying, and one where people feel a sense of belonging is essential.

The stress and strain of work has been linked to physical and mental health issues. Unhealthy work environments lead to increased use of sick time, lost productivity, turnover, increased cost to care provision, and strain felt in personal relationships. 13 The costs in terms of absenteeism, turnover, and lost productivity are estimated in the billions of dollars annually. 14

Nurse leaders play a key role in creating work environments where people feel safe by implementing procedures for minimizing bullying and lateral violence and facilitating harmonious relationships by supporting respectful interactions. 12 , 13 , 15 Left unattended, the cycle of bullying and bad behavior is perpetuated as nurses move into academia from the bedside and continue the behaviors. 15 Although one of the toughest things to do as a leader, and the most time-consuming, upholding expectations and following through on such procedures is critical for creating a supportive and safe work environment.

Qualities of a Healthy Work Environment and Its Impact on Employee Outcomes

A healthy work environment is described as one where people are valued, treated respectfully and fairly, where personal and professional growth is supported, communication and collaboration are championed, and there is a sense of community and trust at all levels, which enables effective decision-making. A healthy work environment comprises competent employees, appropriate workloads, effective communication, collaboration, and empowerment, which leads to positive outcomes for patients, employees, and the organization. 14 The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses identified 6 areas for establishing and sustaining a healthy work environment including skilled communication, true collaboration, effective decision-making, appropriate staffing, meaningful recognition, and authentic leadership. 16 These align with the practices identified in psychologically healthy workplaces which emphasize employee involvement, work-life balance, employee growth and development, employee recognition, and health and safety. 17

A healthy and safe work environment correlates significantly with job satisfaction as well as other positive employee outcomes including engagement, productivity, and organizational commitment. Additionally, when people feel good and experience satisfaction at work, they report increased self-efficacy, autonomy, higher levels of personal accomplishment, and organizational commitment.

Significant qualities identified in the literature on healthy work environments are presented in Table 1 . Those include areas of collaboration and teamwork, growth and development, recognition, employee involvement, accessible and fair leaders, autonomy and empowerment, appropriate staffing, skilled communication, and a safe physical workplace. 18 Other factors contributing to satisfaction and retention include positive orientation experiences, good teamwork, clear procedures and instructions, appropriate workloads, managerial support, and autonomy. 11 Additionally, leader support and leader effectiveness protect against negative consequences from a stressful environment, 19 contribute to the provision of high quality and timely care, 20 decrease burnout, 6 and reduce turnover. 21

Table 1

Key Qualities Found in Healthy Work Environments

What Nurse Leaders Can Do to Improve the Work Environment

Nurse leaders can take a proactive role to shift the work environment and create the space for health and well-being, and for nurses to thrive at work. There are 2 aspects to changing the work environment. The first is creating and communicating a new vision, setting the tone, being clear about expectations, and ensuring staff understand that what was tolerated previously may no longer be acceptable. Nurse leaders must ensure staff know what is being asked of everyone and paint a picture for how it will feel in the new environment. And second, nurse leaders must uphold the new standards by teaching staff new ways of interacting and correcting behaviors when they do not align with the new vision.

A collaborative approach with positive interactions and active participation requires nurse leaders to encourage and facilitate teamwork. Staff rely heavily on interpersonal relationships and teamwork for cooperation, collaboration, and safety. 20 Interpersonal relationships are a key element of satisfaction at work. Collaboration, professional cohesion, and positive interactions with colleagues help create a sense of value and become a buffer for the demands of managing complex and challenging patients. 21 Nurse leaders need to champion teamwork and collaboration to ensure that staff work together to accomplish required work demands. Respectful interactions must be encouraged, and disrespectful ones addressed promptly and eliminated.

Nurse managers, through their behaviors and attitudes, create an environment which induces motivation, they demonstrate belief in their ability, listen thoughtfully, and bring out the best in the team. Nurse leader behavior directly impacts job satisfaction, morale, and employee performance which are critical factors to organizational success. Effective communication by leaders includes honesty, respect, good listening, and empathy, which impacts team effectiveness and outcomes and can create an environment of inclusiveness that supports team members to aid in their retention. 22 The leaders’ failure to address employee feelings and not win their respect leads to the failure of the manager, increases the stress of the team, and decreases organizational effectiveness. 15

Other themes in the literature include the use of acknowledgement and appreciation to help employees feel valued. Nurse leaders can find ways to coach, encourage, recognize, and support their staff and create an environment that reinforces the positive feelings that come from celebrating one another. It requires attention and consistent effort, but the effects are very impactful. Formal and informal acknowledgement serves to garner positive feelings within the work environment and can spread throughout the team.

Another important factor for job satisfaction is autonomy or job control, the ability of the individual to make decisions impacting their work. Staff who are permitted a sense of autonomy, and the perceived capacity to influence decisions at work, reported higher levels of personal accomplishment and lower rates of burnout. 11 Nurses need a work environment that offers respect and supports their scope of practice. Nurse managers can assist individuals to gain job control by ensuring adequate onboarding and orientation, ongoing training, and promoting an environment where questions and asking for help are encouraged and supported.

Organizations that offer opportunities for personal growth and professional development have a competitive advantage. Some individuals enjoy the bedside and want to remain there for their careers, yet they still want to learn, grow, and develop within that scope of practice and they want to be recognized and appreciated for their years of service. Other persons may want to advance in their roles and responsibilities. Nurse managers must take an interest in the individuals on their team, discover their desires for learning and growth, and identify their strengths so they can find ways to maximize them.

Healthy Work Environments Post-pandemic

Although the pandemic has shifted people’s attention to the self-care strategies implemented by individual employees, caring for employee well-being must include management strategies that support a healthy, safe work environment. The problems facing the health care workforce—burnout, stress, disengagement, and dissatisfaction—existed well before the pandemic and will continue to exist after it unless leaders change their approach to the work environment and how people behave within the workspace. Now is the time to envision a new work environment and to do things differently so that nurses, health care leaders, and workers at all levels can be productive, engaged, and thrive at work. By attending to the psychosocial work environment, health care can course correct for the factors troubling the health care workforce today and produce different outcomes—satisfaction, enjoyment, growth, joy, and meaning.

Julie Donley, EdD, MBA, BSN, RN, PCC, is an ICF professional certified coach, certified team coach, author, speaker, award-winning thought leader, adjunct professor, and prior executive nurse in behavioral health. She partners with established and aspiring leaders so they lead with confidence, communicate effectively, and create work environments that support the wellbeing and productivity of employees and create a fulfilling work experience. Visit her online at www.DrJulieDonley.com .

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

We're Hiring!
Help Center

JOB SATISFACTION: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Job satisfaction represents one of the most complex areas facing today's managers when it comes to managing their employees. Many studies have demonstrated an unusually large impact on the job satisfaction on the motivation of workers, while the level of motivation has an impact on productivity, and hence also on performance of business organizations.Unfortunately, in our region, job satisfaction has not still received the proper attention from neither scholars nor managers of various business organizations.

Related Papers

Zain Alshomaly

In today's increasing competitive environment, organizations recognize the internal human element as a fundamental source of improvement. On one hand, managers are concentrating on employees' wellbeing, wants, needs, personal goals and desires, to understand the job satisfaction. And on the other hand, managers take organizational decisions based on the employees' performance. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors influencing job satisfaction and the determinants of employee performance, and accordingly reviewing the relationship between them. This study is an interpretivist research that focuses on exploring the influence of job satisfaction on employee performance and vice, the influence of employee performance on job satisfaction. The study also examines the nature of the relationship between these two variables. The study reveals the dual direction of the relationship that composes a cycle cause and effect relationship, so satisfaction leads to performance and performance leads to satisfaction through number of mediating factors. Successful organizations are those who apply periodic satisfaction and performance measurement tests to track the level of these important variables and set the corrective actions.

Reem Mohamed

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. All in-text references underlined in blue are added to the original document and are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you access and read them immediately.

zafarullah sahito

This research study examines the job satisfaction level and its dimensions of teacher educators-who are working at the departments, faculties and institutes of education. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted and fieldwork observations were recorded on TEs (n = 40), working as lecturers, assistant professors, associate professors and professors at their respective universities. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis. Six themes were inductively identified: (a) work, assignments and workload; (b) opportunities for advancement, growth and development; (c) financial and fringe benefits; (d) supervisory support, permissions and free hand; (e) working and sympathetic relationships; and (f) available facilities and working environments. All themes revealed the significance and utility of the study and also explained the proper usage of findings for the benefits of organizations, faculties, departments and TEs. This article increases and advances the knowledge by revealing the values of qualitative research methods generally, and thematic analysis specifically, as a means of disseminating the evidence-based information to its readers and all stakeholders in the concerned paradigm of the job satisfaction of TEs among the universities of the Sindh province of Pakistan. This article is a suitable, reliable and strong resource for the heads of educational organizations, such as universities, institutes, faculties, departments and TEs themselves to help them to understand the real position and the dimensions of job satisfaction, which they can apply in their daily practice to make their professional and personal life easier and more meaningful.

revenio jalagat

The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between these three variables namely: Job performance, job satisfaction and motivation with the help of theoretical models and literatures. Although many studies had already been conducted on job satisfaction and job performance, its relationship is still subject to much hated debates to specifically determine the extent of its relationship. With regards to motivation, results showed that, monetary consideration is by far more important than other motivation strategies which emphasized the aspect of addressing the economic needs of the individuals. However motivation like that of Herzberg had proven that pay is not the sole indicator of employee motivation. Furthermore, it was also proven that job satisfaction, job performance and motivation interact with each other and functioned interdependently such that the process is circular rather than linear. When job satisfaction and performance is linked with group performance, the outcome revealed that higher job satisfaction leads to higher performance although it is not always the case. Working together is the key to achieve desirable outcomes which means that employees should not be kept in isolation but should be encouraged to work together to effectively achieve the goals and success whether in group or the organization as a whole.

RSIS International

Employee Job satisfaction is the outcome of individual response or feelings towards his or her job, culture, policies and environment. The level of satisfaction is closely correlated with the motivation provided in organization which measures. In this paper the employee satisfaction has been studied by comparing the motivational theory namely Maslow's Hierarchy need and Herzberg two factor theory. As measurement of employee satisfaction is a behavioral study depending on the state of mind and situation in which employees work. The results derived from research will help to understand the employee's perception and redesign the HR Polices for improving the work relations, communication, motivation and career planning.

Dr Md Nazirul Islam Sarker

This study examined the level of job satisfaction among the employees ofprivate and public organizations in Bangladesh. Data have been collected randomly from 40employees of Gaibandha District in Bangladesh through a structured questionnairein January to February, 2010. Among the respondents 50% is government employee while 50% is non-government employee. Brayfield and Rothe (1951) method was used to determine the job satisfaction of the employees. Likert scale was used for measuring the attitude of the employees on their job. This research revealed that there was no significant difference between the job satisfaction of government and non-government employees. The study suggests that an effective policy on recruitment, job security, service rules, promotional opportunities, regular payments, retirements' benefits should be made by the government to improve the job satisfaction and attitude of employees in both government and non-government employees.

The objective of the study is to analyse the relative importance of the select organisational factors capable of influencing job satisfaction of employees working in branches of United Bank of India (UBI) in four districts (Cachar, Karimganj, Hailakandi and Dima-Hasao) of South Assam. The study also makes an attempt to examine the degree of job satisfaction of the bank employees. The statistical techniques, such as, Mean and Coefficient of Variation (CV %) were used to analyse the data and to arrive at the findings of the study. The study revealed that the factor Pay & Allowances was perceived as the most important factor capable of influencing the degree of job satisfaction of the bank employees. Further, the bank employees were found by and large satisfied with their job but to a very modest degree.

International Res Jour Managt Socio Human

Advances in Economics and Business

Amjad Hussain

International Journal of Business and Applied Social Science (IJBASS)

Job satisfaction in work organization influences the general efficiency and effectiveness of the whole employees. This is usually the results of the compensation practices that predominate in a firm. This paper examined the Compensation practices and how it affects the job satisfaction of employees of selected consumer goods firms in Lagos State, Nigeria. The paper adopted the survey research design through quantitative research approach. Primary data was used through administration of 300 copies of questionnaires to employees in the selected consumer goods firms. Findings reveal that Compensation practice has a positive and significant effect on Job satisfaction (R = 0.296, Adj. R 2 =0.071, p < 0.05, F =11.497). It was found that compensation practice significantly affects job satisfaction of employees of selected consumer goods firms in Nigeria. The paper suggests that managers should always think about what compensation packages really motivate and excite their employees.

What Is Job Satisfaction and Why Is It Important?

Are you aware of what right actually means?

Determining whether you are satisfied with your job, whether it is right for you, and why that is important often involves personal intuition and circumstances. For some people, the right job might entail earning a certain salary. For others, the right job might involve having a supportive team.

With more than 21,000 participants in their study, researchers Dobrow, Ganzach, and Liu (2018) found that over a 40-year span, people who stayed in the same organization over time became less satisfied, and people who moved to different organizations over time became happier.

What does this mean? Does job satisfaction come from staying in an organization or leaving it? If someone were to stay in an organization, what would retain their satisfaction?

In this article, we will explore just that and more, including divulging the ingredients of job satisfaction, real-life examples of it, and how it relates to motivation.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Work & Career Coaching Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients identify opportunities for professional growth and create a more meaningful career.

This Article Contains:

What is job satisfaction, 10 proven ingredients for job satisfaction, is job satisfaction important 4 benefits, 2 real-life examples, a note on job satisfaction and motivation, positivepsychology.com’s job satisfaction tools, a take-home message.

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

You have probably heard that quote before, yet it may still have relevance today. It makes us ask whether emotions like happiness, stress, and anxiety play an important role in job satisfaction.

The aptly titled Job Satisfaction (Hoppock, 1935) defines job satisfaction as any combination of psychological, physiological, and environmental circumstances that cause a person to truthfully say that they are satisfied with a job.

Going a little deeper and fast-forwarding to this century, job satisfaction has been called a set of favorable or unfavorable feelings and emotions with which employees view their work (Karatepe, Uludag, Menevis, Hadzimehmedagic, & Baddar, 2006).

Before we get to favorable feelings or proven ingredients for job satisfaction, let’s first assess what leads to those unfavorable feelings.

The graphic above from the University of Southern California’s Applied Psychology Program shows some factors that make American employees unhappy or burnt out with jobs.

Many of us have experienced unhappiness because of these factors and more at some point in our careers. Let’s take a look at what can be done to satisfy ourselves in a job.

Although it is subjective, job satisfaction research (Kumari, 2011) has showcased the following:

1. Communication

Communication can be extremely important to retaining levels of satisfaction, on both a personal and professional level. It is exhibited in allowing employees to be open, collaborative, trustworthy, and even confrontational when needed.

Defining a company culture links to job satisfaction as it provides values and guidance about topics ranging from organizational goals to appropriate levels of interaction between employees.

3. Security

It’s no surprise that once a culture is established in a workplace, satisfaction can then be enhanced by added feelings of security. Security may arise from knowing you work for a viable company with long-term goals, insinuating feelings of belonging to that company (Berg, Grant, & Johnson, 2010). This can be enhanced by having honest communication and transparency within a company.

4. Leadership

Tied into increased motivation for employees, leadership, or influencing a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006), can lead to job satisfaction by making sure communication and instruction of tasks is adequate and easily understood.

In turn, when employees feel that leaders can guide them through tasks, their motivation and satisfaction increases.

With leadership having a crucial influence on job satisfaction, this related article with leadership activities is a recommended read.

5. Opportunities

Employees can gain more satisfaction with their job when more challenging opportunities arise. This can lead to participation in interesting and diverse projects and get employees away from the monotony of a role.

6. Career development

Employees can become more satisfied with their job when they know there is an individualized plan for them. Beyond the formal nature of appraisals, if there is a path in place for growth, this can encourage employees to stay happier for longer.

7. Working conditions

Job satisfaction can be increased if a resilient workplace is a cooperative environment. This means a place with respect for diverse ideas and opinions, honest and constructive feedback, mentoring opportunities, and freedom from harassment.

8. Employee personality

Most ingredients linked to job satisfaction may have roots in elements outside of the employees’ control (such as leadership from managers and communication from company leaders), but what about the employees themselves? Can they control their own levels of satisfaction? Bakker, Tims, and Derks (2012) talk about just that.

These researchers discuss how job satisfaction can be determined by how proactive the employee is at work. Does the employee proactively seek out a manager for feedback? Does the employee go the extra mile to achieve tasks within a company? Does the employee try to stick to company goals, lead meetings, and ask questions when unsure about how to complete a task?

If yes, these employees are ones who can show more satisfaction in the workplace. Proactiveness in the workplace can lead to positive job appraisals, which when fed back to the employee, can lead to satisfaction.

For more on constructive feedback, read our article discussing ways to give negative feedback constructively.

9. Pay and benefits

Organizational success and job satisfaction are also linked to employees’ perceptions of adequate pay and benefits (Edwards, 2008).

While pay and benefits are not the only reason employees find satisfaction in their workplaces, research going back more than 30 years (e.g., Gerhart, 1987) shows that pay and benefits, at least according to how employees view themselves in their roles, has ranked high on lists of job satisfaction factors.

10. Rewards and recognition

Beyond monetary gain and being paid fairly for the work they do, job satisfaction for employees means that promotional policies are unambiguous and in line with their expectations.

A key finding here (Kumari, 2011) is that satisfaction at a job is not exclusively linked to pay, but to the perceived fairness of how one is recognized at work for achievements.

2 Job Crafting Coaching Manuals [PDF]

Help others redesign their work. This manual and the accompanying client workbook outline a seven-session coaching trajectory for you, the practitioner, to expertly guide others through their own unique job crafting journey.

We have already discussed what employees look for in achieving and maintaining job satisfaction. But why is it important? And why should organizations care?

First, it is a primary responsibility of organizations to ascertain that employees are satisfied with their jobs through measurements, but also to find out the causes of dissatisfaction when employees are not feeling satisfied (McBride, 2002).

Tools such as the following help measure some important factors that go into employees’ job satisfaction (Spector, 1997, chapter 2):

Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 1985)
Job Description Index (Castanheira, 2014)
The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (Weiss, Dawis, and England, 1967)

As to why job satisfaction is so important, the Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Report from the Society for Human Resource Management (Lee et al., 2016) notes four benefits of making sure employees are satisfied with their work.

1. Increased profits

This is one any manager and employee might appreciate. Keeping employees satisfied can lead to higher sales, lower costs, and a stronger bottom line.

2. Higher productivity

Irrespective of their job titles or salary, employees who are more satisfied with their job, whether they feel satisfied with the organizational culture, with the rewards they are getting, or with recognition, can produce more and do it more efficiently.

3. Lower turnover

If employees are more satisfied with their job, they are less likely to leave. It also helps to recruit better quality talent as new talent sees employee staying power as added value.

When employees feel there is a growth path for them, they are more satisfied. In turn, because they feel the organization has their best interests at heart, they tend to support the organization’s mission and objectives. When this happens, employees may tell their friends or relatives about the good nature of the organization, which helps spread organizational goodwill.

The Job Satisfaction Wheel can help assess your current job satisfaction and identify improvement areas. Job satisfaction measures subjective wellbeing at work (Judge & Klinger, 2008).

According to Roelen et al. (2008), there are seven key indicators of job satisfaction:

Task variety
Working conditions
Education and development opportunities
Person-environment fit

Here’s how you can use the Job Satisfaction Wheel:

Rate the seven job satisfaction domains on a scale from one – “not at all satisfied” to ten – “completely satisfied”. Place a circle around each score on the wheel.
Connect your scores by drawing a line and forming an inner wheel. This gives you an overview of how satisfied you are with your current job.
Looking at the wheel, where do you see areas for improvement? What would it take to improve the score? Which action steps can you take?

Honesty and communication about a company’s objectives and goals can be vital and are linked to job satisfaction for employees. But do employees only care about company success? How does honest communication impact their own, individual success?

The importance of honesty and communication

Agarwal and Mehta (2014) were interested in employee job satisfaction within the IT industry.

Their curiosity stemmed from the idea that IT employees may largely be working in isolation, away from other employees, and the researchers wondered if employees valued appraisals more in such circumstances than in other industries. They discussed how performance appraisal was directly linked to satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) for the employee.

Additionally, they also discuss how honest and consistent communication and regular updates of employee progress (bi-annual rather than yearly appraisals) can not only increase employee satisfaction at work, but also help companies by decreasing the rate of attrition. Interestingly enough, Agarwal and Mehta (2014) did not discuss company goals or performance in their findings.

Let’s take a look at some familiar companies you may have heard of.

Although the phrase “the customer is always right” may be common, it does not seem to ring all true behind the scenes (or the counter, in this case).

The CEO’s mantra was that if managers look out for employees, employees will look after customers. To do this, he offered health insurance to all employees despite the excessive cost and being advised against it.

Is it surprising that good leadership strengths , recognition, and reward given to employees increased job satisfaction and in turn increased profits for Starbucks? It certainly fits in line with the aforementioned research in this article.

While also producing satisfied end-users like us when using Google’s products, Google puts a lot of work into job satisfaction for its employees as well.

It’s interesting to note that Google does not care (perhaps as much) about employee titles, but more about what type of leaders its employees are, or emergent leadership. This draws us back to the importance of positive leadership in job satisfaction.

Gillett (2016) writes that Google attracts talent with competitive pay and keeps employees satisfied by allowing telecommuting. This may show an appreciation for work–life balance and retention.

Gillett also writes that according to compensation and data company PayScale, nearly three-quarters of Google employees find their jobs meaningful, citing that Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

She describes Google employees thinking that their goal of working at Google is a moral rather than a business goal, which in turn creates motivation to innovate and push into new areas.

These sound like great organizational goals that drive profits. Furthermore, Google staff certainly demonstrate that job satisfaction can indeed lead to employees supporting the organization’s goals and objectives.

According to Latham (2012), motivation is a cognitive resource allocation process in which a person makes choices as to the time and energy to be allocated to an array of motives or tasks. The key word here seems to be choice .

When an employee is able to make a choice, they feel more motivated to perform a task. When an employee is more motivated to perform and complete a task, this tends to be linked with higher job satisfaction (Jalagat, 2016).

Choice, as directed or allowed by organizational policy, can lead to further motivation and, in turn, job satisfaction as well as performance. This seems to be echoed by the work of Ilies and Judge (2003).

Ilies and Judge (2003) discuss how leaders interact with employees, specifically by talking to them more as a person, and how assigning tasks and providing a career path can affect their motivation level.

When determining job satisfaction, it is key to remember that human factors such as motivation, excitement, satisfaction, and dissatisfaction must be considered. This is clearly indicated by the Starbucks example.

When employees are encouraged to be great leaders and to engage in challenging opportunities, such as at Google, they can end up feeling more satisfied with their job.

As one of the key ingredients of job satisfaction, communication among employees, managers, and staff cannot be underestimated.

However, communication is not automatically generated or achieved right away. When introducing new employees into a workplace, it may be even more important to establish good and fun communication procedures between employees.

This helpful article with work-related communication games and exercises can help improve communication at the workplace.

For other ways to establish happiness in the workplace , this article offers a guide and tips for making employees happier.

To determine your own job satisfaction, you need to do an assessment of your strengths and skills. This tool guides you to complete a Strengths In Challenging Times worksheet in order to do exactly that.

Another invaluable tool based on the Japanese concept of ikigai is Job Crafting of Ikigai . It is an interesting exercise that helps you understand what fuels your passions and, in turn, change aspects of your role to make it more fulfilling.

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others manage stress without spending hours on research and session prep, this collection contains 17 validated stress management tools for practitioners . Use them to help others identify signs of burnout and create more balance in their lives.

Job satisfaction can be a two-way street. Employees need to feel satisfied, and organizations must help employees realize their potential.

If you are interested in increasing the job satisfaction of your employees, be sure to look beyond the seemingly practical benefits of providing adequate salaries and health insurance, although those too are critical.

Motivating employees may be just as important. Job satisfaction links to motivation, which employees can gain even more of when realizing their full potential. Besides providing adequate salaries and health insurance, much more can be done by companies to motivate and guide employees. In turn, companies will reap the benefits of loyalty and shared objectives.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Work & Career Coaching Exercises for free .

Agarwal, R. N., & Mehta, A. (2014). Impact of performance appraisal and working environment on the job satisfaction and attrition problem in the Indian IT industry. Paradigm , 18 (1), 73–85.
Bakker, A. B., Tims, M., & Derks, D. (2012). Proactive personality and job performance: The role of job crafting and work engagement. Human Relations , 65 (10), 1359–1378.
Berg, J. M., Grant, A. M., & Johnson, V. (2010). When callings are calling: Crafting work and leisure in pursuit of unanswered occupational callings. Organizational Science , 21 (5), 973–994.
Castanheira, F. (2014). Job Descriptive Index. In A. C. Michalos (Ed.), Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research. Springer.
Edwards, J. R. (2008). To prosper, organizational psychology should overcome methodological barriers to progress. Journal of Organizational Behavior , 29 (4), 469–491.
Gerhart, B. (1987). How important are dispositional factors as determinants of job satisfaction? Implications for job design and other personnel programs. Journal of Applied Psychology , 72 (3), 366–373.
Gillett, R. (2016, April 28). 5 reasons Google is the best place to work in America and no other company can touch it. Business Insider. Retrieved October 25, 2020, from: https://www.businessinsider.com/google-is-the-best-company-to-work-for-in-america-2016-4?r=US&IR=T
Hoppock, R. (1935). Job satisfaction . Harper and Brothers.
Ilies, R., & Judge, T. A. (2003). On the heritability of job satisfaction: the mediating role of personality. Journal of Applied Psychology , 88 (4), 750–59.
Jalagat, R., Jr., (2016). Job performance, job satisfaction, and motivation: A critical review of their relationship. International Journal of Advances in Management and Economics , 5 (6), 36–43.
Judge, T. A., Heller, D., & Klinger, R. (2008). The dispositional sources of job satisfaction: A comparative test. Applied Psychology, 57(3) , 361-372.
Karatepe, O. M., Uludag, O., & Menevis, I., Hadzimehmedagic, L., & Baddar, L. (2006). The effects of selected individual characteristics on frontline performance and job satisfaction. Journal of Tourism Management , 27( 4), 547–560.
Kinicki, A., & Kreitner, R. (2006). Organizational behavior: Key concepts, skills & best practices . McGraw Hill.
Kumari, N. (2011). Job satisfaction of the employees at the workplace. European Journal of Business and Management , 3 (4), 11–30.
Latham, G. P. (2012). Work motivation – History, theory, research and practice . SAGE Publications.
Lee, C., Alonso, A., Esen, E., Coombs, J., Mulvey, T., Victor, J., & Wessels, K. (2016). Employee job satisfaction and engagement: Revitalizing a changing workforce . Report prepared by the Society for Human Resource Management.
McBride, E. L. (2002). Employee satisfaction: Code red in the workplace? Journal of Nursing Management , 10 (3), 157–163.
Dobrow, S. R., Ganzach, Y., & Liu, Y. (2018). Time and job satisfaction: A longitudinal study of the differential roles of age and tenure. Journal of Management , 44 (7), 2558–2579.
Roelen, C. A. M., Koopmans, P. C., & Groothoff, J. W. (2008). Which work factors determine job satisfaction?. Work, 30(4), 433-439.
Spector, P. E. (1985). Measurement of human service staff satisfaction: Development of the Job Satisfaction Survey. American Journal of Community Psychology , 13 (6), 693–713.
Spector, P. E. (1997). Job satisfaction: Application, assessment, causes, and consequences . SAGE Publications, Inc.
Weiss, D. J., Dawis, R. V., & England, G. W. (1967). Manual for the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire. Minnesota Studies in Vocational Rehabilitation , 22 , 120.

Share this article:

Article feedback

What our readers think.

Job satisfaction has really been discussed from the perspective of positive psychology. Stories from the market like that of Google makes this material even more user-friendly. Kudos to you PositivePsychology.com!

I am writing a paper on Employee Engagement and comparing this with job satisfaction. This is one of the clearest and most coherent articles I have found on the subject. I will be bookmarking the sight for further use.

Let us know your thoughts Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Company Culture: How to Create a Flourishing Workplace

Company culture has become a buzzword, particularly in the post-COVID era, with more organizations recognizing the critical importance of a healthy workplace. During the Great [...]

Integrity in the Workplace (What It Is & Why It’s Important)

Integrity in the workplace matters. In fact, integrity is often viewed as one of the most important and highly sought-after characteristics of both employees and [...]

Neurodiversity in the Workplace: A Strengths-Based Approach

Promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace is a priority for ethical employers who want to optimize productivity and leverage the full potential [...]

Download 3 Free Work & Career Tools Pack (PDF)

By filling out your name and email address below.

Email Address *
Your Expertise * Your expertise Therapy Coaching Education Counseling Business Healthcare Other
Email This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Download 3 Work & Career Exercises Pack (PDF)

Career Research

IResearchNet

Custom Writing Services

Job satisfaction.

The relevance of JS attitudes to career-development issues lies in the fact that JS is an important (arguably the most important) outcome for assessing the effectiveness of career-development activities and decisions. That is, the ultimate goal of most career-development activities is to ensure that individuals end up in careers and jobs that they find maximally satisfying. Thus, it is important to understand how JS is measured, the determinants of JS (both individual and situational), and outcomes typically associated with higher levels of JS. Each topic is reviewed in the following sections.

Measuring Job Satisfaction

There are a number of different scales and techniques available for measuring one’s level of JS. Most involve eliciting responses on a self-report questionnaire or in an interview (with the former being much more common). For example, to understand how satisfied individuals are with their jobs or with a particular aspect of their jobs (e.g., benefits), employers can ask them to complete a survey (or participate in an interview) that directly asks them the extent of their satisfaction. These scales have a number of benefits, including high reliability (i.e., consistency of responses across time and different items); face validity (i.e., they appear to measure what they are measuring, which is important for employees’ willingness to complete such measures); and practicality (i.e., questionnaires are relatively quick to complete and inexpensive to create or obtain). Limitations to this assessment method include variability in individuals’ motivation to report how they truly feel and think and their ability to accurately describe what they are feeling or thinking.

The various scales designed to measure JS can be sorted according to the following distinctions: (a) verbal versus pictorial, (b) global versus facets, and (c) cognitive versus affective (or a combination of both). With regard to the first distinction, the vast majority of JS scales ask participants to respond to a series of items on a Likert-type scale, usually ranging from very dissatisfied to very satisfied (or strongly disagree to strongly agree). However, the Faces Scale forgoes this verbal response system in favor of a series of faces depicting varying levels of satisfaction. Employees are then asked to choose the face that most closely reflects how they feel about their jobs. In general, the Faces Scale has been shown to be as good a measure of JS as scales that rely on Likert-type response formats.

Regarding the second distinction among JS scales, global (or general) measures of JS are characterized by their relatively small number of items (sometimes as few as one item) and their avoidance of asking about specific aspects of a job. Usually, global measures of JS include items such as “Overall, I am satisfied with my job” or “In general, I enjoy working here.” These types of scales offer a number of advantages, including their relative practicality (it may take only a minute or two to complete the measure) and strong relationships with multidimensional JS scales (i.e., those including several facets). JS scales that assess multiple facets of an individual’s JS are commonplace and vary widely in their length and the number of distinct facets assessed. These JS measures offer the advantage of greater specificity in the assessment of JS, which can be useful for gaining a greater understanding of employees’ satisfaction regarding specific aspects of their jobs. For example, although an employee may be generally satisfied with a job, examination of facet-level JS may reveal that he or she is dissatisfied with the supervisor, a situation that could potentially lead to performance problems or even result in the employee’s leaving the organization. Thus, both global and facet measures of JS have unique advantages and limitations that should be balanced with the purpose(s) for collecting the JS information.

The third distinction among JS scales involves that between cognitive and affective components of JS (previously defined). The vast majority of extant JS measures are more cognitive in nature, asking employees what they think about various facets of their jobs. However, a few JS measures are more affective in nature, asking employees how they feel about their jobs. Although these two types of measures do not tend to differ much in terms of their reliability or validity (i.e., their relations with other variables), recent JS research building on basic attitude theory has demonstrated the importance of measuring and considering both components of JS. That is, job incumbents have been shown to have distinct affective and cognitive perceptions of JS that may be quite different. For example, individuals may cognitively understand that for the work done, they are well compensated, yet at the same time not like the type of work they are doing (thus, a cognitively focused measure of JS might show them to be satisfied, whereas an affectively oriented measure might show the opposite). In addition, it is known that when cognitive and affective components of attitudes align, they are much more useful as indicators of subsequent behavior and attitudes (and this has recently been shown in the JS research specifically).

More recently, there have been some “new directions” in JS attitude measurement, using some techniques that are qualitatively different from verbal reports on JS scales. The first involves a more “interpretive” approach, an emphasis on employees’ reports of their JS and its important components (using the employees’ language) rather than reliance on predetermined facets of JS (using the researcher’s language). This approach involves asking employees to write unstructured accounts of satisfying and dissatisfying job experiences, and research using this approach has found that the language employees use to describe such experiences largely converges with the facets reflected in the more traditional JS scales.

Second, an interesting new methodology has developed that can be used for measuring employees’ job satisfaction, particularly its affective component. This methodology, referred to alternatively as experience sampling methods or ecological momentary assessment, allows researchers to capture momentary behaviors and psychological states in context and then track those behaviors and states over time. For example, an employee whose job satisfaction would be measured in this way would most likely receive a personal digital assistant (PDA) to carry for several days or weeks. This employee would be periodically cued throughout the day from the PDA and asked to report on his or her affective state. This very new approach to measuring JS has the advantage of being able to assess JS at a very detailed level and in “real time,” allowing for examination of changes in JS over time.

Determinants of Job Satisfaction

Given that JS is believed to be an important outcome of career-related actions, it is particularly relevant to review what factors contribute to an individual’s level of JS. These factors can be grouped into three categories: the individual, characteristics of the job and organization, and the intersection of the two.

Individual Determinants

Although it may seem intuitive that JS is primarily a function of the job, there are, in fact, a number of characteristics of individuals that, independent of the jobs they hold, will influence their general levels of JS. Among these factors are relatively stable personality traits, such as self-esteem, self-efficacy, and positive/negative affectivity, with research suggesting that people with greater self-esteem, greater self-efficacy, greater positive affectivity, and lower negative affectivity tend to report higher levels of JS. Investigation of the relationship between JS and personality traits has also focused on the five-factor model of personality, which comprises five traits: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Of these five traits, Neuroticism has the strongest relationship. Perhaps not surprisingly, this relationship shows that the more neurotic individuals are, the less likely they are to be satisfied with their jobs; thus, this is characterized as a negative relationship. Extraversion and Conscientiousness, on the other hand, are both related positively to JS; more extraverted and more conscientious employees tend to report higher JS.

From this evidence, it is clear that individuals’ perceptions of JS are reflective of not only their jobs but also who they are as people. In fact, levels of JS may even have a genetic component to them. Specifically, research based on identical twins shows that up to 30 percent of JS may be heritable, and identical twins reared apart have been shown to have very similar levels of JS as adults, even though they may hold very different jobs. In essence, research on the individual determinants of JS suggests that some people are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs regardless of their actual employment conditions (and therefore, across the career span). This is not to say, however, that employment conditions do not play any role at all, and those effects are reviewed next.

Situational Determinants

The examination of the effects of job characteristics on JS perceptions is, historically, perhaps the most studied aspect of JS. At the core of this idea is the belief that different working conditions will cause individuals to feel motivated and satisfied with their work or unmotivated and dissatisfied. Support for the doctrines of empowering workers, redesigning jobs, and building variety into task work arose from the assumption that employees would not be satisfied if they felt they were in boring and highly repetitive jobs. Decades of research in this area have reported mixed findings. In general, improving job characteristics such as autonomy, feedback, and skill variety does result in increased levels of JS. However, these relationships depend in large part on the personality of the individual employee, with some employees enjoying added flexibility and responsibility and others disliking it. This dependence on the characteristics of the individual employee brings us to perhaps the most recently and widely agreed-upon important determinant of JS: fit.

Fit Determinants

Fit between an individual and the employment situation can be conceptualized at both the job level, person-job (P-J) fit, and organizational level, person-environmental (P-E) or person-organizational (P-O) fit. Fit can be assessed in terms of demographic, personality, or values characteristics, and, in general, it is believed that persons who fit with the job and organization should experience more positive work outcomes, including higher levels of JS. For example, a highly competitive employee should be more satisfied in (a) a job that requires little cooperation and much intergroup competition and (b) an organization characterized by a highly competitive culture that rewards individual performance and tends to attract other competitive individuals. In general, research has supported these predictions regarding the important role of fit in determining JS.

Outcomes of Job Satisfaction

Over the course of nearly 100 years of research, JS has been linked to a number of important workplace outcomes, including job performance, withdrawal behaviors, burnout, and health.

Job Performance

Intuitively, the relationship between JS and job performance makes sense (that is, a happy worker should be a productive worker). However, the majority of research has not borne out this relationship, with studies generally finding only weak to moderate relations between JS and job performance. These findings are being continually revisited, however, with claims that (a) the older reviews of this relationship have been misinterpreted and (b) either JS or job performance has been conceptualized and/or measured in ways that do not expose this relationship. For example, recent research has shown that when JS attitudes are “strong” (i.e., an alignment between the cognitive and affective components), the relationship between JS and job performance increases significantly. Findings such as these, as well as the continued expansion of the definition of job performance to include contextual performance and organizational citizenship behaviors (i.e., employees going above and beyond the call of duty) have led to a renewed interest in understanding the role of JS in determining job performance.

In addition, it appears that the relationship between JS and job performance or career success may change somewhat over the course of an individual’s career. Careers are often identified using a three-stage approach: establishment, maintenance, and decline. During the establishment stage, there is little relationship between JS and job success, as JS can change as a person explores his or her career options (likewise, career success is generally low, but rises as the person finds the career in which they will remain). In the maintenance stage, JS and career success begin to align more closely, and both reach career high points. The decline stage is also marked with high consistency between JS and career success, with both levels slowly declining until retirement.

Employee Withdrawal

Withdrawal attitudes and behaviors such as commitment, absenteeism, intention to quit, and turnover have long been linked both empirically and theoretically to JS. The rationale behind these relationships is the commonsense notion that if you are dissatisfied with your job, you will (a) be less committed to your organization, (b) seek to avoid your job whenever possible (increased levels of absenteeism), and (c) possibly, if your dissatisfaction is strong enough, intend to or actually leave your job. In many models of employee turnover, JS is considered to be a primary determinant of employees’ forming the intention to quit their jobs, thus setting into motion a process that will result in their eventually leaving the organization. This is an important distinction, as research has shown that although JS is a weak predictor of actual turnover, it is a strong predictor of intention to turnover (i.e., quit). Thus, organizations interested in retaining their employees are well-advised to consider their employees’ JS.

Psychological Burnout and Health

In recent years, burnout and emotional exhaustion have been identified as important problems in the workplace, and research has shown that both stressful job conditions and employees’ low levels of JS can lead to an increased risk of burnout or emotional exhaustion (this type of research has focused almost exclusively on careers involving medical services or direct care, so additional research needs to be done on these relationships in other occupations). Interestingly, in many models of the burnout process, low JS is not by itself a direct cause of burnout; rather, it is a factor that can amplify the effects of a stressful or highly emotionally demanding job and/or workplace. In this context, therefore, low JS can be seen as an indicator of which individuals may be more susceptible to burnout. These established links between JS and burnout and experienced stress on the job become especially problematic when considered in conjunction with findings that levels of JS can “spill over” to affect general life satisfaction.

Career satisfaction
Job involvement
Organizational commitment

References:

Arvey, R. D., Bourchard, T. J. Jr., Segal, N. and Abraham, L. M. 1989. “Job Satisfaction: Environmental and Genetic Components.” Journal of Applied Psychology 74:187-192.
Beal, D. J. and Weiss, H. M. 2003. “Methods of Ecological Momentary Assessment in Organizational Research.” Organizational Research Methods 6:440-464.
Cytrynbaum, S. and Crites, J. O. 1989. “The Utility of Adult Development Theory in Understanding Career Adjustment Process.” Pp. 66-88 in Handbook of Career Theory, edited by M. B. Arthur, D. T. Hall and B. S. Lawrence. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hackman, J. R. and Oldham, G. R. 1976. “Motivation through the Design of Work: Test of a Theory.” Organizational Behavior and Human Performance 16:250-279.
Judge, T. A., Heller, D. and Mount, M. K. 2002. “Five-factor Model of Personality and Job Satisfaction: A Meta-analysis.” Journal of Applied Psychology 87:530-541.
Judge, T. A., Thoresen, C. J., Bono, J. E. and Patton, G. K. 2001. “The Job Satisfaction-Job Performance Relationship: A Qualitative and Quantitative Review.” Psychological Bulletin 127:376-407.
Kristof-Brown, A. L. 1996. “Person-organization Fit: An Integrative Review of Its Conceptualizations, Measurement, and Implications.” Personnel Psychology 49:1-49.
Schleicher, D. J., Watt, J. D. and Greguras, G. J. 2004. “Reexamining the Job Satisfaction-Performance Relationship: The Complexity of Attitudes.” Journal of Applied Psychology 89:165-177.
Spector, P. E. 1997. Job Satisfaction: Application, Assessment, Cause, and Consequences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Taber, T. D. 1991. “Triangulating Job Attitudes with Interpretive and Positivist Measurement Methods.” Personnel Psychology 44:577-600.
Weiss, H. M. 2002. “Deconstructing Job Satisfaction: Separating Evaluations, Beliefs and Affective Experiences.” Human Resource Management Review 12:173-194.

My Shodhganga
Receive email updates
Edit Profile

Shodhganga : a reservoir of Indian theses @ INFLIBNET

Shodhganga@INFLIBNET
Jaypee University of Engineering & Technology, Guna
Department of Humanities

Items in Shodhganga are licensed under Creative Commons Licence Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

WRITING CENTER
CUSTOMER AREA
Client Reviews
Our Writers
Sample Papers
Study Resources

Get Your Grades Improved by Our Professional Writers - We are Trusted by Thousands of Students!

Global compose inc. constantly employs professional homework writing help writers from usa, uk, ca and au. the writers are highly trained professionals, comprising of 500+ masters and ph.d level writers available 24/7. we assist clients who either have difficulty completing their assignments, sick or in need family time. to get started, submit your instructions., calculate your order price.

Use Discount Code: FIRST5 at Checkout FIRST5 -->

PRICE BEFORE DISCOUNT: $15.00

HR Management Essay

Sample Research Paper on Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement

Get homework help on this topic - check the quality of writing from this sample, if you are looking for assignment help on this topic or similar topic, click on order now button to submit your details. once we have your order details, your assignment will be assigned to one of our best writers, who will then proceed to write your paper and deliver it within your specified deadline. thank you for choosing us today, introduction.

Employees are among the vital resources of an organization and with developed industries and specific services, excellent skills are needed, particularly during the period when the human resource market has become very competitive because of globalization. Employees’ engagement to their organizations affects their performance and that of an organization. Employee engagement refersto the extent to which an employee is concernedabout his/her job and his/her loyalty to an organization (Abu-Shamaa, Al-Rabayah, & Khasawneh, 2015). Job satisfaction is the degree of contentment workers feel towards their jobs, and it is developed by various factors, such as availability of resources, teamwork, supervisors’ follow up, and personal attitudes. Due to many challenges facing organizations currently, it is significant to evaluate and stipulate factors that enhance commitment of employees to their organizations. Highly dynamic work environments put pressure on companies to maintain their positions and improve their performance over their competitors. Therefore, employees are regarded to be a competitive advantage for the success of an organization. Companies are focusing on factors that enhance their employees’ job satisfaction and engagement. This paper discusses the relationship between employees’ job satisfaction and engagement and their effect on organizational commitment (Abraham, 2012).

Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction refers to the manner in which employees perceive their work and the extent to which they like it. The more the work environment cares for employees’ needs and values, the more they are satisfied with their work. Researches have revealed the significance of job satisfaction and its function in employee engagement. There is a direct relation between job contentmentlevel and the degree of self-determination. Employee job contentment and commitment are highly related to anorganization’s outcomes. Therefore, job satisfaction is aprecursor of engagement(Abraham, 2012).

Various factors affect employee job satisfaction. They include work environment professional status, interaction, and autonomy. The factors that affect both job satisfaction and work engagement include the nature of work, acknowledgement of employees’efforts, teamwork, cooperation among departments, comparative benefits, and equal and appropriate administration of company policies(Rayton & Yalabik, 2014).

Job satisfaction is among the elementsthat make employees to feel engaged. Other elements of employee engagement are motivation and effectiveness. Therefore, Job satisfaction, feeling valued at work, effective communication, and training and development are key influences on workforce engagement and general satisfaction at work(Cook, 2008).

Job satisfaction can be classified into four categories: environmental factors, strategic employee recognition factors, individual factors, and psychological wellbeing factors. Environmental factors entail communication load and managers-staff communication. Strategic employee recognition factors encompass concerns of financial aspects and culture and workplace society, and the way these factors affect satisfaction. Individual factors comprise emotion and moods of employees, their genetic and characteristics, such as being able to work with teams or individuals and solving problems, and personality like estrangement and locus of control. Psychologicalwelfare factors are associated withkeyelements of employees’ life: job, family, and society (Mróz, & Kaleta, 2016).

Job satisfaction studies have fundamental practical inferences. Therefore, it is essential to establish more supportive features for employees to experience elective functioning, competency, and belongingness. In addition, job satisfaction can be attained by considering social- contextual and personal characteristics of employees. Organizations need to target workplace factors and increase job resources to enhance engagement. Moreover, changing management practices may promote employee satisfaction and hence develop business-unit outcomes as well as profit(Hays, & Lou, 2015).

Employee Engagement

Employee engagement refers to the level to which employees feel involved, contented with, and emotionally connected to enhance productivity, innovation, and retention. Employees who are engaged in their work are more valuing, enjoy and pride in their work, put much effort in their work, and are ready to share information with other workers to assist one another and the organization to succeed. They are also committed to their work, work in a company for a longer period, are productive, offer better customer service, and provide high profits in an organization. Engaged employees put in extra time to execute a task well, not for financial benefit but out of a personal sense of commitment called discretionary effort (Jha & Kumar, 2016). In a highly dynamic environment where organizations should be proactive to compete effectively, employees work engagement has become an important role in organizational effectiveness. Companies prefer employing loyal and committed workforce who is able to dedicate their full abilities to work. Organizations select employees who are ready to dedicate all their capabilities and experience to their organization. They require employees who are engaged with their job because engaged employees are more creative and productive.Additionally, engagement is related to three psychological conditions: meaningfulness (worth wellness and the value of people’s efforts, Safety (comfort of individuals while working) and availability (accessibility of physical and psychological resources in work). Employees are believed to beengaged when they are concerned with, passionate about, and contented with their job (Biswas & Bhatnagar, 2013).

Several researches indicate that work engagement is important in attaining positive results, such as job involvement, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction.In contrast, work disengagement is a situation where members of an organization uncouple from work errands. In addition, the employees withdraw and defend themselves physically, cognitively, or emotionally during role performances(Štěpánková, Bendová & Koralov, 2015). Disengagement may emerge because of employees’ emotional labor anddisagreementamong employees’ felt emotion and the organizational desired emotion. Broken systems also result in disengagement whereby companies fail to match people with the best-fit position, which creates severe consequences of employee disengagement. Additionally, employees become depressed, confused and job performance is retreated, resulting in high turnover(Cook, 2008).

Work environment has a significant function in work disengagement where more ambiguous, unpredictable and threatening environments are likely to disengage employees. Managers need to consider physical, emotional, and cognitive factors of work environment to establish an enthusiastic workplace that promotes employees’ engagement in work. Physical aspects entail physical effort exerted by employees to complete their duties. Additionally, physical aspects can also be associated with available job resources like workmates and supervisor’s support, performance feedback, and learning opportunity. The cognitive aspect is about employees’beliefsconcerningan organization, its leaders, and the working condition. Cognitive conductsintegrate workforcethought, attitudes, morals, and individual relations to form and strengthen their relationships. In a case where supportive connection and trusted relationship between employees result in psychological safety, cognitive-based trust may form a reliable and dependable relation between employees(Jha & Kumar, 2016).

Finally, the emotional aspect is concerned with whether employees have positive or negative attitudes towardsan organization and its leaders. Positive emotions provide a feeling of happiness, joy, and enthusiasm. In addition, the staffs experience improved health, increase their productivity, employ their skills and abilities, and motivate others to perform well(Hermsen & Vicki, 2008).

Factors Affecting Employee Engagement

Managersconcentrate on enhancing employees’ performance, which can be attained by focusing on employee engagement. Workforce psychological ability refers to employees’ belief that they have physical, emotional, or cognitive resources to engage themselves at work(Forck, 2014). The following factors influence employee engagement:

Many jobs require investing in physical, emotional, and cognitiveresources to facilitate employees’ responsibilities and work. Supportive resources result in greater availability and engagement(Karumuri, 2016).

Supervisor Relations

Positive-oriented relations like listening to employees’ concerns, motivating them, growing their skills, and handling work related challenges promote employees’ self-determination and affect their interest in work. In addition, positive superior relations result in feelings of psychological safety.

Coworker Relations

Socialinteraction with coworkers formsa greater meaning in work environment. People acquire meaning from the social identities they obtain from groups’ memberships. Moreover, interactions promote a sense of belonging and social identity. Fulfilling coworker interactions arehighly related to psychological wellbeing, which encourages commitment(Forck, 2014).

Work-Role Fit

Fitting workers’ self-concepts to their role promotes a sense of meaning where individuals enjoying work conduct themselves in a way that expresses authentic self-concepts. Work-role fit has an important impact on psychological meaningfulness.

The Effect Of Employee Job Satisfaction And Engagement On Organizational Commitment

Organizational commitment refers to the psychological strength of organizational employees or the amount of involvement employees have in their work. Organizational commitment improves employees’ loyalty and motivates them to devote themselves to an organization to enhance their productivity.Studies have indicated that intangible variables like work engagement and job satisfaction strongly impact organizational commitment(Rigg, Day & Adler, 2013). Engaging employees to their work represents the first step towards establishing a committed organizational environment where employees are motivated to work hard. There is a significant positive relationship between efficient organizational commitment and employee engagement, whereby happiness and work engagement have predictive value for effectual organizational commitment. In most cases, employees link their work engagement with organizational commitment and their objective of remaining in the organization. In addition, supervisors play an important function in promoting employee engagement and attaining a higher level of organizational commitment. They motivate employees by assisting them to see a wider context and connect to a broader concept. This process results in a better employee engagement, which promotes organizational commitment(Abu-Shamaa, Al-Rabayah, & Khasawneh, 2015).

The elements of organizational commitment include affective, continuance, and normative. Affective commitment explains emotional attachment of employees and their sense of belonging and being proud members of an organization. Continuance commitment means the aspiration to continue working in an organization while normative commitment is the innersense of obligation to an organization. It is important for leaders to understand that positive organizational collaboration encouragesworkers to work hard. In addition, consistency between employees’ personal values and organizational values enhances greater meaningfulness and psychological safety, which increases the chances of employee engagement and empowers employees. Additionally,compensationsarealso the strongest predictors of organizational commitment.Nevertheless, the strongest determinant of organizational commitment is the social relation between managers and staff. Employee trainingalso increases their commitment to an organization(Abu-Shamaa, Al-Rabayah, & Khasawneh, 2015). The findings of various studies have assisted managers to come up with effective decisions by offering the following recommendationsfordeveloping organizational commitment

Enhancing communication activities
Establishing compensationsystems likerewards, benefits, long service and good performance awards programs.
Creating organizational culture
Enhancing team-building activities

Job satisfaction plays an important function in organizational commitment, which indicates that employee engagement can be developed through satisfied employees, thus promoting higher productivity in organizations. Additionally, managers and human resource experts need to consider the relationship between happiness and work engagement, which results in higher job satisfaction and higher opportunities for organizational commitment. When employees are satisfied with their jobs, they become engaged in their work and they commit themselves to the organization. This increases employees and organizations’ productivity. It is also important to use appraisal systems to inspire employees to commit themselves to an organization by creating a sense of belonging(Hermsen & Vicki, 2008).

It is important to note that managers can strongly influence organizational commitment whereby the leadership style can influence employees’ organizational commitment. In addition, job satisfaction and organization commitment can be utilized as performance measurement of employees’ outcome. Therefore, it is necessary and significant to get committed employees to obtain a competitive advantage in a highly dynamic work environment. Committed employees dedicate all the abilities and knowledge to their organization and are more productive(Karumuri, 2016).

Employee engagement considers employees’ emotional commitment to theirwork and their willingness to give the best in attaining organizational objectives. On the other hand, job satisfaction mainly involves employees’ feelings about their work. Therefore, job satisfaction has a strong positive effect on organizational outcomes and work engagement. They have been utilized as nonfinancial metrics to measure business process efficiency and organizational outcomes(Popović, Maletić, & Paunović, 2015).

Employees’ performance is strongly associated with organizational commitment, which is considered the loyalty level of employees towards their organization and the extent they are ready to go to attain its objectives. Organizationalcommitment is affected by various factors, which include external factors, global tease, personal factors, and internal factors. Moreover, improvement of communication activities, construction of effectual compensation schemes, establishment of good organizational culture, and improvement of team-building activities are ways through which decision makers can enhance employees’ organizationalengagement(Abu-Shamaa, Al-Rabayah, & Khasawneh, 2015).

Reflections

In the current competitive environment, employees’ level of engagement and their quality of work are significant to the growth of an organization. Therefore, managers usually focus on identifying ways of boosting morale, increasing productivity, and gaining competitive advantage. Organizations with engaged employees increase their operating income by a high percentage. Additionally, they experience increased workforce output, reduced employee turnover, increased likelihoods of enticingexperts, and higherprofits to investors.

Therefore, it is clear that employee job satisfaction and work engagement are significant in enhancing their commitment to an organization. Companies have put in efforts to improve communication activities, establish organizational culture, support team-building activities, and boost personal development to enhance employees’ satisfaction and commitment.

Recommendations

Training, welfare, and salary have no influence on employee engagement. Therefore, an organization’s management should give importance to employee development and employee wellbeing to improve job satisfaction.

Short-term training programs that increase the skill level, new work methods should be offered to the middle age group employees facing career plateau challenges to encourage them continue working.

The basic pay should be revised according to the complexity of jobs to enhance a sense of pride to employees. This will make them feel valued by the organization.

Organizations should encourage two-way communication between superiors and junior employees through regular meetings to clear all misunderstandings in the workplace. The meetings can also assist in clarifying important values and goals of the organization.

Superiors should use performance feedback sessions to recognize the achievements of the subordinates to enhance their feeling of engagement. This will also assist in strengthening the relations between the superior and the subordinate during work.

The superiors should be supportive to recognize and guide their juniors at workplace.

Company policies should be well written and implemented without bias to promote employee engagement

Employees should be provided with challenging jobs to enable them maximize the unused potential, which creates a sense of satisfaction and results in employee engagement.

Engaged employees perform well in their jobs. Additionally, the study has indicatedthat factors like job benefits, recognition, cooperation, fair treatment, sound company policies,team spirit, and performance management system can promote job satisfaction in employees, which results in their engagement. Therefore, companies need to focus on improving the working conditions and offering employees the tools and resources needed to carry out their duties. In addition, continuous reviews and feedback from supervisors to employees are significant in enriching satisfactory outcomes.

Furthermore, work engagement needs better communication and a different look into human resource management to have better engaged employees. Supervisors are supposed to ensure that employees are aware of organization’s values and goals, and the human resource managers need to ensure that they hire employees who like their jobs. It is important to note that commitment is an imperceptible value that has several factors, which are also imperceptible. Nevertheless, commitment is an aspect of Jordanian employees who usually have strong feelings towards their organizations. Therefore, engagement levels can be maintained and enhanced when the management takes care of employee participation in developmental activities and monetary benefits.

Word Count: 2534 words

Abraham, S. (2012). Development of employee engagement program on the basis of employee satisfactionsurvey. Journal of Economic Development, Management, IT, Finance & Marketing, 4(1), 27-37.

Abraham, S. (2012). Job satisfaction as an antecedent to employee engagement. SIES Journal of Management , 8(2), 27-36.

Abu-Shamaa, R., Al-Rabayah, W. A., & Khasawneh, R. T. (2015). The effect of job satisfaction and work engagement on organizational commitment. IUP Journal of Organizational Behavior , 14(4), 7-27.

Biswas, S., & Bhatnagar, J. (2013). Mediator analysis of employee engagement: role of perceived organizational support, profit, organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, 38(1), 27-40.

Cook, S. (2008). The Essential Guide to Employee Engagement : Better Business Performance Through Staff Satisfaction. London: Kogan Page.

Forck, M. (2014). 7 Keys to Worker Engagement. Professional Safety , 59(5), 31-33.

Hays, D. W., & Lou, J. Q. (2015). Job satisfaction of employees and consultants in healthcare information technology. SAM Advanced Management Journal (07497075), 80(4), 12-18.

Hermsen, J, & Vicki, R. (2008). Examining Work Engagement and Job Satisfaction of Staff Members in Higher Education. CUPA-HR Journal 59(2), 10-18.

Jha, B., & Kumar, A. (2016). Employee engagement: a strategic tool to enhance performance. DAWN : Journal for Contemporary Research in Management , 3(2), 21-29.

Karumuri, V. (2016). Employee Engagement: Hotel Industry. SCMS Journal of Indian Management , 13 (3), 120-128.

Mróz, J., & Kaleta, K. (2016). Relationships between personality, emotional labor, work engagement and job satisfaction in service professions. International Journal of Occupational Medicine & Environmental Health , 29(5), 767-782

Popović, B., Maletić, R., & Paunović, T. (2015). Employee satisfaction survey in function of business improvement. Management (1820-0222), (76), 31-40.

Rayton, B. A., & Yalabik, Z. Y. (2014). Work engagement, psychological contract breach and job satisfaction. International Journal of Human Resource Management , 25(17), 2382-2400.

Rigg, J., Day, J., & Adler, H. (2013). An empirical analysis of Jamaican hotel employees’ engagement, job satisfaction, and quitting intentions. Consortium Journal of Hospitality & Tourism , 18(2), 17-33.

Štěpánková, M., Bendová, Š., & Koralov, M. (2015). The case of research aspects arising from employee satisfaction and engagement for the benefit of the employer. Journal of Tourism & Services , 6(11), 48-59.

Do you have an Assignment on a Similar or Related Topic? We can Help You Right Now! Click on the Order Now button...

Are you looking for homework writing help on this topic? This question was posted by one of our client seeking homework help. If you are therefore looking for an assignment to submit, then click on ORDER NOW button or contact us today. Our Professional Writers will be glad to write your paper from scratch, and delivered within your deadline. Perfect choice for your excellent grades! www.globalcompose.com.

We ensure that assignment instructions are followed, the paper is written from scratch. If you are not satisfied by our service, you can either request for refund or unlimited revisions for your order at absolutely no extra pay. Once the writer has completed your paper, the editors check your paper for any grammar/formatting/plagiarism mistakes, then the final paper is sent to your email.

Writing Features

Affordable Writing Services

Experienced Writing Team

24/7 Team of Writers

Professional E ssay Writers

Quality Measures

Trained Support Team

Non-Plagiarized Papers

Well Researched Papers

Free Writing Resources

Privacy | Confidentiality

We do not share your personal information with any company or person. we have also ensured that the ordering process is secure; you can check the security feature in the browser. for confidentiality purposes, all papers are sent to your personal email. if you have any questions, contact us any time via email, live chat or our phone number., our clients testimonials, a team of +500 masters and ph.d level homework writing help writers available 24/7 cannot get it wrong. the following are customer reviews about the quality of our services..

“Thanks for offering your professional assistance on this one. Topic was confusing but writer worked it out”

Added 24 Minutes Ago

“Thanks, I like the literature review, it is discussed in depth. Have looked at the results section and it is conclusive as I expected. Thank you”

Added 12 Hours Ago

“I like the discussion on the case study. Thank you. Am satisfied and wanted to request that same writer will handle my future assignments”

Added 30 Minutes Ago

“I was paranoid about online writing services, but on this one, the results are evident that you are much better. Will order more papers”

Added 3 Minutes Ago

“I think the paper is alright. If I can book the writer for the soon upcoming assignment, it will be great. Thanks”

Added 6 Minutes Ago

Why choose our homework writing help, we try to work as diligent as we can to help you meet your homework’s deadline. our support staff is always online 24/7 to help clarify any issues or concerns you have regarding our services. talk to us today to find out how our writers may be of help to you., customized papers, we consider your instructions and specifications in order to tailor the paper to suit your expectations., only professional writers, all our writers have a masters or ph.d and are well trained to handle assignments in various disciplines at different education levels., fast and reliable, our writers are capable of handling any assignment with short deadline and deliver without any delay, thus saving you time and energy, round the clock support, our customer support is always ready to offer real time assistance of day and night, through email, live-chat and phone., cost effective prices, we save you money with our affordable prices and huge discounts on all assignments., 100% original papers, all our papers are thoroughly researched and written from scratch. be sure of completely non-plagiarized papers., our ordering process, to get started with our homework writing help, simply click on the order now button. its easy, secure and takes less than 2 minutes to complete. the following steps illustrates the entire process., fill the order form: include all instructions and files for your assignment., submit your payment via card or paypal so that your order can be processed., a writer works on your paper and submits to editors upon completion., the completed paper is examined by our editors, then sent to your email, want to learn from experts check the writing tips below.

Final Paper Assignments

Thesis Writing Help
Dissertation Chapters
Writing Research Papers
Project Writing
Term Paper Writing
Speech Writing

Weekly Assignments

Essay Writing
Coursework Writing
Assignment Writing Help
Homework Writing Help
Book Review Writing
Movie Review Writing

Creative Assignments

Power Points Preparation
Analyzing Case Studies
Creative Writing Papers
Critical Thinking Writing
Annotated Bibliography
Capstone Project Writing

Admission Papers

Writing Scholarship Essay
Writing Admission Essays
Writing Application Essays
Writing Entrance Essays
Personal Statement Essays
Reaction Paper Writing

Samples of our Writing Illustrated Below

We have compiled a list of samples written by our writers for your review. you can use these samples to write your paper. you must however cite the source properly. if you are looking for a non-plagiarised paper, click on the order button. our professionals will work on your order. are you looking for writing tips check the list on this page. we are glad that we could help..

Discussion Essay Homework
Dissertation/Thesis Writing
Book Review Paper
Business Plan Homework
Capstone Project Paper
Creative Writing Homework
Critical Thinking Homework
Application Essay Homework
Case Study Homework
Literature Review Homework
Personal Reflection Homework
Reflection Essay Homework
Research Proposal Homework
Annotated bibliography Paper
Article Review Homework
Research Paper Homework
Movie Review Sample
Term Paper Sample
Admission Essay Homework
Argumentative Essay Paper
Response Essay Homework

A List of Related Papers On This Category is Provided Below

Sample Presentation Paper on Monetary Reward Plan
Sample Research Paper on Fee-for-service and Managed Health Care Plans
Sample Research Paper on Human Resource Practices in India
Sample Essay on Variances Under OSHA
Sample Presentation Paper on Learning and Development Strategy
Sample Coursework Paper on Health And Wellness Summary
HR Management: Alignment of HRM and Business Strategies
Sample Case Study Paper Terminations-Wrong versus Right
Sample Essay on Human capital management
Sample Essay on Developing a Talent Management Strategy
Sample HR Management Essay Paper on Needs Assessment
Sample Essay Paper on Glass Ceiling Training and Selection
Sample Research Paper on Stories of Change
Sample Coursework Paper on Organization of Human Resource Department Websites
Sample Admission Essay on Week 2: Nutrition and Physical Fitness Plan
Sample Discussion Conclusion Paper on Union Organizing/ Bargaining
Sample HR Management Essay on Review of Effective Training Lion Air Employees (Indonesia)
Sample Research Paper on Monetary Reward Plan
Sample Case Study Paper on Identify the cultural differences between Trader Joe’s and Ralph’s

Get your Homework Written by our Top-Notch Writers Now

IMAGES

How to Write a Research Paper on Job Satisfaction
(DOC) A STUDY ON JOB SATISFACTION AMONG EMPLOYEES JOB SATISFACTION
Employee Satisfaction Survey
Casual How To Write A Research Paper On Job Satisfaction What Is Non
How to Write a Research Paper on Job Satisfaction
(PDF) ISSN : 2166-0018 Employees Job Satisfaction and Performance to

VIDEO

How To Write A Research Paper For School
How to write Research paper or article or assignment with AI tools
Paper.io2 / Be patient, satisfaction will come to you soon 😂😂 #paperio #paperio2
Session 6
Research Paper Writing Workshop
How to Write Research Paper ?

COMMENTS

(PDF) SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW OF JOB SATISFACTION ...
Abstract and Figures. Job satisfaction is the main variable that must be considered in managing human resource practices. Job satisfaction discusses the extent to which employees are satisfied or ...
(PDF) Job Satisfaction: A Literature Review
This paper investigates the ways in which these former variables influence each other in regards to a workers performance; whether workplace satisfaction increases after five years of working in ...
(Pdf) Job Satisfaction and Employee Performance: a Theoretical Review
The definition of Job satisfaction is described by many authors. Some of the most commonly definitions are described in the text below. Robert Hoppock made a huge contribution in defining job satisfaction and suggests important professional guidance in a time when job satisfaction research was in its early stages (Cucina & Bowling, 2015).
Exploring Determinants of Job Satisfaction: A Comparison Between Survey
Therefore, big data analysis has become a popular research method for analyzing employee job satisfaction based on company reviews written by former & current employees on job portal websites (Dabirian et al., 2017; Green et al., 2019; M. Huang et al., 2015; Moro et al., 2020). However, it is difficult to conduct and in depth big data analysis ...
Systematic Literature Review of Job Satisfaction: an Overview and
Job satisfaction is the main variable that must be considered in managing human resource practices. Job satisfaction discusses the extent to which employees are satisfied or dissatisfied with their jobs are caused by several factors that motivate them. This study aims to dig deeper into job satisfaction variable. In achieving this goal, the researchers used a systematic review using PRISMA ...
Job Satisfaction: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Analysis in a
1. Introduction. Job satisfaction has been defined as a "pleasurable or positive emotional state, resulting from the appraisal of one's job experiences" [].Job satisfaction reflects on overall life quality involving social relationships, family connection and perceived health status, affecting job performances, work absenteeism and job turnover, leading, in some cases, to serious ...
Job satisfaction as a determinant of employees' optimal ...
The correlation between measures of a high level of job satisfaction and well-being is well documented in the literature; however, such a relationship may be potentially bidirectional. If an increase in job satisfaction affects optimal well-being, the reverse relationship can also be hypothesized. In addition, the relationship between job satisfaction and well-being may be polluted by the ...
The Impact of Work Environment on Job Satisfaction
Key Points. •. The psychosocial work environment is created by the interactions of staff and leadership and impacts how people behave and how they feel about their work. •. Work environment and the experience one has at work impact employee health, well-being, and satisfaction. •. Managers play a key role in creating and supporting the ...
JOB SATISFACTION: A LITERATURE REVIEW
Job satisfaction represents one of the most complex areas facing today's managers when it comes to managing their employees. ... The paper adopted the survey research design through quantitative research approach. Primary data was used through administration of 300 copies of questionnaires to employees in the selected consumer goods firms ...
JOB SATISFACTION: A LITERATURE REVIEW
Job satisfaction represents one of the most complex areas facing today's managers when it comes to managing their employees. Many studies have demonstrated an unusually large impact on the job satisfaction on the motivation of workers, while the level of motivation has an impact on productivity, and hence also on performance of business organizations.Unfortunately, in our region, job ...
PDF JOB SATISFACTION AND JOB PERFORMANCE: A Thesis by ALLISON LAURA COOK
job satisfaction could come from an individual's genetic makeup. Arvey, Bouchard, Segal, and Abraham (1989) found support for a genetic component to job satisfaction in their study of monozygotic, or identical, twins reared apart. They found that even when they were not raised together, identical twins tended to have job satisfaction levels that
Full article: The job satisfaction level analysis for the research
Thus, this paper analyzes the job satisfaction level of university professors and national research institute researchers with regard to their research environment and research production. It also proposes an effective policy for achieving a satisfactory research environment based on the results of an analysis of research environments and ...
What Is Job Satisfaction and Why Is It Important?
2. Higher productivity. Irrespective of their job titles or salary, employees who are more satisfied with their job, whether they feel satisfied with the organizational culture, with the rewards they are getting, or with recognition, can produce more and do it more efficiently. 3.
Full article: Job satisfaction among academic employees in private and
1. Introduction. Job satisfaction started as a topic of research in the early 1900s (Filiz, Citation 2014; Glick, Citation 1992), and it continues to be of interest today (Zembylas & Papanastasiou, Citation 2006).It is also one of the most widely discussed issues in organizational research (Adom & Asunka, Citation 2020; Aziri, Citation 2011; Demirel, Citation 2014; Mehndiratta & Tripathi ...
Job Satisfaction and Career Development
Job Satisfaction. Job satisfaction (JS) is one of the most widely discussed and studied dimensions of employees' work lives, with research dating back to the dawn of the twentieth century. Early definitions conceived of JS as a global affective or emotional reaction to one's job. More recently, JS has been defined as comprising two distinct ...
Study of Job Satisfaction and Its Implications for Motivating ...
It includes determining various parameters that influence job satisfaction and also the present level of satisfaction of the employees. To understand employees perceptions about the job and come up with recommendations for the company to improve the level of job satisfaction. The method used to perform the study was a Job Satisfaction ...
Full article: Teacher job satisfaction: the importance of school
Since most research on teacher job satisfaction is cross-sectional, the above study makes an important contribution to the field by employing a longitudinal design. ... (Department for Education Statistical Working Paper). London: Department of Education. Google Scholar. Sims, S. (2018). Essays on the recruitment and retention of teachers ...
Shodhganga@INFLIBNET: Study of Job Satisfaction of Employees in the
Convenience sampling technique was employed. The sample size of the study was 416. The results showed that all the five factors affected employee job satisfaction in Indian private and public industry. The study results substantiate the association of the employee job satisfaction with their job performance.
A Review of Literature on Employees' Job Satisfaction and Contentment
The author had reviewed almost 16 research articles, research papers, theses, or organizational reports with a view to understand the job satisfaction of the academicians and Industrial employees ...
Sample Research Paper on Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement
Job satisfaction is among the elementsthat make employees to feel engaged. Other elements of employee engagement are motivation and effectiveness. Therefore, Job satisfaction, feeling valued at work, effective communication, and training and development are key influences on workforce engagement and general satisfaction at work (Cook, 2008).