Question no 2

The things that cause job satisfaction include:

1. Being appreciated for what you do. Being thanked or praised by your boss and
appreciated by your customers.
2. Feeling important and knowing that your role is absolutely essential to the
work of the company. Knowing that if you and everyone else who did the same
job suddenly decided to go on strike, the company wouldn’t be able to
function.
3. Having a sense of purpose, knowing that the work you do is helping others and
helping to make this world a better place.
4. Being in a job where you’re doing something you enjoy, something that is
challenging enough to keep you from getting bored yet not so challenging as
to make you stressed out and irritated.
5. Getting along well with your colleagues and being adequately supported,
backed up and motivated by your managers. Having the opportunity to work
hard and play hard. Being able to attend social activities organized by the
company.
6. Having a career ladder that you can climb, as opposed to being in a dead-end
job.
7. Achieving realistic work goals.
8. Job security and stability.
In my opinion, pay never causes job satisfaction. Being happy and fulfilled at work
requires much more than money alone. When you are satisfied at a place you have
more chances of improving and then getting more pay but if you work at a place
with high job and your environment or other factors are not good you definitely
don’t want to go back to that place and always try to look for an alternative where
you get a better environment. It’s a human nature that environment is more
important usually for people especially females in comparison to pay. There are
some exceptional cases where people are forced to focus only on pay due to their
financial conditions or other reasons.
Hierarchy of needs

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs forms the basis of theories that try to explain job
satisfaction. Teachers, like all people, have needs that have to be satisfied. Besides the
basic needs for food, shelter and clothing, safety from physical, harm, and social
interaction, they also need the recognition and appreciation of students, colleagues,
and parents.th

Two-factor theory fails to distinguish between physical and psychological aspects and
to precisely explain what motivators are and how they differ from hygiene factors; it
also fails to express the degrees of satisfaction and dissatisfaction as a measure
instead of using numbers and it makes assumptions that every individual will react in
the same way in the similar situation.

Applying McGregor’s X and Y Theories to a school environment, one could argue that
two of the main causes of dissatisfaction among teachers are having to deal with
problem students and a strict and inconsiderate management, for example a principal
who is coercive and does not appreciate the efforts of teachers, or an overly directive
principal who never delegates or allows teachers to make independent decisions.

This theory is readily applicable to academic environments and explains why some
teachers are high achievers, despite the difficulties they face: they set themselves high
goals and achieving these goals is what drives them. Alderfer’s ERG theory is related
to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs but reduces Maslow’s five categories of a need to
three; namely, relatedness being (esteem/social needs), then growth being (self-
actualization) and existence which is (security/physiological needs).