“Job Satisfaction and Commitment”

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Job Satisfaction: People’s feeling or attitude about the job overall or for
its various facets.

Organizational Commitment: Attachment of an individual to the

organization.
 NATURE OF JOB SATISFACTION
There are two approaches of studying JS.

1. Global approach: Focuses on treating JS as a single overall feeling

towards the job.

2. Facet approach: Focuses on satisfaction with different aspects or

facets of the job, such as:
• Pay
• Promotion
• Supervision
• Nature of work
• Coworkers
 ANTECEDENTS OF JOB SATISFACTION
Two approaches had initially been used in studying antecedents of JS:

O Environmental Approach – investigates features of job and

organizations that lead employees to be satisfied or dissatisfied.

O Personal Approach – investigates features of personality that lead

employees to be satisfied or dissatisfied.

O Interactionist Approach – investigates person-job fit that combines

environmental and personality approaches.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANTECEDENTS OF JOB SATISFACTION
1. Job Characteristics - Refer to the content and nature of job tasks.

O Only few characteristics have been studied as contributors to JS.

O Five are part of “Influential Job Characteristics Theory”:
 Skill Variety – number of different skills necessary to perform a
job
 Task Identity – whether or not an employee does an entire job or
a piece of a job
 Task Significance – the impact a job has on other people
 Autonomy – the freedom employees have to do their job as they
see fit
 Job Feedback – the extent to which it is obvious to employees
that they are doing their jobs correctly

O Researches have shown that each of the five characteristics relate to JS.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANTECEDENTS OF JOB SATISFACTION

2. Role Variables – Refer to an individuals role within and outside

work.
O Role ambiguity and role conflict have been studied in this regard.
O Role Ambiguity: The extent to which employees are uncertain about
their functions and responsibilities.
O Role Conflict: Occurs when there are incompatible demands placed
upon a person relating to their job or position

3. Work- Family Conflict – Refers to a form of role conflict in which

demands of work and demands of family life conflict.
O High conflict, low satisfaction.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANTECEDENTS OF JOB SATISFACTION

4. Pay
O More than the pay itself, it’s the fairness with which pay is
distributed determines pay satisfaction.
PERSONAL ANTECEDENTS OF JOB SATISFACTION
1. Personality

O Two traits that have been focus of attention lately are:

O Negative affectivity – Tendency of an individual to experience
negative emotions such as anxiety or depression across a variety of
situations.
O High NA, less satisfaction.

O Locus of control – Whether or not people believe that they are in

control of reinforcements in life.
O Externals are less satisfied.
PERSONAL ANTECEDENTS OF JOB SATISFACTION
2. Gender
O Few gender differences in JS

3. Age
O Older workers more satisfied than younger workers
O Reasons: better adjustment, better match between desired and
actual job conditions, higher salary, more time-bound rewards.

4. Culture and Ethnicity

O Western countries score higher than Asians
O Reasons: different cultural perspectives and views of work,
different experiences and job conditions.
 PERSON-JOB FIT
O It is interactionist approach to JS

O It states that JS will occur when there is a good match between the
person and the job.

O Research has approached this idea by looking at the correspondence

between what people want from a job and what they have. Smaller the
discrepancy, higher the JS.

O Another approach is to look at interaction of personal factors and job

factors in predicting JS. People differ in reactions to same situation.

O Characteristics of the persons is a moderator variable

 PERSON-JOB FIT
Moderator Variable – Refers to a variable that affects relationship
between two other variables
O Example: Gender may cause different reactions to job condition
leading to a positive correlation between job conditions and JS in
males but not in females.
O An important moderator variable that has been studied is Growth need
strength (GNS)

Growth need strength (GNS) – Refers to a persons desire for

satisfaction of higher order needs, such as autonomy or achievement.
O People high on GNS are more satisfied with high scope jobs
 EFFECTS OF JOB SATISFACTION
1. Job Performance
O Reasons: Satisfaction may lead to performance because people who
like their jobs work harder, thus perform better.
O Another reason might be that people who perform well are likely to
benefit from that performance and those benefits may enhance
satisfaction.

2. Turnover – Refers to the employees quitting the job.

• Predictive studies have shown that dissatisfied people more likely
to quit
EFFECTS OF JOB SATISFACTION
3. Absence
O Very inconsistent and small correlation
O Reason: Other factors may be responsible, such as illness, family
issues

4. Health and Well-Being

O Job satisfaction relates to health variables such as anxiety and
depression
O Dissatisfied employees report more physical symptoms, however
research has not provided any convincing results yet, as the results
might be a product of employees’ personality rather than job.
 EFFECTS OF JOB SATISFACTION
5. Life Satisfaction –
O It is an indicator of overall happiness or emotional well being.
O Studies have indicated that life satisfaction correlates with JS.
O Three hypotheses explain this phenomenon:

a. Spillover Hypothesis – states that satisfaction or dissatisfaction in

one area of life affects or spill over to another.

b. Compensation Hypothesis – states that dissatisfaction in one area

of life will be compensated for in another (dissatisfaction at home,
satisfaction at work or vice versa)

c. Segmentation Hypothesis – states that people compartmentalize

their lives and satisfaction in one area of life has no relation to
satisfaction in another.
ASSESSMENT OF JOB SATISFACTION
O JS is almost always assessed using self-report measures, either
through questionnaires or through interviews.

O Most used and researched scales of JS are:

1. Job Descriptive Index (JDI)

2. Minnesota Satisfaction Scale (MSQ)
3. Job in General Scale (JIG)
 JOB DESCRIPTIVE INDEX (JDI)
O The Job Descriptive Index (JDI) was originally developed by Smith,
Kendall, and Hulin (1969) to measure job satisfaction defined as “the
feelings a worker has about his job”. This instrument has been revised in
1985, 1997, and most recently in 2009.

O The original item pool was generated by means of extensive interviews with
employees, and through content analyses of existing instruments.

O It is the most thoroughly and carefully validated JS scale.

O JDI measures five facets of job-related satisfaction: work itself, supervision,

pay, promotions, and coworkers.
 JOB DESCRIPTIVE INDEX (JDI)
 Work – responsibility, interest and growth.
 Quality of Supervision – technical help and social support.
 Relationship with Co-workers – social harmony and respect
 Promotions opportunities - chances for further advancement.
 Pay - adequacy of pay.

O The biggest criticism of JDI is that it has only five facets and they may
not apply to all employee groups.
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Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaires
(MSQ)
O The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaires (MSQ) was developed in
1967 by Weiss, Dawis, England, & Lofquist.

O This scale comes in two forms, a 100-item long version and a 20 item
short version.

O Both versions ask about 20 facets of job satisfaction

O Short form assesses global satisfaction or Intrinsic (job related) and

Extrinsic (other aspects of work, such as pay ad benefits) satisfaction.
20 Dimensions of MSQ

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20 Dimensions of MSQ

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 Job in General Scale (JIG)
O The Job in General Scale (JIC) was developed in 1989 by Ironson et
al.

O It is the scale of global satisfaction.

O It was patterned on JDI.

O It contains 18 items that are adjectives or short phrases about the job
in general.
Job in General Scale (JIG)

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ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT
Organizational Commitment is attachment of the individual to the
organization.

OC has been studied in many ways, most often studied concepts are:

Three components of Commitment:

Consider OC to be comprised of three components:

1.Acceptance of organization’s goals

2.Willingness to work hard for the organization
3.The desire to stay with the organization
 
ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT
Three types of Commitments:
Based on work of Meyer, Allen and Smith, 1993. According to them,
OC is of three types:

1. Affective Commitment: commitment due to emotional attachment

2. Continuance Commitment: commitment due to need for the job and

lack of better option

3. Normative Commitment: commitment due to feeling of obligation

to stay on the job
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 ASSESSMENT OF ORGANIZATIONAL
COMMITMENT
O OC is measured through self-report scales.

1. One of the most popular scale is “Organizational Commitment

Questionnaire” developed by Mowday, Steers, Porter, 1979.

2. Another popular scale is “Three-Component Organizational

Commitment Scale” developed by Meyer, Allen and Smith, 1993
 ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT AND
OTHER VARIABLES
O High commitment associated with several work variables, such as:
O High job scope
O High job satisfaction
O Low job stressors