Assessment of Job Satisfaction and Job Commitment Proposal

1. Background of the study

Job satisfaction has been important topic for many years (Akfopure, 2006). The relationship between man and work has always attracted the attention of many scholars. Work is a major part of human life. It provides us with social status and binds us to the society (ibid). Job satisfaction has become an important factor to the employees overall performance and also puts great influence in  his commitment to the organization he is employed in. so it is important for organizations to recognize factors that affect employees job satisfaction and commitment level (Akfopure, 2006).

Employees are among the deciding factors in determining the success of an organization in a competitive environment. Thus, if managed properly employee commitment can lead to increased effectiveness, performance and productivity as well as decreased turnover and absenteeism (Fiorita, Bozeman, Young & Meurs, 2007). Because of the reasons mentioned above, studying the relationship between job satisfaction and commitment is crucial for the organization success.

According to Meyer, John P., Stanley, David J., Herscovitch, Lynne, Topolnytsky, Laryssa. (2002), job satisfaction is a determinative of organizational commitment. The main difference between organizational commitment and job satisfaction is that while organizational commitment can be defined as the emotional responses which an employee has towards his organization; job satisfaction is the responses that an employee has towards any job. It is considered that these two variables are highly interrelated. In other words, while an employee’s feelings towards the organization is positive, it’s possible for an employee to be satisfied with the job he has in the organization.

Through workers, organisations can gain a competitive advantage. Committed employees take pride in organisational membership, believe in the goals and values of the organisation, and therefore display higher levels of performance and productivity (Steinhaus & Perry, 1996). In the eyes of employees they believes that they have done a lot for their organization and they also have emotional involvement in their organization. However, their management has very little involvement in their growth and development of employees. Many managers have little understanding of how to satisfy their employees and how these employees’ satisfaction levels influence their intention to leave their positions (Feinstein, A., 2002). In fact, because of this limited understanding, managers’ efforts toward employee satisfaction can sometimes create more dissonance than cohesion between employees and management, leading to decreased performance and excessive employee turnover (Locke, 1969).

The other reason for lack of job satisfaction might arise from the problem of finding suitable people that go hand in hand with the job specifications. So once an ideal candidate is chosen, organizations will like to make a great effort to retain those employees (Feinstein, A., 2002). Therefore, it is necessary to develop an organizational climate and culture to satisfy the employees so as to keep them in the company. So, it is important to increase job satisfaction and to put organizational commitment in to practice.  The above problems are widely found in Ethiopia and arise more often because the practice of creating an environment that is suitable and satisfying to the employees as well as providing them with the appropriate mechanisms is hard and overlooked by the management and the organization.

The research will focus on the link between job satisfaction and commitment in TECNO TELECOM (TECNO).  This company is chosen because it is new to the market and is expanding through our country rapidly and is facing different problems related to job satisfaction and commitment.

WEIGUO YU-TECNO TELECOM (TECNO), established in July 2006, is a high-tech company specializing in the research and development, production, sale and service of mobile communication product. After years of development, WEIGOU YU TECNO TELECOM has become an important part of the mobile phone industry and one of the major mobile phone manufacturers internationally. Currently, it has full ownership of three famous mobile phone brands TECNO, ITEL and an after-sale service brand CARLCARE.

The company has set up offices in many countries and regions, and has built a company in Ethiopia, which has provided a great support for all its brands and has got a suitable environment that can enable a company to succeed.

TECNO which now employs 300 local and 15 foreign staff and is planning further expansion projects. The company is planning further expansion projects which could boost its production capacity to 400,000 units a month and the number of its employees to 600 which in turn enables it to export to other African countries. It puts heavy consideration on the customers experience and endeavours to provide the customer with the suitable products for their environment by adapting the latest innovative technology.

In 2011 Tecno telecom launched its phase one project in Ethiopia around Meskel Flower, and it has also launched its second phase project expanding its size and volume of production around Gofa Mebrathaile area. Currently, 31 st of October 2013 it has launched its third phase, to build company as ICT village in Bole Sub-City around Yerer Ber area (Tecno company website).

1. Statement of the Problem

There is a strong relation between happy employees and increased job satisfaction and commitment. It would seem that if employees feel good about their jobs, their happiness would be reflected in the quality of their work. In order to ensure that employees give the high commitment, management should try to achieve high job satisfaction.

However, the management have little understanding of how to satisfy their employees and how this employees’ satisfaction level influences their commitment to the company. With regard to this problem, this study will be conducted to examine the relationship between the organizational commitment and job satisfaction among employees.

When employees experience low job satisfaction and organizational commitment, it can be very costly on the long run. This may be a result of many factors  such as, inadequate compensation and reward, poor management, little opportunity for advancement, uncomfortable work environment, lack of benefits packages outside of the regular payment (such as: health insurance, bonus and other benefits)   longer working hours and lower lever of payment that do not reflect the current economic condition of the country(Ayeni, C. O., & Phopoola, S. O. (2007)).