Job Satisfaction And Motivation

A PRELUDE TO JOB SATISFACTION

Employee job satisfaction and retention has always been an issue to debate with regards to achieving a high level of productivity within an organization. Job satisfaction is best defined as a set of feelings and emotions employees associate with their work. It is an attitude which is inversely related to behaviors such as absenteeism and staff turnover.

In theory, an organization with employees that display behaviors of high absenteeism and turnover as a result of low levels of job satisfaction would usually suffer from higher recruitment and retraining cost that will impair profitability. Sadly, most organizations till today have failed to make job satisfaction a top management priority; this phenomenon is attributed to the failure to identify the significant benefits an organization would enjoy just by manipulating an attitude. Satisfied employees tend to be more productive and committed to work and their employers. Organizations that can create work environments that attract, motivate and retain hard-working individuals will be better positioned to succeed in a competitive business industry. For the purpose of this paper, I would like to highlight a key motivational theory that organizations could apply to achieve high sustainable level of job satisfaction among its employees.

MOTIVATION - A HERZBERG'S THEORY

Motivation refers to forces within an individual that account for the level, direction, and persistence of effort expended at work (Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn, 1997). In the late 1950s, one of the pioneers of motivation theories, (Frederick Herzberg, 1968) created the Herzberg Theory which places emphasis on two facets of job motivation: hygiene and motivational factors. Hygiene issues as one of the facets can only minimize dissatisfaction and not motivate employees if managed correctly and vice versa. In a practical context, hygiene factors are issues related to the work environment such as remuneration, company policies, interpersonal relations between colleagues and work surroundings. Motivational factors, on the other hand, are represented by an individual's need for self-esteem and personal growth. At work, they are usually issues related to recognition, meaningful work, responsibility and career progression. Figure 1 shown on page 2 represents the Herzberg's Theory in the form of a spectrum which basically depicts the need for hygiene factors to be managed before motivators can be addressed to promote job satisfaction and ultimately enhance productivity (Herzberg, 1993).

FIGURE 1 - HERZBERG'S THEORY (Herzberg, 1993)

INCREASING JOB SATISFACTION - A MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE

Having discussed Herzberg's Theory in general, let us discuss how management can put this theory into practice so as to achieve a higher level of job satisfaction among employees.

Hygiene factors as described by (Griffin. and Moorhead., 2007),although are not the actual source of satisfaction, they are foundations to building a work environment where motivation and job satisfaction are even possible. Let us look at how management can address the various hygiene factors effectively.

Companies Policies and Guidelines

Policies and guidelines are necessary in every organization so as to maintain a certain degree of conformity and standard. However, they can be a source of dissatisfaction for employees if they are ambiguous, overly rigid or not everyone is required to comply with it (Preferential Treatment). Management should seek to decrease dissatisfaction by ensuring policies are fair, justifiable and applicable to all. Practically, written standard operating procedures manuals (SOP) should be disseminated to all staff to facilitate easy communication and compliance of policies. An example would be staff handbooks that are handed out to new hires during their orientation and a company's intranet site where policies and guidelines are updated regularly and emails send out to staff to notify them of such updates. Lastly, company policies should also be less rigid and take on a much more humanistic approach where feedbacks from staff should be addressed if viable.

Remuneration

Most employees would want a remuneration package that's skewed in favor of them. Management should therefore compensate employees at least close to industry averages or what employees deem is fair, else they will be dissatisfied at their jobs. On a practical note, management should conduct remuneration surveys to ascertain whether the salaries and fringe benefits offered by them are comparable to those of other rival firms operating in the same environment. In addition, it is also necessary to establish and communicate guideline and policies pertaining to bonuses and raises to keep employees' expectations in line with reality and keep levels of dissatisfaction to its minimal. A good approach would be to under-promise and over-deliver.

Supervision

Supervision is one of the hygiene factors that is extremely difficult to manage. To successfully decrease dissatisfaction in this area, it is imperative that the manager or supervisor appointed is one that has strong leadership skills as well as interpersonal skills. One example of a good manager would be one that communicates effectively with his/her subordinates to establish a continuous employee evaluation and feedback process so that employees would have proximity of their performance and not be left feeling isolated. An interesting view taken on supervision is that if an individual is a person with great leadership abilities, he/she may become a source of motivation rather than just part of a hygiene factor.

Interpersonal Relations

Interpersonal relations is the interactive communication and social prospects that forms part of the overall employment experience. Management should take steps to ensure that employees are given a reasonable amount of time in informal channel such as the grapevine (e.g., over lunch and coffee breaks) to socialize and mingle with their counterparts (Blanchard, and Hersey, 1993). Although this will help employees develop a sense of solidarity and teamwork, management must be wary of negative rumors that might be communicated through the grapevine and implement measures to curb it. Management should also crack down on employees who are rude, politicks and display behaviors inconsistent with the organization's culture as they are highly disruptive and generates high level of dissatisfaction;