Job Satisfaction

Thesis Statements: Attitude and Job Satisfaction: A worker attitude towards work is directly linked to the job satisfaction; a worker who is satisfied with his job performs better and excels at what he does. It is therefore imperative for a company to understand the attitude of its workers and measure the job satisfaction of its employees, as job satisfaction is essential for productivity. Introduction Worker attitude and job satisfaction deals with how an organization behaves. It involves the management directing employees into improving organizational and personal effectiveness.

It plays an enormous role in determining the attitudes of employees and their job satisfaction. When an employee is happy, it is usually because they are satisfied with their work. This also improves the quality of their work. Attitude and job satisfaction may not fall completely on the management but also on the employees. If employees enjoy their work, they will not need external motivation from management, but instead the satisfaction they attain from completing their work will motivate them (Robbins, 2004). Job satisfaction is an individual’s contentment with their work.

Its effect on productivity is either positive or negative. The relationship between job satisfaction and job productivity is however not consistent. An individual may still obtain high job productivity without having the satisfaction in the work. This happens mostly when money is their motivation. Another motivator is improving in his or her work in order to receive a promotion. Other employees may increase their productivity due to the satisfaction they get from their work. A reason for job satisfaction may also come from an employee getting a good salary.

It improves job satisfaction as long as an employee has knowledge of the fact that they get fair payment for their efforts at the end of the day. Job satisfaction has an effect on an individual’s satisfaction with life. If an employee does not get satisfaction in their work, they may seek for satisfaction in other work unrelated areas. This provides fulfillment and balance in their life. He or she may also be content with work as it relates with those work unrelated areas. Job dissatisfaction may also cause an employee to quit (Robbins, 2004). How Workers Attitude and Job Satisfaction Affect Their Work.

An employee’s attitude towards authority may affect his or her relationship with management. Negative attitude towards authority will cause clashes in the work place. Psychology is another reason that affects an individual’s attitude. Another reason for a negative attitude towards authority is jealous for their position. This attitude affects job productivity in a negative way. If the workers attitude is a negative one so is their ability to produce positive results. Worker attitude and job satisfaction are two factors that affect a company’s productivity.

There are different issues that affect worker attitude and job satisfaction either in a negative or positive way. These issues include the management, employee, sociology, communication, culture, and work environment. Management Role The management’s style of leading plays a huge role in worker attitude and job production. Empowerment is one factor that can motivate better productivity. If the management gives an employee opportunity to work according to their own standards, preferred that these standards measure up to those of the company, job productivity will increase.

Human empowerment is satisfactory to every individual. Self-satisfaction leads to job satisfaction. We also have strategic planning by management. This is crucial when dealing with influencing job productivity. An example of a way to motivate employees is the management offering them opportunities for promotions and pay rise negotiations. This will encourage job productivity since employees will want to receive these rewards (Jackson, 2002). Organizational objectives also affect how the management relates with the employees.

If the organizational goal is to achieve a certain percentage of profit in a business year, then it will exert pressure on the employees to increase productivity. Positive influence is not the only way to ensure an increase in productivity. Some organizations offer contracts that clear states the amount of productivity needed from employees. This is in the case of sales and marketing where a sales representative needs to achieve a target on a certain deadline. This may mount pressure on the employees and in turn affect their job satisfaction. In some cases, the management is not as strict with the employees.

The problem with this is that the employees might eventually relax on the job. An organization may also decide to add more working days depending on their goals. Complying with such a decision is hard and it may leave the employees bitter and resentful towards management. This attitude will affect job productivity, as the employees will arrive to work with no motivation. Another factor in work attitude is time away from work. Apart from free time on the weekend, which is compulsory according to work ethics, employees need to take time off from work. This normally is the leave period (Jackson, 2002).

Employee Role Some individuals choose professions that they like while others end up in their profession due to pressure. Pressure may come from the need to make money or a parent or guardian deciding on what their kids will do. When one chooses something they love doing or has an interest in, then they are content and happy about what they do. Love for a profession encourages a positive attitude. This is all the motivation employees need when it comes to productivity. A happy employee is a productive employee. When an employee loves what they are doing, they attain job satisfaction.

This automatically affects productivity in a positive way. Productivity however suffers with negative employees who only work to make money. Their aim is to increase their productivity in order to get more money but this eventually makes them stressful and bitter. Since they have no interest in the work, satisfaction is hard for them to achieve. This is another form of motivation but is not sufficient. The two major ways for employees to improve, productivity in their professional areas is the . Employees need ways to relieve their stress if they want to improve their work attitude and productivity.

Work related stress is common among most employees. This is especially by employees that do not experience any job satisfaction from their work. Stress is something that may lead to more serious illnesses. This lowers productivity from the absence of employees in the work place. Stress is relieved by taking breaks from work, exercising, socializing with friends, and having fun. Psychological development is also another factor that affects attitude. Since psychology is what determines human behavior, it affects how we react and relate with others.

Every one of us reacts differently to different situations. An example is when management is brutally honest about an employees work, some may take it is a warning to do better others may take it as criticism and give up. This depends on how an individual makes decisions. External factors such as the family, relationships, financial status are a few of other things that also affect the employees’ attitude. A healthy employee is a productive employee and a happy one. Social Role Our social behavior affects our work. This is in regard to introverts and extroverts.

An introvert will not easily socialize with people. This affects their performance in a situation that needs teamwork. Teamwork requires all individuals to communicate with each other. If employees cannot work well together, it affects productivity. A company that encourages teamwork experiences higher productivity. Extroverts are aggressive people and some people may try to avoid them. Relationships in the work place affects attitudes and in turn productivity. If employees have a close relationship with each other, employees work well together and their attitudes improve as well.

An improvement in attitude improves job productivity and satisfaction. In order to improve this relationship, some organizations encourage team building by dedicating a few days for members to socialize. This is through encouraging games in this sessions or providing projects for them to do. Interaction between employees helps them know each other better and beyond the work place. It improves their relationship and attitude towards each other (Edwards, 2004). Social role also involves the relationship between employees and management. In most organizations, this relationship is usually strictly professional.

The only time the two interact is while it involves work. This is a way for the management to ensure that they have an upper hand towards the employees. This may lead to employees withdrawing from the management due to fear. Fear affects productivity, as the employee cannot approach the management if he/she is having trouble. They may imagine that the management will see this as a weakness. A good relationship is one where the management associates with its employees openly. Respect is the only thing that needs establishment between the two. This way, it is easy for employees to approach the management.

A good relationship will improve employee productivity by improving their attitude and encouraging job satisfaction. Another social factor is competition. This is due to human nature to prove themselves. Employees may compete amongst each other for appraisal or a chance to grab an available higher position. This is a way for productivity to improve. Their attitude will depend on whether the competition is a healthy or an unhealthy one. An unhealthy one will lead to stress (Edwards, 2004). Communication Communication is how information transmits between the management and employees or between the employees themselves.

Employees need to be free with the management in order to approach them when they are having trouble. Good communication has a positive effect on the employee’s job satisfaction. When all their needs a met, they can easily perform their duties efficiently. This increases job productivity and in turn improves the workers attitude. Communication is also important between employees. Employees need to maintain a good relationship with each other in order to communicate efficiently. Respect is an important factor in communication. In every organization, respect needs to drive how they communicate.

A good way to implement communication between management and employees is by planning meetings. These meetings should allow employees to ask questions and express their opinion. Management should ask employees for their input and suggestions in matters concerning them. This will make the employees feel even more part of the organization. It will improve the relationship of everyone in the organization. Good communication leads to a good relationship that in turn improves employee attitude and job productivity (Mitchell). Culture The differences in culture affects people’s attitude.

Different cultures have different practice. Some cultures do not allow their employees to work for certain amounts of hours. This may affect an individual if a transfer occurs and they get to a work situation that encourages more working hours. He/she will develop a negative attitude towards work. In some cultures, individuals are risk takers. They enjoy doing things beyond their capabilities. They attain satisfaction both in life and in work. There is no better motivation to improve their job productivity than this. In others, employees are hardworking. Their attitude towards work is usually a positive one (Jackson, 2002).

Work environment A positive work environment improves on employee attitude. This depends on other employees, the management and the available resources. If an organization takes care of their employees by providing all needed resources, then their productivity will improve. Job productivity increases a business performance and profits, which in turn ensures that employees receive their salary frequently. When the business performs well then the employees are happy. A good performance in the organization gives the employees a positive attitude that improves their individual performance.

As long as the employees are happy and performing, job productivity will increase. Job satisfaction improves employee’s relationships with customers. A good working relationship such as that one will increase on the sales of goods and services. Some company’s offer their employees bonuses especially during the holidays. This acts as an encouragement to the workers and improves their relationship with management. In departments such as sales and marketing, employee’s performance can improve if given bonuses or commission when they bring in more sales clients.

With this knowledge, the employee’s performance is sure to improve drastically (Edwards, 2004). Conclusion The duty of management and the employee in improving workers attitude is debatable. Some may argue that it is up to the employee to ensure that they attain job satisfaction from their work, as they are the only ones in control of their attitude and performance. It is also possible to say that all the responsibility is entirely the managements. They decide on the nature of the environment in which the employee works.

The management holds the power to control employee salary, off time and promotion. External factors such as the environment, social situations, and culture also affect worker attitude and job satisfaction. In my opinion, it is up to both the parties to decide on worker attitude and job satisfaction. If you need professional research paper help you can buy custom papers online at CustomWritings. com – online research paper writing service. Tags: Job Satisfaction research paperresearch paper on Worker AttitudeWorker attitude and job satisfaction essayWorker attitude and job satisfaction term paper

|VALUES, ATTITUDES, AND JOB SATISFACTION | LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this chapter, students should be able to: 1. Contrast terminal and instrumental values 2. List the dominant values in today’s workforce 3. Identify the five value dimensions of national culture 4. Contrast the three components of an attitude 5. Summarize the relationship between attitudes and behavior 6. Identify the role that consistency plays in attitudes 7. State the relationship between job satisfaction and behavior 8.

Identify four employee responses to dissatisfaction CHAPTER OVERVIEW Why is it important to know an individual’s values? Although they do not have a direct impact on behavior, values strongly influence a person’s attitudes. Knowledge of an individual’s value system can provide insight into his/her attitudes. Given that people’s values differ, managers can use the Rokeach Value Survey to assess potential employees and determine if their values align with the dominant values of the organization. An employee’s performance and satisfaction are likely to be higher if his/her values fit well with the organization.

For instance, the person who places high importance on imagination, independence, and freedom is likely to be poorly matched with an organization that seeks conformity from its employees. Managers are more likely to appreciate, evaluate positively, and allocate rewards to employees who “fit in,” and employees are more likely to be satisfied if they perceive that they do fit. This argues for management to strive during the selection of new employees to find job candidates who not only have the ability, experience, and motivation to perform, but also a value system that is ompatible with the organization’s. Managers should be interested in their employees’ attitudes because attitudes give warnings of potential problems and because they influence behavior. Satisfied and committed employees, for instance, have lower rates of turnover and absenteeism. Given that managers want to keep resignations and absences down—especially among their more productive employees—they will want to do those things that will generate positive job attitudes.

Managers should also be aware that employees will try to reduce cognitive dissonance. More importantly, dissonance can be managed. If employees are required to engage in activities that appear inconsistent to them or are at odds with their attitudes, the pressures to reduce the resulting dissonance are lessened when the employee perceives that the dissonance is externally imposed and is beyond his/her control or if the rewards are significant enough to offset the dissonance. WEB EXERCISES

At the end of each chapter of this instructor’s manual, you will find suggested exercises and ideas for researching the WWW on OB topics. The exercises “Exploring OB Topics on the Web” are set up so that you can simply photocopy the pages, distribute them to your class, make assignments accordingly. You may want to assign the exercises as an out-of-class activity or as lab activities with your class. Within the lecture notes the graphic will note that there is a WWW activity to support this material.

The chapter opens introducing Marge Savage, a Microsoft marketing analyst who is gathering information about the “Nexters” generation—people born after 1977. They are the first group of people to never know a world without computers and the Internet. She found that this group values integrity, teamwork, moral support, responsibility, and freedom to pursue their dreams. They want to work for a company that supports their needs, and where they can have significant influence in shaping society.

They see technology and the Internet as a major force for changing the world—good news for Microsoft. CHAPTER OUTLINE |Values |Notes: | |Values represent basic convictions that “a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or | | |socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence. | | | | | |There is a judgmental element of what is right, good, or desirable. | | | | | |Values have both content and intensity attributes. | | | | |The content attribute says that a mode of conduct or end-state of existence is important. | | |The intensity attribute specifies how important it is. | | |Ranking an individual’s values in terms of their intensity equals that person’s value system. | | | | |Values are not generally fluid and flexible. They tend to be relatively stable and enduring. | | | | | |A significant portion of the values we hold is established in our early years—from parents, teachers, friends, | | |and others. | |The process of questioning our values, of course, may result in a change, but more often, our questioning acts | | |to reinforce the values we hold. | | |A. Importance of Values | | |1.

Values lay the foundation for the understanding of attitudes and motivation because they influence our | | |perceptions. | | | | | |2. Individuals enter organizations with notions of what is right and wrong with which they interpret behaviors| | |or outcomes—at times this can cloud objectivity and rationality. | | | | |3. Values generally influence attitudes and behavior. | | |B. Types of Values | | |1.

Rokeach Value Survey (Exhibit 3-1) | | | | | |It consists of two sets of values, with each set containing 18 individual value items. | | |One set—terminal values—refers to desirable end-states of existence, the goals that a person would like to | | |achieve during his/her lifetime. | |The other—instrumental values—refers to preferable modes of behavior, or means of achieving the terminal values. | | | | | | | | |2. Several studies confirm that the RVS values vary among groups. | | | | |People in the same occupations or categories tend to hold similar values. | | |Contemporary Work Cohorts | | |1.

The unique value of different cohorts is that the U. S. workforce can be segmented by the era they entered | | |the workforce. (Exhibit 3-3) | | |Contemporary Work Cohorts (cont. ) |Notes: | |2.

Veterans—Workers who entered the workforce from the early 1940s through the early 1960s | | |Influenced by the Great Depression and World War II | | |Believe in hard work | | |Tend to be loyal to their employer | | |Terminal values: Comfortable life and family security | | | | | |3. Boomers—Employees who entered the workforce during the 1960s through the mid-1980s | | | | | |Influenced heavily by John F.

Kennedy, the civil rights and feminist movements, the Beatles, the Vietnam War, | | |and baby-boom competition | | |Distrust authority, but have a high emphasis on achievement and material success | | |Organizations who employ them are vehicles for their careers | | |Terminal values: sense of accomplishment and social recognition | | | | | |4.

Xers—began to enter the workforce from the mid-1980s | | | | | |Shaped by globalization, two-career parents, MTV, AIDS, and computers | | |Value flexibility, life options, and achievement of job satisfaction | | |Family and relationships are important and enjoy team-oriented work | | |Money is important, but will trade off for increased leisure time | | |Less willing to make personal sacrifices for employers than previous generations | | |Terminal values: true friendship, happiness, and pleasure | | | | | |5. Nexters—most recent entrants into the workforce. | | | | |Grew up in prosperous times, have high expectation, believe in themselves, and confident in their ability to | | |succeed | | |Never-ending search for ideal job; see nothing wrong with job-hopping | | |Seek financial success | | |Enjoy team work, but are highly self-reliant | | |Terminal values: freedom and comfortable life | | | | | |Individuals’ values differ, but tend to reflect the societal values of the period in which they grew up. This | | |can be a valuable aid in explaining and predicting behavior. Employees in their 60s, for instance, are more | | |likely to accept authority than coworkers 15 years younger. | | | | | |7. Workers under 35 are more likely than the other groups to balk at having to work overtime or weekends, | | |and are more prone to leave a job in mid-career to pursue another that provides more leisure time. | | | | OB IN THE NEWS – American Workers Rethink Priorities Values are relatively permanent, but dramatic shocks can realign them. For example, the terrorists’ attacks on September 11 may have significantly reprioritized many Americans’ values. The initial response to the terrorist attacks for many people was a reevaluation of choices related to jobs, family, and career success. In some cases, this led to a rethinking of career paths, cutting back on grueling schedules, and deciding to pursue work that might pay less but seem more meaningful.

For instance, in California, young workers who once talked of dot-com millions are now asking: “Is it worth it? ” Some employees appear less concerned about putting in face time, making deadlines, and getting on the fast track. They seem more concerned about family and worry less about time at the office. CEOs say some of their employees are talking more earnestly about work/life balance, mortality, and other questions once considered taboo in the office. Said one consultant, “The event de-emphasized what most people value—the money and the luxuries. People are questioning what’s really important; they’re questioning work. It’s happening across the board. ” It has now been more than a year since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D. C.

That provides a more meaningful perspective on whether this event has had long-term implications on workplace values, or whether any reprioritizing was merely a knee-jerk reaction to a traumatic event, followed by a return to “business as usual. ” Do you think a significant portion of Americans have permanently reprioritized their values as a result of 9-11? Class Exercise: 1. Have students break into small groups to discuss the question: “Do you think a significant portion of Americans have permanently reprioritized their values as a result of 9-11? ” Ask them to list examples of why or why not they think the way they do. 2. As a class, share what was discussed in the small groups. 3. Ask if they think America’s values have changed, or were they just reawakened? 4.

Ask if they think organizations’ values have changed or reprioritized as a result of the events. 5. Ask them to relate this question to themselves. Have they reprioritized their lives as a result of the 9-11 events? (They may not want to share this information with the entire class—its purpose is just to get them thinking. ) |A. Values, Loyalty, and Ethical Behavior |Notes: | |Many people think there has been a decline in business ethics since the late 1970s. The four-stage model of | | |work cohort values might explain this perception. Exhibit 3-2) | | | | | |Managers consistently report the action of bosses as the most important factor influencing ethical and unethical| | |behavior in the organization. | | | | | |Through the mid-1970s, the managerial ranks were dominated by Veterans whose loyalty was to their employer; | | |their decisions were made in terms of what was best for the employer. | | | | |Boomers entered the workforce at this time and by the 1990’s had risen into the majority of management | | |positions. Loyalty was to their careers. Self-centered values would be consistent with a decline in ethical | | |values. Did this really happen? | | | | | |Recent entrants to the workforce—Xers—are now moving into middle management. Loyalty is to relationships, | | |therefore they may be more likely to consider the ethical implications of their actions on others around them. | |

Instructor Note: At this point in the lecture you may want to introduce the Ethical Dilemma: Is it a Bribe or a Gift? Exercise found in the text. The purpose of the exercise is to provide the opportunity for students to understand that ethical situations are not always black or white and must be given consideration as business decisions are made. |B. Values Across Cultures |Notes: | |Values differ across cultures, therefore, understanding these differences helps to explain and to predict | | |behavior of employees from different countries.

One of the most widely referenced approaches for analyzing | | |variations among cultures has been done by Geert Hofstede. | | | | | |Hofstede’s A framework for assessing cultures; five value dimensions of national culture (Exhibit 3-4): | | | | | |a.

Power distance: | | | | | |The degree to which people in a country accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed | | |unequally. | | | | | |Individualism versus collectivism: | | | | |Individualism is the degree to which people in a country prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of | | |groups. | | |Collectivism equals low individualism. | | | | | |Quantity of life versus quality of life: | | | | | |Quantity of life is the degree to which values such as assertiveness, the acquisition of money and material | | |goods, and competition prevail. | |Quality of life is the degree to which people value relationships and show sensitivity and concern for the | | |welfare of others. | | | | | |Uncertainty avoidance: | | | | | |The degree to which people in a country prefer structured over unstructured situations. | | | | |Long-term versus short-term orientation: | | | | | |Long-term orientations look to the future and value thrift and persistence. | | |Short-term orientation values the past and present and emphasizes respect for tradition and fulfilling social | | |obligations. | | | | |Conclusions: | | | | | |Asian countries were more collectivist than individualistic. US ranked highest on individualism. German and | | |Hong Kong ranked highest on quality of life; Russia and The Netherlands were low. China and Hong Kong had a | | |long-term orientation; France and US were low. | | | | |3. Hofstede’s work is the basic framework for assessing cultures. However, it is nearly 30 years old. In | | |1993, the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) has begun updating this research | | |with date from 825 organizations and 62 countries. | | | | | |a.

GLOBE Framework for Assessing Cultures: | | | | | |Assertiveness: The extent to which a society encourages people to be tough, confrontational, assertive, and | | |competitive versus modest and tender | | | | |Future Orientation: The extent to which a society encourages and rewards future-oriented behaviors such as | | |planning, investing in the future and delaying gratification | | | | | |Gender differentiation: The extent to which a society maximized gender role differences | | |Values Across Cultures (cont. |Notes: | | | | |Uncertainly avoidance: Society’s reliance on social norms and procedures to alleviate the unpredictability of | | |future events | | | | | |Power distance: The degree to which members of a society expect power to be unequally shared | | | | | |Individualism/Collectivism: The degree to which individuals are encouraged by societal institutions to be | | |integrated into groups within organizations and society | | | | | |In-group collectivism: The extent to which society’s members take pride in membership in small groups such as | | |their families and circles of close friends, and the organizations where they are employed | | | | | Performance orientation: The degree to which society encourages and rewards group members for performance | | |improvement and excellence | | | | | |Humane orientation: The degree to which a society encourages and rewards individuals for being fair, | | |altruistic, generous, caring, and kind to others | | | | | |b. Conclusion: The GLOBE study had extended Hofstede’s work rather than replaced it. It confirms Hofstede’s | | |five dimensions are still valid and provides updated measures of where countries are on each dimension. For | | |example, the U. S. in the 70s led the world in individualism—today, it is in the mid-ranks of countries. | |

Instructor Note: At this point in the lecture you may want to introduce the Team Exercise: Challenges in Negotiating with Chinese Executives found in the text. The purpose of this exercise is to give the students an opportunity to develop awareness of how to effectively work with another culture when doing business. |C. Implications for OB | | |Americans have developed organizational behavior within domestic contexts—more than 80 percent of the articles | | |published in journals were by Americans. | | | | |Follow-up studies continue to confirm the lack of cross-cultural considerations in management and OB research. | | |From a cultural perspective this means: | | | | | |Not all OB theories and concepts are universally applicable. | |You should take into consideration cultural values when trying to understand the behavior of people in different| | |countries. | | |Attitudes | | |Attitudes are evaluative statements that are either favorable or unfavorable concerning objects, people, or | | |events. | | | | | |Attitudes are not the same as values, but the two are interrelated. | | | | |Three components of an attitude: | | | | | |Cognition | | |Affect | | |Behavior | | | | |The belief that “discrimination is wrong” is a value statement and an example of the cognitive component of an | | |attitude. | | |Attitudes (cont. ) |Notes: | |Value statements set the stage for the more critical part of an attitude—its affective component. Affect is the | | |emotional or feeling segment of an attitude. Example: “I don’t like Jon because he discriminates again | | |minorities. | | | | | |The behavioral component of an attitude refers to an intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or | | |something. Example: “I chose to avoid Jon because he discriminates. ” | | | | | |Viewing attitudes as made up of three components helps with understanding of the potential relationship between | | |attitudes and behavior, however, when we refer to attitude essentially we mean the affect part of the three | | |components. | | | | |In contrast to values, your attitudes are less stable. Advertisements are directed at changing your attitudes | | |and are often successful. | | | | | |In organizations, attitudes are important because they affect job behavior. | | |A. Types of Attitudes | | |OB focuses our attention on a very limited number of job-related attitudes.

Most of the research in OB has been |Notes: | |concerned with three attitudes: job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment. | | | | | |Job satisfaction | | | | | |Definition: It is an individual’s general attitude toward his/her job. | | | | |A high level of job satisfaction equals positive attitudes toward the job and vice versa. | | | | | |Employee attitudes and job satisfaction are frequently used interchangeably. | | | | | |Often when people speak of “employee attitudes” they mean “employee job satisfaction. | | | | | |Job involvement | | | | | |A workable definition: the measure of the degree to which a person identifies psychologically with his/her job | | |and considers his/her perceived performance level important to self-worth. | | | | | |High levels of job involvement is thought to result in fewer absences and lower resignation rates. | | | | | |Job involvement more consistently predicts turnover than absenteeism. | | | | |Organizational commitment | | | | | |Definition: A state in which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals, and wishes to| | |maintain membership in the organization. | | | | |Research evidence demonstrates negative relationships between organizational commitment and both absenteeism and| | |turnover. | | | | | |An individual’s level of organizational commitment is a better indicator of turnover than the far more | | |frequently used job satisfaction predictor because it is a more global and enduring response to the organization| | |as a whole than is job satisfaction. | | | | |This evidence, most of which is more than two decades old, needs to be qualified to reflect the changing | | |employee-employer relationship. | | |A. Types of Attitudes (cont. ) |Notes: | |Organizational commitment is probably less important as a job-related attitude than it once was because the | | |unwritten “loyalty” contract in place when this research was conducted is no longer in place. | | | | |In its place, we might expect “occupational commitment” to become a more relevant variable because it better | | |reflects today’s fluid workforce. | | Instructor Note: At this point in the lecture you may want to introduce the exercise Point-Counter Point: Mangers Can Create Satisfied Employees exercise found in the text. The purpose of the exercise is to replace popularly held notions with research-based conclusions. |B. Attitudes and Consistency |Notes: | |People sometimes change what they say so it does not contradict what they do. | | | | |Research has generally concluded that people seek consistency among their attitudes and between their attitudes | | |and their behavior. | | | | | |Individuals seek to reconcile divergent attitudes and align their attitudes and behavior so they appear rational| | |and consistent. | | | | |When there is an inconsistency, forces are initiated to return the individual to an equilibrium state where | | |attitudes and behavior are again consistent, by altering either the attitudes or the behavior, or by developing | | |a rationalization for the discrepancy. | | |C. Cognitive Dissonance Theory | | |Leon Festinger, in the late 1950s, proposed the theory of cognitive dissonance, seeking to explain the linkage | | |between attitudes and behavior. He argued that any form of inconsistency is uncomfortable and that individuals | | |will attempt to reduce the dissonance. | | | | |Dissonance means “an inconsistency. ” | | | | | |Cognitive dissonance refers to “any incompatibility that an individual might perceive between two or more of | | |his/her attitudes, or between his/her behavior and attitudes. | | | | | |No individual can completely avoid dissonance. | | | | | |The desire to reduce dissonance would be determined by: | | | | | |The importance of the elements creating the dissonance. | | |The degree of influence the individual believes he/she has over the elements. | | |The rewards that may be involved in dissonance. | | | | |Importance: If the elements creating the dissonance are relatively unimportant, the pressure to correct this | | |imbalance will be low. | | | | | |Influence: If the dissonance is perceived as an uncontrollable result, they are less likely to be receptive to | | |attitude change. While dissonance exists, it can be rationalized and justified. | | | | |Rewards: The inherent tension in high dissonance tends to be reduced with high rewards. | | | | | |Moderating factors suggest that individuals will not necessarily move to reduce dissonance—or consistency. | | |C. Cognitive Dissonance Theory (cont. ) |Notes: | |Organizational implications | | | | |Greater predictability of the propensity to engage in attitude and behavioral change | | |The greater the dissonance—after it has been moderated by importance, choice, and rewards factors—the greater | | |the pressures to reduce it. | | |D. Measuring the A-B Relationship | | |Early research on attitudes and common sense assumed a causal relationship to behavior. In the late 1960s, this| | |assumed relationship between attitudes and behavior (A-B) was challenged. Recent research has demonstrated that| | |attitudes significantly predict future behavior. | | | | |The most powerful moderators: | | | | | |Importance | | |Specificity | | |Accessibility | | |Social pressures | | |Direct experience | | | | | |Importance: Reflects fundamental values, self-interest, or identification with individuals or groups that a | | |person values. | | | | | |Specificity: The more specific the attitude and the more specific the behavior, the stronger the link between | | |the two. | | | | |Accessibility: Attitudes that are easily remembered are more likely to predict behavior than attitudes that are | | |not accessible in memory. | | | | | |Social pressures: Discrepancies between attitudes and behavior are more likely to occur where social pressures | | |to behave in certain ways hold exceptional power. | | | | |Direct experience: The attitude-behavior relationship is likely to be much stronger if an attitude refers to an | | |individual’s direct personal experience. | | |E. Self-perception theory | | |Researchers have achieved still higher correlations by pursuing whether or not behavior influences attitudes. | | | | |Self-perception theory argues that attitudes are used to make sense out of an action that has already occurred | | |rather than devices that precede and guide action. Example: I’ve had this job for 10 years, no one has forced | | |me to stay, so I must like it! | | | | | |Contrary to cognitive dissonance theory, attitudes are just casual verbal statements; they tend to create | | |plausible answers for what has already occurred. | | | | |While the traditional attitude-behavior relationship is generally positive, the behavior-attitude relationship | | |is stronger particularly when attitudes are vague and ambiguous or little thought has been given to it | | |previously. | | |An Application: Attitude Surveys | | |The most popular method for getting information about employee attitudes is through attitude surveys. See | | |Exhibit 3-5) | | | | | |Using attitude surveys on a regular basis provides managers with valuable feedback on how employees perceive | | |their working conditions. Managers present the employee with set statements or questions to obtain specific | | |information. | | | | |Policies and practices that management views as objective and fair may be seen as inequitable by employees in | | |general or by certain groups of employees and can lead to negative attitudes about the job and the organization. | | | | | |Employee behaviors are often based on perceptions, not reality. Often employees do not have objective data from | | |which to base their perceptions. | | | | |The use of regular attitude surveys can alert management to potential problems and employees’ intentions early | | |so that action can be taken to prevent repercussions. | | |G. Attitudes and Workforce Diversity | | |A survey of U. S. organizations with 100 or more employees found that 47 percent or so of them sponsored some | | |sort of diversity training. | | | | |These diversity programs include a self-evaluation phase where people are pressed to examine themselves and to | | |confront ethnic and cultural stereotypes they might hold. This is followed by discussion with people from | | |diverse groups. | | | | | |Additional activities designed to change attitudes nclude arranging for people to do volunteer work in | | |community or social service centers in order to meet face to face with individuals and groups from diverse | | |backgrounds, and using exercises that let participants feel what it is like to be different. | | |Job Satisfaction | | |Measuring Job Satisfaction | | |Job satisfaction is “an individual’s general attitude toward his/her job. | | | | | |Jobs require interaction with co-workers and bosses, following organizational rules and policies, meeting | | |performance standards, living with working conditions that are often less than ideal, and the like. This means | | |that an employee’s assessment of how satisfied or dissatisfied he or she is with his/her job is a complex | | |summation of a number of discrete job elements. | | | | |The two most widely used approaches are a single global rating and a summation score made up of a number of job | | |facets. | | | | | |a. The single global rating method is nothing more than asking individuals to respond to one question, such as| | |“All things considered, how satisfied are you with your job? | | |Measuring Job Satisfaction (cont. ) |Notes: | | A summation of job facets is more sophisticated: | | | | | |It identifies key elements in a job and asks for the employee’s feelings about each one ranked on a standardized| | |scale. | | | | |Typical factors that would be included are the nature of the work, supervision, present pay, promotion | | |opportunities, and relations with co-workers. | | | | | |Comparing these approaches, simplicity seems to work as well as complexity. Comparisons of one-question global | | |ratings with the summation-of-job-factors method indicate both are valid. | |How Satisfied Are People in Their Jobs? | | |Most people are satisfied with their jobs in the developed countries surveyed. | | | | | |However, there has been a decline in job satisfaction since the early 1990s. In the US nearly an eight percent | | |drop in the 90s. Surprisingly those last years were one’s of growth and economic expansion. | | | | |What factors might explain the decline despite growth: | | | | | |Increased productivity through heavier employee workloads and tighter deadlines | | |Employees feeling they have less control over their work | | | | | |While some segments of the market are more satisfied than others, they tend to be higher paid, higher skilled | | |jobs which gives workers more control and challenges. | | Instructor Note: At this point in the lecture you may want to introduce the exercise found in the MYTH OR SCIENCE: How Satisfied Are People in Their Jobs? box found in the text.

The purpose of the exercise is to replace popularly held notions with research-based conclusions. MYTH OR SCIENCE? – “Happy Workers Are Productive Workers” This statement is generally false. The myth that “happy workers are productive workers” developed in the 1930s and 1940s, due to the Hawthorne studies at Western Electric. A careful review of the research indicates that, if there is a positive relationship between happiness (i. e. , satisfaction) and productivity, the correlations are low; no more than two percent of the variance in output can be accounted for by employee satisfaction. The evidence, however, is for the reverse—productive workers are likely to be happy workers.

That is, productivity leads to satisfaction rather than the other way around. If the organization rewards productivity, these rewards, in turn, increase your level of satisfaction with the job. Class Exercise 1. Brainstorm with students about situations where they knew workers/employees were unhappy with the company or their jobs, but still did a reasonably good job. Perhaps have them share insights into their own feelings about their school, or a particular class they disliked but still tried very hard. 2. Discuss why someone who is unhappy with his/her job might work hard at it and do good work. 3. Why would someone who is happy with his/her job not perform at a higher level than the disgruntled worker? 4.

Students should come to realize that most effort comes from internal drive, not external motivation. As a result, a highly internally motivated individual might perform well in any circumstance whereas his/her organizational environment would not positively affect a non-internally motivated individual. |C. The Effect of Job Satisfaction on Employee Performance |Notes: | |Managers’ interest in job satisfaction tends to center on its effect on employee performance. Much research has| | |been done on the impact of job satisfaction on employee productivity, absenteeism, and turnover. | | | | |Satisfaction and productivity:

1. Introduction Analysis of the article, we have a certain understanding of the Repairing Jobs That fail to Satisfy. The report focuses on how DrainFlow can improve in three areas: job structure, incentive structure, and hiring practices. The main contents include an introduction to the problems DrainFlow is encountering, analyses of the current business, and recommendations on how DrainFlow can overcome these issues to foster a long-term competitive advantage. Goal and Recommendations

The goal of this proposal is to provide recommendations for a new job structure, a new incentive structure, and new hiring practices. The job structure recommendations will allow for more cross training between office workers and service providers. This will enrich all jobs at DrainFlow by adding different tasks, autonomy, and feedback. The new incentive structure will allow for flexible benefits and recognition. This is designed to motivate employees and improve customer service. Lastly, the new hiring practices will provide a repeatable solution for finding a cohesive set of new employees. . Satisfaction The job characteristics model offers such a framework. It identifies five primary job characteristics, interrelationship, and impact on employee productivity, motivation, and satisfaction. (Hakman, Lawler, 1994) The present system of job design may be contribution to employee dissatisfaction; the most important reason is from the interrelationship, according the figure from the essay, we can know the lowest satisfaction parts are the interactions with the employees’ supervisor and the company asked them to do the work.

Therefore, after our group analysis we think the important with employees’ dissatisfaction of reasons are the interactions and motivation problems. Frome the essay we know DrainFlow company’s employees working in four basic jobs categories, plumbers, plumber’s assistants, order processors, and bulling representatives. That is a very good team to make the response with customer’s demand, all the works division very clearly, through it customer can very quickly get the service from the company, and save a lot of time for the company. However, there has a big defect for this company.

Employees lack of interaction, they just do the work what kind of work belong to them and do not care about other employees’ work, because the employees just want to finish the work and take the wages, the work’s wages are same no matter with the customers feel satisfaction or not. It is not very good for the company to development, so our group suggest add the rewards system to increase the employees’ motivation. For example when the employees after service if the customer feel dissatisfaction they can make a call to the DrainFlow Company which employees make them feel dissatisfaction.

The company should record that, and when the employees take the wages, company can follow this record to give the rewards or punish to the employees. According this system the employees will have to motivation to better cooperation with co-workers and feel more satisfaction with works. 3. Data Analysis Job Structure and Organizational Design It is evident from the Original Survey that DrainFlow employees are not satisfied with their jobs Research suggests that this could be a reason for concern. Job dissatisfaction can lead to higher absenteeism, job turnover and workplace deviance which can lead to decreased levels of productivity.

Satisfied employees are more likely to talk positively about the organization, help others, and go beyond the normal expectations of their jobs. Therefore, increased employee satisfaction at DrainFlow can directly affect positive customer outcomes. Satisfied employees increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, which leads to repeat business. All DrainFlow employees work directly with the customer, so it is imperative that DrainFlow take measures to ensure both job satisfaction and customer satisfaction.

DrainFlow’s current organizational structure is designed to keep costs as low as possible. DrainFlow achieves this through specialization of its work force. Plumbers are the most specialized and highly trained and are therefore paid the highest wages. Plumber assistants are paid about one-fourth the salary of a plumber. 4. Incentive Structure There are no rewarding variable-pay programs. Plumbers are compensated the most, based on their high level of skill while the rest of the employees make approximately one-fourth of the plumber’s wage.

The current pay structure may be externally competitive; however, DrainFlow must also look at the internal equity or worth of each job to the organization. With low customer retention and customer satisfaction, DrainFlow may consider paying employees more to meet customer needs. Additionally, high pay often leads to better-qualified, more motivated employees who want to stay with their current organization. DrainFlow must weigh the costs and benefits of a cash rewards system. Financial incentives can have certain negative impacts by fostering unethical behaviors to obtain personal objectives.

These might include, but are not limited to, billing work performed at a lower price to make a sale, offering free parts at company expense and coercing clients into non-complaint and positive review situations. Therefore, a cash rewards system should not be the only basis of DrainFlow’s incentive structure. Renaldo does not mention finding a balance between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Examples of intrinsic rewards include private and public recognition, employee of the month awards, or even a personal thank you note.

Some research shows that while financial incentives provide short-term motivation, intrinsic or nonfinancial rewards motivate long term. This helps employees feel valuable and needed in a dynamic environment and would be valuable in DrainFlow’s incentive structure. 5. Hiring Practices It is imperative in any place of employment to hire individuals suited for specific positions, particularly for positions involving customer service. Organizational structure and clarity is required to ensure that DrainFlow is attracting the right type of potential employees.

Interested candidates must also fully understand company goals and all job responsibilities. Employees hired based on inaccurate perceptions developed during the interview process can result in employees that are unqualified for the position and/or dissatisfied with work. This is the current situation at DrainFlow. Most employees lack training in customer service, organizational behavior and are anxious about speaking with customers. Order processors do not have sufficient knowledge or skill to explain the customer’s situation to DrainFlow Plumbers or Plumber Assistants.

Billing representatives must deal with the negative reactions of dissatisfied customers, however, are only involved at the end of the job process and unaware of any job details. DrainFlow plumbers do not like being in the position of having to deliver the bad news of an unexpectedly high bill to customers. Recommendations 6. Recommendations Firstly,repair workers must adapt to the development of technology requirements, which determines the development of repair industry. Thus the repair workers not only improve their own quality, , the government also should make efforts to improve the quality of workers.

People also need to strengthen the understanding of theory and equipment using Enterprises ought to do a lot of things for personnel training,which can improve the level of the technical. The enterprises regularly hold all kinds of different levels of training to enhance the effect of training and improve the quality of training. Combining with practice, the enterprises continuously strengthen the occupation morals to establish the philosophy of” serve customer,and the quality is the perfect”.

The Big five personality traits has been preferably used,since it is able to measure the customer service responsibilities and emotional labor. The Big Five personality traits are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, andneuroticism. And then let me show you the Big five personality traits in detail,and it contribute much to the customer service responsibilities and emotional labor. Openness to experience –Appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, curiosity, and variety of experience.

Openness reflects the degree of intellectual curiosity, creativity and a preference for novelty and variety. Conscientiousness –. A tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement; planned rather than spontaneous behavior; organized, and dependable. Extraversion –Energy, positive emotions, surgency, assertiveness, sociability and the tendency to seekstimulation in the company of others, and talkativeness. Agreeableness –A tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others.

It is also a measure of ones’ trusting and helpful nature, and whether a person is generally well tempered or not. Neuroticism The tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, orvulnerability. Neuroticism also refers to the degree of emotional stability and impulse control, and is sometimes referred by its low pole – “emotional stability”. 7. Material Incentive Many people think that spiritual incentive effect more long, but sometimes it may only play a short-term effect.

Such as the boss public praise or certificate of an employee, the employee will not only have a sense of pride, will thus germination a pay raise or promotion of desire, because he will recognize as a signal, if only praise without any action, the incentive effect is very difficult to achieve. That is to say spiritual incentive effect also need to consolidate the material incentive. Material incentive is the use of physical means to make inspired by material satisfaction, so as to further mobilize the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity.

Material incentive funds, awards, by satisfies the requirement of production, stimulate their efforts, the motivation to work. Its starting point is to concern the vital interests of the masses, and continuously meet the people’s increasing needs of material and cultural life. Incentive, can ease the staff some particular period inner imbalance. Therefore, to create a motivating employees be enthusiastic and press on the enterprise environment, which has the effect of general material incentives irreplaceable.

Spiritual motivation is intrinsic motivation, means the intangible incentive spirit aspect, including employee empowerment, on their job performance in recognition, fair, open the promotion system, to provide learning and development, further improve their chances, flexible working time system flexible and establish the road occupation career development for everyone characteristics etc.. Spirit encouragement is an intensive, complex and changeable, wide application, far-reaching, it is advocated the spirit of enterprise management by the means of moral education, is the effective way to mobilize staff enthusiasm, initiative and creativity. . Strategy and Implementation To begin the challenging process of improving employee and customer satisfaction while increasing DrainFlow’s profits it is vital that the recommendations that have been presented in this report be implemented in a clear and systematic fashion across the affected departments within DrainFlow and across the various regional locations. The implementation of these recommendations will require the full dedication of upper management at DrainFlow to ensure that the organizational changes as well as process and protocol changes are embraced by all the employees.

Upper Management will be responsible for implementing and monitoring the new job structure, incentive structure and hiring practices outlined in the recommendations. This will be accomplished by introducing the program to all employees and setting their expectations about implementation. Managers must realize that a cultural shift must happen as well which can take time. Change management will be important throughout this process and managers must measure each step of the implementation to make sure it is on track. Success will be measured in four areas: customer satisfaction, customer etention, employee satisfaction, and profit. To measure customer satisfaction, a survey will be given to willing customers to periodically measure their satisfaction. It will ask about different aspects of their service that encompass all types of employees at DrainFlow. Customer retention numbers will also be monitored and computed to track repeat business. Employee satisfaction will be measured against pre-program satisfaction levels. By using the same survey questions as the past survey, managers can better identify trends in the data.

Employees will also be asked to rate the new program and suggest adjustments to better meet company goals. 9. Conclusion The above proposal outlined how DrainFlow can improve in three areas: job structure, incentive structure, and hiring practices. The recommendations are relatively easy to implement at little to no cost to DrainFlow. The proposal utilizes the current talent within the organization to manage employee satisfaction and trains employees on vital technical skills that are currently lacking. A new incentive structure will motivate employees in all positions and foster productivity and customer retention.

Both concepts lead to increased profit long term. Lastly, by modifying hiring practices, DrainFlow will find and train employees that fit with their business model. With the support of LIGHTNING Consulting, DrainFlow will see a positive increase in both employee and customer satisfaction and lasting success in the plumbing industry. 10. Reference 1. Barb Lyon(2012) Satisfaction of employee. Available from: http://managementhelp. org/customers/service. htm [accessed 24th May,2012] 2. Shkurko, S. I. Material’noe stimulirovanie v novykh usloviiakh khoziaistvovaniia.

Moscow, 1970. 3. Moreinis, Ia. I. Fondy ekonomicheskogo stimulirovaniia v promyshlennosti. Moscow, 1974. 4. Miliukov, A. I. Pooshchritel’nye fondy na predpriiatii (Problemy obrazovaniia i ispol’zovaniia). Moscow, 1974. 5. Eloise Linger(1992)’ Behavior and SociJJ/lssl’[online]. Available at: http://www. firstmonday. org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index. php/bsi/article/viewFile/181/2888 [Accessed 2nd Nov,1992] 6. Thomas O. (1995) Why Satisfied Customers Defect. Available from: http://hbr. org/1995/11/why-satisfied-customers-defect/ar/1 [accessed Nov,1995]

There are two types of data collection method use in my project report.

1. Primary data
2. Secondary data.

In primary data the employees were approached directly to know their interest in the job and the satisfaction level being derived by them.

Secondary data collection method was used by referring to various websites, books, magazines, journals and daily newspapers for collecting information regarding project under study.

Introduction

Job satisfaction, a worker’s sense of achievement and success, is generally perceived to be directly linked to productivity as well as to personal wellbeing. Job satisfaction implies doing a job one enjoys, doing it well, and being suitably rewarded for one’s efforts. Job satisfaction further implies enthusiasm and happiness with one’s work Job satisfaction; describes how content an individual is with his or her job. The happier people are within their job, the more satisfied they are said to be. Job satisfaction is not the same as motivation, although it is clearly linked. Job design aims to enhance job satisfaction and performance, methods include job rotation, job enlargement and job enrichment.

Other influences on satisfaction include the management style and culture, employee involvement, empowerment and autonomous work groups. Job satisfaction is a very important attribute which is frequently measured by organizations. The most common way of measurement is the use of rating scales where employees report their reactions to their jobs.Questions relate to rate of pay, work responsibilities, variety of tasks, promotional opportunities the work itself and co-workers. 04 For the organization, job satisfaction of its workers means a work force that is motivated and committed to high quality performance. Increased productivity—the quantity and quality of output per hour worked—seems to be a byproduct of improved quality of working life. It is important to note that the literature on the relationship between job satisfaction and productivity is neither conclusive nor consistent.

However, studies dating back to Herzberg’s (1957) have shown at least low correlation between high morale and high productivity, and it does seem logical that more satisfied workers will tend to add more value to an organization. Unhappy employees, who are motivated by fear of job loss, will not give 100 percent of their effort for very long. Though fear is a powerful motivator, it is also a temporary one, and as soon as the threat is lifted performance will decline. If job satisfaction is a worker benefit, surely the worker must be able to contribute to his or her own satisfaction and well-being on the job.

Companyprofile

Adidas is on the move and always has been: It has had an adventurous history since it first grew out of a family business in Herzogenaurach, Germany in the 1920s. With the hostile separation of two brothers’ interests in the 1940s, nearly going bust in the 1980s and then executing two rescue operations, first by sending production offshore to Asia and then by reinventing itself into a design and marketing company, Adidas has riden the waves of change in the sports goods sector both up and down.Alongside its own brands, it owned the Saloman ski and sportswear brand for nearly a decade and now includes the Reebok, Taylormade Golf and Rockport brands in its stable.

Things are now definitely on track and, if the current marketing slogan, “Impossible is Nothing”, is anything to go by, the company is brimming with confidence. There are now over 1000 Adidas stores around the world and, in the run up to the Beijing Olympics the company opened an average of two stores a month in China. By 2010, the aim is to generate at least 30% of the group’s revenues through controlled space.To keep its brand in the public focus Adidas has also sponsored sportsmen and women for many years. In 2008, 295 footballers, 64 rugby players, 71 tennis players, 24 basketball players and 8 golfers all benefited from its three stripe logo. One of the first prominent endorsers of Adidas equipment was American running legend Jesse Owens, the gold medalist at the 1936 Summer Olympics. As well as sponsoring the Beijing Olympics Adidas is also supporting the 2012 Olympic Games in London in a deal worth around $200 million.

Adidas Group sales grew robustly in all regions driven by the first-time inclusion of Reebok as well as strong revenue increases at both adidas and TaylorMade-adidas Golf. Group sales in Europe grew 32% on a currency-neutral basis. This represents an improvement of 31% in euro terms to € 4. 162 billion in 2006 from € 3. 166 billion in the prior year. Currency-neutral sales in Europe for the adidas Group excluding Reebok increased 8% due to adidas’ strongest growth in three years. In euro terms, this represents an increase of 7% to € 3.

90 billion in 2006 from € 3. 166 billion in the prior year. In North America, Group sales increased 107% on a currency-neutral basis. In euro terms, sales also grew 107% to € 3. 234 billion in 2006 from € 1. 561 billion in 2005. Currency-neutral sales in North America for the adidas Group excluding Reebok increased 14% driven by double-digit growth rates at both adidas and TaylorMade-adidas Golf.

In euro terms, revenues increased 13% to € 1. 768 billion in 2006 from € 1. 561 billion in the prior year.Sales for the adidas Group in Asia increased 35% on a currency-neutral basis. In euro terms, revenues in Asia grew 33% to € 2. 020 billion in 2006 from € 1. 523 billion in 2005.

Currency-neutral sales in Asia for the adidas Group excluding Reebok increased 20% during the period, primarily driven by strong growth at brand adidas. This marks the third consecutive year of double-digit underlying growth for our Group in the region. In euro terms, revenues grew 18% to € 1. 791 billion in 2006 from € 1. 23 billion in the prior year. In Latin America, currency-neutral sales increased 53%. In euro terms, sales grew 56% to € 499 million in 2006 from € 319 million in 2005.

Project Details

History One of the biggest preludes to the study of job satisfaction was the Hawthorne studies.These studies (1924-1933), primarily credited to Elton Mayo of the Harvard Business School, sought to find the effects of various conditions (most notably illumination) on workers’ productivity. These studies ultimately showed that novel changes in work conditions temporarily increase productivity (called the Hawthorne Effect). It was later found that this increase resulted, not from the new conditions, but from the knowledge of being observed.

This finding provided strong evidence that people work for purposes other than pay, which paved the way for researchers to investigate other factors in job satisfaction. Scientific management (aka Taylorism) also had a significant impact on the study of job satisfaction.Frederick Winslow Taylor’s 1911 book, Principles of Scientific Management, argued that there was a single best way to perform any given work task. This book contributed to a change in industrial production philosophies, causing a shift from skilled labor and piecework towards the more modern approach of assembly lines and hourly wages. The initial use of scientific management by industries greatly increased productivity because workers were forced to work at a faster pace. However, workers became exhausted and dissatisfied, thus leaving researchers with new questions to answer regarding job satisfaction. It should also be noted that the work of W.L. Bryan, Walter Dill Scott, and Hugo Munsterberg set the tone for Taylor’s work.

Some argue that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, a motivation theory, laid the foundation for job satisfaction theory. This theory explains that people seek to satisfy five specific needs in life – physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, self-esteem needs, and self-actualization. This model served as a good basis from which early researchers could develop job satisfaction theories. Models of job satisfaction Affect Theory Edwin A. Locke’s Range of Affect Theory (1976) is arguably the most famous job satisfaction model.

The main premise of this theory is that satisfaction is determined by a discrepancy between what one wants in a job and what one has in a job.Further, the theory states that how much one values a given facet of work (e. g. the degree of autonomy in a position) moderates how satisfied/dissatisfied one becomes when expectations are/aren’t met. When a person values a particular facet of a job, his satisfaction is more greatly impacted both positively (when expectations are met) and negatively (when expectations are not met), compared to one who doesn’t value that facet. To illustrate, if Employee A values autonomy in the workplace and Employee B is indifferent about autonomy, then Employee A would be more satisfied in a position that offers a high degree of autonomy and less satisfied in a position with little or no autonomy compared to Employee B.This theory also states that too much of a particular facet will produce stronger feelings of dissatisfaction the more a worker values that facet.

Dispositional Theory

Another well-known job satisfaction theory is the Dispositional Theory[citation needed]. It is a very general theory that suggests that people have innate dispositions that cause them to have tendencies toward a certain level of satisfaction, regardless of one’s job. This approach became a notable explanation of job satisfaction in light of evidence that job satisfaction tends to be stable over time and across careers and jobs. Research also indicates that identical twins have similar levels of job satisfaction.A significant model that narrowed the scope of the Dispositional Theory was the Core Self-evaluations Model, proposed by Timothy A. Judge in 1998. Judge argued that there are four Core Self-evaluations that determine one’s disposition towards job satisfaction: self-esteem, general self-efficacy, locus of control, and neuroticism.

This model states that higher levels of self-esteem (the value one places on his self) and general self-efficacy (the belief in one’s own competence) lead to higher work satisfaction. Having an internal locus of control (believing one has control over herhis own life, as opposed to outside forces having control) leads to higher job satisfaction. Finally, lower levels of neuroticism lead to higher job satisfaction.

Two-Factor Theory (Motivator-Hygiene Theory) Frederick Herzberg’s

Two factor theory (also known as Motivator Hygiene Theory) attempts to explain satisfaction and motivation in the workplace. This theory states that satisfaction and dissatisfaction are driven by different factors – motivation and hygiene factors, respectively. Motivating factors are those aspects of the job that make people want to perform, and provide people with satisfaction, for example achievement in work, recognition, promotion opportunities. These motivating factors are considered to be intrinsic to the job, or the work carried out.

Hygiene factors include aspects of the working environment such as pay, company policies, supervisory practices, and other working conditions. While Hertzberg’s model has stimulated much research, researchers have been unable to reliably empirically prove the model, with Hackman ; Oldham suggesting that Hertzberg’s original formulation of the model may have been a methodological artifact. Furthermore, the theory does not consider individual differences, conversely predicting all employees will react in an identical manner to changes in motivating/hygiene factors. Finally, the model has been criticised in that it does not specify how motivating/hygiene factors are to be measured. Job Characteristics ModelHackman & Oldham proposed the Job Characteristics Model, which is widely used as a framework to study how particular job characteristics impact on job outcomes, including job satisfaction. The model states that there are five core job characteristics (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback) which impact three critical psychological states (experienced meaningfulness, experienced responsibility for outcomes, and knowledge of the actual results), in turn influencing work outcomes (job satisfaction, absenteeism, work motivation, etc. ).

The five core job characteristics can be combined to form a motivating potential score (MPS) for a job, which can be used as an index of how likely a job is to affect an employee’s attitudes and behaviors. A meta-analysis of studies that assess the framework of the model provides some support for the validity of the JCM. Measuring job satisfaction There are many methods for measuring job satisfaction. By far, the most common method for collecting data regarding job satisfaction is the Likert scale (named after Rensis Likert). Other less common methods of for gauging job satisfaction include: Yes/No questions, True/False questions, point systems, checklists, and forced choice answers. This data is typically collected using an Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) system. The Job Descriptive Index (JDI), created by Smith, Kendall; Hulin (1969), is a specific questionnaire of job satisfaction that has been widely used.

It measures one’s satisfaction in five facets: pay, promotions and promotion opportunities, coworkers, supervision, and the work itself. The scale is simple, participants answer either yes, no, or can’t decide (indicated by ‘? ’) in response to whether given statements accurately describe one’s job. The Job in General Index is an overall measurement of job satisfaction. It is an improvement to the Job Descriptive Index because the JDI focuses too much on individual facets and not enough on work satisfaction in general. Other job satisfaction questionnaires include: the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS), and the Faces Scale.The MSQ measures job satisfaction in 20 facets and has a long form with 100 questions (five items from each facet) and a short form with 20 questions (one item from each facet). The JSS is a 36 item questionnaire that measures nine facets of job satisfaction.

Finally, the Faces Scale of job satisfaction, one of the first scales used widely, measured overall job satisfaction with just one item which participants respond to by choosing a face. Job satisfaction and emotions Mood and emotions while working are the raw materials which cumulate to form the affective element of job satisfaction. (Weiss and Cropanzano, 1996). Moods tend to be longer lasting but often weaker states of uncertain origin, while emotions are often more intense, short-lived and have a clear object or cause.There is some evidence in the literature that state moods are related to overall job satisfaction. Positive and negative emotions were also found to be significantly related to overall job satisfaction Frequency of experiencing net positive emotion will be a better predictor of overall job satisfaction than will intensity of positive emotion when it is experienced Emotion regulation and emotion labor are also related to job satisfaction. Emotion work (or emotion management) refers to various efforts to manage emotional states and displays.

Emotion regulation includes all of the conscious and unconscious efforts to increase, maintain, or decrease one or more components of an emotion.Although early studies of the consequences of emotional labor emphasized its harmful effects on workers, studies of workers in a variety of occupations suggest that the consequences of emotional labor are not uniformly negative. It was found that suppression of unpleasant emotions decreases job satisfaction and the amplification of pleasant emotions increases job satisfaction. The understanding of how emotion regulation relates to job satisfaction concerns two models: 1. emotional dissonance. Emotional dissonance is a state of discrepancy between public displays of emotions and internal experiences of emotions, that often follows the process of emotion regulation . Emotional dissonance is associated with high emotional exhaustion, low organizational commitment, and low job satisfaction.

Social interaction model

Taking the social interaction perspective, workers’ emotion regulation might beget responses from others during interpersonal encounters that subsequently impact their own job satisfaction. For example: The accumulation of favorable responses to displays of pleasant emotions might positively affect job satisfaction . performance of emotional labor that produces desired outcomes could increase job satisfaction. Relationships and practical implications Job Satisfaction can be an important indicator of how employees feel about their jobs and a predictor of work behaviours such as organizational citizenship, absenteeism, and turnover. Further, job satisfaction can partially mediate the relationship of personality variables and deviant work behaviors.

One common research finding is that job satisfaction is correlated with life satisfaction. This correlation is reciprocal, meaning people who are satisfied with life tend to be satisfied with their job and people who are satisfied with their job tend to be satisfied with life. However, some research has found that job satisfaction is not significantly related to life satisfaction when other variables such as nonwork satisfaction and core self-evaluations are taken into account. An important finding for organizations to note is that job satisfaction has a rather tenuous correlation to productivity on the job.This is a vital piece of information to researchers and businesses, as the idea that satisfaction and job performance are directly related to one another is often cited in the media and in some non-academic management literature. A recent meta-analysis found an average uncorrected correlation between job satisfaction and productivity; the average true correlation, corrected for research artifacts and unreliability.

Further, the meta-analysis found that the relationship between satisfaction and performance can be moderated by job complexity, such that for high-complexity jobs the correlation between satisfaction and performance is higherthan for jobs of low to moderate complexity. In short, the relationship of satisfaction to productivity is not necessarily straightforward and can be influenced by a number of other work-related constructs, and the notion that “a happy worker is a productive worker” should not be the foundation of organizational decision-making. With regard to job performance, employee personality may be more important than job satisfaction. The link between job satisfaction and performance is thought to be a spurious relationship; instead, both satisfaction and performance are the result of personality.

Importance to Worker and Organization Frequently, work underlies self-esteem and identity while unemployment lowers self-worth and produces anxiety.At the same time, monotonous jobs can erode a worker’s initiative and enthusiasm and can lead to absenteeism and unnecessary turnover. Job satisfaction and occupational success are major factors in personal satisfaction, self-respect, self-esteem, and self-development. To the worker, job satisfaction brings a pleasurable emotional state that often leads to a positive work attitude. A satisfied worker is more likely to be creative, flexible, innovative, and loyal. For the organization, job satisfaction of its workers means a work force that is motivated and committed to high quality performance. Increased productivity—the quantity and quality of output per hour worked—seems to be a byproduct of improved quality of working life.

It is important to note that the literature on the relationship between job satisfaction and productivity is neither conclusive nor consistent. However, studies dating back to Herzberg’s (1957) have shown at least low correlation between high morale and high productivity, and it does seem logical that more satisfied workers will tend to add more value to an organization. Unhappy employees, who are motivated by fear of job loss, will not give 100 percent of their effort for very long. Though fear is a powerful motivator, it is also a temporary one, and as soon as the threat is lifted performance will decline. Workers’ Roles in Job SatisfactionIf job satisfaction is a worker benefit, surely the worker must be able to contribute to his or her own satisfaction and well-being on the job. The following suggestions can help a worker find personal job satisfaction:

• Seek opportunities to demonstrate skills and talents. This often leads to more challenging work and greater responsibilities, with attendant increases in pay and other recognition.
• Develop excellent communication skills. Employers value and reward excellent reading, listening, writing, and speaking skills.
• Know more. Acquire new job-related knowledge that helps you to perform tasks more efficiently and effectively. This will relieve boredom and often gets one noticed.
• Demonstrate creativity and initiative. Qualities like these are valued by most organizations and often result in recognition as well as in increased responsibilities and rewards.
• Develop teamwork and people skills. A large part of job success is the ability to work well with others to get the job done.
• Accept the diversity in people. Accept people with their differences and their imperfections and learn how to give and receive criticism constructively.
• See the value in your work. Appreciating the significance of what one does can lead to satisfaction with the work itself. This helps to give meaning to one’s existence, thus playing a vital role in job satisfaction.
• Learn to de-stress. Plan to avoid burnout by developing healthy stress-management techniques. Assuring Job SatisfactionAssuring job satisfaction, over the longterm, requires careful planning and effort both by management and by workers.

Managers are encouraged to consider such theories as Herzberg’s(1957) and Maslow’s (1943) Creating a good blend of factors that contribute to a stimulating, challenging, supportive, and rewarding work environment is vital. Because of the relative prominence of pay in the reward system, it is very important that salaries be tied to job responsibilities and that pay increases be tied to performance rather than seniority. So, in essence, job satisfaction is a product of the events and conditions that people experience on their jobs.Brief (1998) wrote: “If a person’s work is interesting, her pay is fair, her promotional opportunities are good, her supervisor is supportive, and her coworkers are friendly, then a situational approach leads one to predict she is satisfied with her job”. Very simply put, if the pleasures associated with one’s job outweigh the pains, there is some level of job satisfaction.

Interpetation

While doing my project and looking into the company profile of ADIDAS I came across certain facts and figures.

Competitors in market

ADIDAS is a manufacturer of sports wears and sports goods. The main competitor of ADIDAS is NIKE which also manufactures sports goods and sports products.Few years earlier REEBOK was also a competitor, but ADIDAS took over the company and became the worlds largest sports wear and sports goods Production Company. Other competitors of ADIDAS are AMER SPORTS and ROSSIGNOL AMER SPORTS is company that was established in 1950 in Finland portfolio of sports brands including Wilson, Atomic, Suunto, Precor and Salomon.

They manufacture athletic shoes, sports and fitness equipments. ROSSIGNOL is a company that produces equipments for snowboarding, ice-skating and other apparel products. They even manufacture ski boots, bindings, poles, hats, and gloves, as well as golf equipment via its Roger Cleveland Golf subsidiary. It even started giving sponsorship to various sports teams in all kinds of games all over the world.

The development of our employee numbers varied significantly from a brand perspective. The number of employees at the adidas brand increased 25 % to 18,678 at the end of 2007 (2006: 14,906), mainly driven by the brand’s strong expansion, especially in own retail and in the emerging markets of Eastern Europe (e. g. Russia), Asia and Latin America. Staff at Reebok declined 11 %, attributable to a shift in the workforce to the Group functions and adidas brand as well as the elimination of duplicative positions. Hence, the Reebok segment comprised 6,751 employees at year-end (2006: 7,545). At TaylorMade-adidas Golf, the number of employees increased by 2 % to 1,393 (2006: 1,368).

The number of employees working in our Group functions increased sharply by 77 % to 4,522 (2006: 2,552). The main reason for this development was the expansion of the Sports Licensed Division to a cross-brand corporate license department, including licensed products from brand adidas (e. g. NBA jerseys) and Reebok (e. g. NHL and NFL jerseys). Excluding this effect, employment within our Group functions increased 23 %.

The need for self-actualisation:

Maslow defined self-actualisation as man’s desire for self-fulfilment, namely, to the tendency for him to become actualised in what he is potentially the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming. The clear emergence of these needs usually rests upon prior satisfaction of the physiological, safety, love and esteem needs.

Maslow’s theory is widely used for explaining why different needs and motives may be expected to operates in different situation, despite the fact that Maslow was so preoccupied with the individual, the theory as understood by many managers doesn’t stress individual differences or suggest the idea that each person will have a unique set of needs and values. Rather it induces in them the on-the-average way of thinking about individuals rather than groups. Yet the five sets of need in the hierarchy still serve a most useful purpose. Together they form a sketch map no more of individual needs for you to consider as a leader in the relation to each member of your team.

“The Hygiene Factor” theory ‘Job satisfaction’ is a common phrase these days. It stems directly or indirectly from the influential motivational research of another American professor of psychology, Frederick Herzberg. Although much controversy surrounds his ideas he made an important and influential contribution to our understanding of motivation at work. In essence Herzberg made two claims.

First, he said that he had found evidence through studying the components of job satisfaction that people were in fact motivated by such ‘higher’ needs as achievement, recognition and self-actualisation. Secondly, he claimed that a practical programme of job enrichment in industry and commerce would create more job satisfaction by strengthening what he called the ‘motivators’. Herzberg expounds on this theory at length and provides much supporting evidence in his book ‘work and the nature man’, he observes that the set of factor that produce job satisfaction are separate and distinct from set of factor that produce job dissatisfaction.

In this dimension the employee seeks personal growth from the task being performed; however, absence of this growth does not cause pain. The other axis is the hygiene axis. In this dimension the employee tries to avoid pain from the environment; however, avoidance of this pain or the environment issues that cause the pain does not produce satisfaction.

The acquired competencies lend themselves to identification through techniques such as the application form and curriculum vitae, ability tests, and structured interviews. Similarly work simulation or telephone screening can also be used to identify the acquired competencies. Techniques suitable for the adapting competencies include personality testing, structured behavioural interviewing, and structured situational interviewing. Assessment centres, which comprise a range of techniques such as testing, interviewing and exercises, can have individual components of the assessment centre targeted on natural, required and adapting competencies.

Biodata are suitable for identifying natural, acquired and adapting competencies but the nature of the technique means that it is not possible to identify which particular competency is being identified, since it works on matching rather than analysis. Generally speaking, clearly defined requirements such as experience or qualifications which come under the acquired competencies are suitable for identification through explicit measurements such as application forms or straightforward interviews or tests of ability.

The less visible aspects, such as personality characteristics which are to be found in the natural competencies, are better identified through indirect or subtle techniques such as testing. The adapting competencies are more suited to identification through dynamic techniques, such as interviewing, which enable elements to be explored on an interactive basis, but personality testing can identify the propensity to be adaptable, and assessment centre exercises and work simulations can attempt to replicate the real workplace dynamics.

Conclusion

With these three parts we have a good focus on the methods and skills to develop and to choose your team with the aim to increase productivity, higher levels of commitment and output, improved cooperation, better communication, more ideas and creativity, and generally a higher level of energy and motivation.