在工作場所創造最佳的工作滿意度

 

幾十年來,雇員和雇主都遵循工作滿意度決定工作表現的座右銘。萊特州立大學的一項新的研究表明, 事實上并非如此。

 

從1932年的Kornhauser 和 Sharp直到1981年的Bartol，工作滿意度和工作績效之間的關系一直困擾著研究人員近50年。他們可以推斷的是,個人的生產力和來源于它的滿足感沒有普遍存在的聯系,或者說是一個可以說,工作滿意度和工作績效是相關的但沒有因果關系。

 

如何到達一個獲得持續的關注領域是表現和滿意度之間因果關系的問題。”(工作滿意度和工作績效:Meta分析, Michelle T.Iaffando 和 Paul M. Muchinsky)

 

有很多版主認為工作滿意度與工作績效之間的關系,如“權變獎勵”——良好的記錄和穩定的性能應該得到獎勵，從而增加在工作中表現良好的員工。其次是“情境約束”——當以主觀或客觀方法的形式抑制情境約束的時候，工作者通常顯示出源于他們的工作的更大的失望和少量的滿意度。第三“生產”的壓力——員工面臨承擔每天工作壓力的責任，可想而知，如果增加員工的生產壓力，他們往往會變得不滿和不滿意他們的工作。 最后是“互惠規范”—— 從社會心理學方面來看，就是一個積極的行動應該與另一個積極有回應,從而創造一個員工和企業之間積極行動的循環，并且從更滿足員工的角度企業應采取更為積極的行動。

 

Creating optimal job satisfaction in workplaces

 

"For decades, employees and employers alike have followed the motto that job satisfaction determines job performance. Not so, according to a new study by Wright State University," (Kristin McAllister, Coz News Service, Dayton Ohio)

 

The relation between job satisfaction and job performance has mystified researchers for more almost 50 years, right from Kornhauser and Sharp in 1932 till Bartol in 1981. All what they could deduce was that there is not any ubiquitous connection between an individual's productivity and the satisfaction derived from it, or rather one can say that job satisfaction and job performance 'are' correlated but one is not the cause of another.

 

"One area that received constant attention was the question of causality between performance and satisfaction," (Job Satisfaction and Job Performance: A Meta-Analysis, Michelle T.Iaffando and Paul M. Muchinsky)

 

There were a lot of moderators stated for the relation between job satisfaction and job performance, such as "contingency of rewards" - a well recorded and consistent performance should be rewarded so that it augments an employee to perform well at work. Secondly came the "situational constraints" - while inhibiting situational constraints in the form of subjective or objective methods worker generally display greater amounts of frustration and derive less amounts of satisfaction from their job. Thirdly it was "pressures of production" - or stress and pressures that employees face while carrying out their day to day responsibilities at their work, it has been seen that if there is an increase in the amount of pressure of production employees tend to get disgruntled and less satisfied with their jobs. Finally it is "reciprocity norms" - a social psychology aspect in which one positive action should be responded with another positive action, thereby creating a cycle of positive actions between employee and the organization and the higher the positive action goes from the organization point of view the more satisfied the employee feels.

 

According to a "meta-analysis" or a "statistical analysis of a large collection of analysis results from individual studies, for the purpose of integrating the findings," (Job Satisfaction and Job Performance: A Meta-Analysis, Michelle T.Iaffando and Paul M. Muchinsky) that was conducted of one of the most regularly investigated topic in the entire history of organizational research, it was found that there does exist a tiny evidence that job satisfaction and job performance are related to each other but it was not to any considerable amount.

 

History has it that the linkage between performance and the satisfaction derived from it dated way back to the 1930's and the most significant review was put out in the year 1955 by two individuals Brayfield and Crockett and it in itself concluded in saying that there was "minimal or no relationship" between these two elements. But however after 1955 many other influential narratives have been published in between 1957-1970 investigating various factors of this relationship, thereby creating the "models of Job Satisfaction and Job Performance relationship"

 

There are precisely seven well known models depicting the job satisfaction - job performance relationship: -

 

Model 1 - Job satisfaction causes job performance; this model hypothesizes the casual effect of satisfaction derived from the input given in by the employee and is reportedly on of the oldest specifications in relationships. Model 2 - Job performance causes job satisfaction; motivation theories based on expectations generally argue that satisfaction is a byproduct of the rewards caused by an individual's performance, or in simpler terminology performance of an employee will lead to satisfaction through the medium of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Model 3 - Job Satisfaction and Performance are reciprocally related; this model has no specific theoretical foundation, but rather is a crossover version of the previous two models and is comprehensively accepted by those who believe that performance can be caused by satisfaction or it can be satisfying in its own self. Model 4 - Job Satisfaction and Job Performance have a spurious relation; a spurious correlation is one relation in which two variable are correlated with one another via a third variable, such as the factor of self-esteem can be used to explain the relation between performance and satisfaction. Model 5 - the relation between performance and satisfaction is moderated by other variables; as stated earlier in this discussion there are several moderators than can be used to investigate the relation between job satisfaction and an employee's performance. Model 6 - there is no relation between job satisfaction and job performance; job satisfaction job performance should be treated as two separate and distinct values and in any case not related to one another. Finally Model 7 - alternate or different conceptualizations of job satisfaction and job performance; due to the low satisfaction and performance relationship, researchers have even casted this whole relation in terms of emotions and performance rather than satisfaction and performance.

 

After the meta-analysis and also the models of job satisfaction and job performance and reviewing and reexamining this relation time and again by researchers over the years, the relation has been termed as "old shoe" or in other words matter to unworthy and unfashionable for research any longer.

Now getting back to the quote with which this whole essay was started, according to Nathan Bowling an assistant professor of industrial and organizational psychology at the Wright State University and 30 years of data collection derived from both white collar and blue collar jobs it has been proven that job satisfaction and job performance "once again" are correlated but one does not cause another. But one important aspect discovered was that it is actually the personality of an employee that makes the difference. Individual aspects of any employee such as the employees self-esteem, emotional stability or the level of extroversion that and employee possess. Employees who are dejected or feel low or have an overall negative attitude with life will not find job satisfaction no matter how well they perform because of their personality. People who emotionally unstable such people who are neurotic or those employees who tend to be anxious or sad will not find satisfaction regardless of their performance or how many ever jobs they try. There are certain other factors as well such as absenteeism and labor turn over and even causality, low satisfaction often causes high levels of labor turnover and even absenteeism. Absent minded and diverted workers become a reason for casualties and accidents happening at work

"Solid performing employees also exhibit a high level of conscientiousness - those who are detail-oriented and hard workers and who set goals," (Kristin McAllister, Coz News Service, Dayton Ohio)

 

Having said that about personality, one normal question anyone would get is whether or not happy workers tend to work harder than their dejected counter parts. However it is not always what it seems, there are more than one claims when it comes to effect of happiness on productivity. On ne hand it is said that a happy employee will be more involved in his/her job and it will lead to smooth interaction, and also boost productivity but on the other hand it is said that a lot of happiness will lead to reduction in motivation to seek improvement and even make the employees passive and dull. As such there is no overall research to show the effects of happiness on productivity, but however there is proof that the relation between job satisfaction and job performance is heavily correlated with overall happiness. It is relatively easy when it comes to finding out about how satisfied an employee is with his/her job by simply asking a question; "How satisfied are you with your job? : I hate it, I dislike it, I do not like it, I am indifferent to it, I like it, or even I love it".

 

"Positive Satisfaction is due to good experiences and those are due to 'motivators' such as - achievement, recognition, responsibility and advancement. Dissatisfaction is due to bad experiences caused by 'hygiene' factors such as - supervisors, company policies or even fellow workers," (Do happy workers work harder? The effect of job satisfaction on work performance, Michael Argyle)

 

Since the beginning of this essay it has been mentioned that job performance and job satisfaction are correlated, now the question arises as to "how" correlated they are: studies show that that there is only a correlation of +.15 thereby once again proving that is nearly negligible, but one amusing fact about the correlation figure is that the figure tends to be greater in supervisory or professional jobs as these jobs depend less on external pressures like incentives or speed and more on creativity and motivation. Research has shown that a general good mood of an employee leads to positive attitude, more helpfulness and more original problem solving.

 

To conclude my topic I would like to state that job satisfaction and job performance correlate in overall by about +.15, and there and increase when it comes to white collar workers. If any organization wants to make its employees to perform at soaring levels then it doesn't need to create high levels of job satisfaction, all it needs to do is make sure they choose the employees with the right kind of personality, and even when the right kind of employees are chosen steps should be taken to make sure that performance and satisfaction both aspects remain under control or else over-satisfied employees tend to start slacking off and then it affects their individual performance and the organizational output on the whole. However there are certain techniques that can be followed by the organizations to increase output and satisfaction from the employee point of view; Job enlargement or increasing productivity per person or even Job enrichment or making a worker correct one's own work, it greatly increases satisfaction from a workers point of view mentally as the worker itself is made to double check the work he/she has done. Another method is the altered social arrangement, or using the employees positive social relations with their coworkers as an asset to both the organization and the employees, increasing cohesiveness and re-organizing work teams in order to put together teams of people who are friendly and popular with one another greatly increases productivity and also increases social satisfaction of the employees as they are working together with someone who they are comfortable with rather than with sum unknown stranger.