Question

What are the consequences of having dissatisfied employees and describe ways of applying the four theories of job satisfaction and how you would use them to boost job satisfaction, and how do intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors affect job satisfaction?

Answer 1

Consequences of Employee Dissatisfaction

Employee satisfaction is a key to organizational success and provides for the meeting of both short- and long-term goals and objectives. Common causes of employee dissatisfaction include inadequate pay, limited or no career growth path, unsupportive leadership, poor work-life balance, unmeaningful work, absence of incentives, and others.

Dissatisfied employees do not remain in an organization for long and switch to other jobs or employment/work avenues. In these cases, the organization not only loses valuable skills and expertise but also loses the cost that it incurred towards hiring the employee and training him/her. The firm will also have to start again all together, which will lead to even more expenditures.

Dissatisfied employees may lack interest in the job and their focus also shifts to other areas so that they miss out on important details. They cannot align themselves with the objectives of the organization, which results in loss of productivity. Dissatisfaction and loss of motivation due to factors including inadequate pay affect employee commitment adversely. Employees start to casually spend their time and do not make the most of it when they are at the workplace. Hence a decrease in productivity ensues.

Lack of employee satisfaction may also result in poor customer service. It can cause losses when the firm loses customers who are not satisfied with the experience they had with the company. Employees may lack interest and do not give proper attention to the needs of the customers, who turn to competitors where they get better service.

Employee dissatisfaction may also dampen the present and future prospects of a firm and reduce its strength in the market, reputation, and sustainability.

4 Theories of Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is associated with a number of psychological issues. It is the extent to which employees are happy with their jobs or derive satisfaction out of the job roles that carry out. Because of reasons attributed to human psychology, the theories of job satisfaction also relate to human motivation. The 4 job satisfaction theories are described in brief below

1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory- the theory by Maslow pointed out that the human needs may be depicted in the form of a pyramid, where the 5 levels of hierarchy depict the 5 different kinds of needs. The essential needs are those at the base/bottom of the pyramid and these are fulfilled first. The 5 needs include physiological needs, safety and security needs, love or belongingness needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. Therefore, the basic needs are the physiological needs like food, and these are met first.

When applied to the work settings, the model can be used to improve job satisfaction. For instance, those at the beginner career levels will be motivated by salary hikes, while those who are more experienced will be satisfied when they find more meaningful work and can realize what they really desire. Hence the organization should try to fulfill the basic needs of the employees first and offer them rewards and privileges following factors like position and experience. For instance, employees who are more experienced and work at higher levels of hierarchy would like to self-actualize. Hence they should be motivated by providing them with more meaningful work and challenges.

2. Motivator-Hygiene Theory- the motivator-hygiene theory was given by Herzberg who said that when the job has motivating factors like benefits, pay, recognition, and achievement, the employees will be satisfied. However, when certain hygiene factors (including company policies, working conditions, quality of management, and job security) are low and not as desired by the employees, there may be job dissatisfaction. Therefore, job dissatisfaction can be reduced by improving or setting up supportive policies and programs, by improving work conditions, by improving the quality of management (for instance by making it unbiased and rewarding) and by offering job security to employees. For instance, some companies in Japan offer job-for-life, which means that the employee may not be removed from the job for entire life once hired.

3. Job Characteristic Model and Theory- this theory states that when the work environment has certain elements to encourage intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction will take place. The important job characteristics that impact motivation and job satisfaction include skill variety (skills and talent needed for completing a task or job), task identity (the degree of completeness of a job), the significance of the task (the degree to which the task impacts the lives of those in and outside the organization including the society), autonomy for the employees (the degree of independence employees have), and feedback (whether employees are informed of their performance).

These 5 job characteristics affect 3 psychological states namely experienced meaningfulness, experienced responsibility, and knowledge of results. For instance, if the employees are revealed what importance or significance of the tasks they accomplish holds for society, they will find their work to be more meaningful. Decentralization may enhance autonomy for the employees and provide for better-perceived responsibility. Such measures can be used for increasing job satisfaction in the workplace.

4. Dispositional Approach Theory- the dispositional approach and theory link job satisfaction to the personality of the individual. It factors in the predisposition of the employees for a certain satisfaction level, which is relatively stable over a period of time. The evidence of the disposition approach may be based on direct or indirect evidence. Indirect evidence do not measure personality directly. For instance, a study linked job satisfaction to genetic factors in 30% of cases. Indirect evidences may study personality aspects like self-efficacy, self-esteem, and emotional stability among others and the role they play in job satisfaction.

The predispositions and other personality factors of an employee may be studied for improving job satisfaction. For instance, some people may be more emotionally unstable, and they may need greater jobs security measures for lessening stress and anxiety. Therefore management can directly interact with the dissatisfied employees to improve their motivation or have supportive policies. More stable predispositions may also take place when the temporary affective states are investigated and improved.

Affect of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors on Job Satisfaction

Intrinsic factors for job satisfaction include components like job stability, relations with colleagues, unearthing of one’s talent and skills, autonomy, and/or the nature of the job itself. These factors involve the attitudes and the perception of a person towards a job. For instance, a more collaborative culture will enhance job satisfaction, and firms may also be able to exploit the talent of employees better when they are provided with opportunities following their skills.

Extrinsic factors are the external factors of the job and present outside the psychological state and perceptions of employees. These include rewards, career development chances or avoidance of punishment. Therefore, companies can also improve on the extrinsic factors and improve employee satisfaction. For instance, recognition and appreciation of performance and reward systems will provide for job satisfaction in some relevant cases.