Product Description
Distilling the vast literature on this frequently studied variable in organizational behaviour research, Paul E Spector provides the student and professional with a pithy overview of the application, assessment, causes and consequences of job satisfaction. In addition to discussing the nature of and techniques for assessing job satisfaction, the author summarizes the findings concerning how people feel towards work, including: cultural and gender differences in job satisfaction and personal and organizational causes; and potential consequences of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Students and researchers will particularly appreciate the extensive list of references and the Job Satisfaction Survey included in the Appendix.

Job Satisfaction: Application, Assessment, Causes, and Consequences

“It’s just another tool. It is not the great cure for management inefficiency… MBO works if you know the objectives, 90% of the time you don’t.”
Peter Drucker

Management by Objectives (MBO) is an elaborate, systematic, ongoing program that helps employees to understand their objectives at organizational and personal level.

MBO principles:

1. Cascading of organizational goals and objectives
2. Specific objectives for each employee
3. Shared decision-making process
4. A predefined time framework
5. Performance evaluation and feedback

Advantages of MBO:

1. Motivation -employees’ involvement in the goal setting process increases job satisfaction and commitment
2. Better communication – the evaluation sessions and feedback are supposed to do that
3. Clarity of goals – SMART
   • Specific
   • Measurable
   • Achievable
   • Realistic
   • Time-related

From my experience with MBO, I can tell you that it did not work for me. Mostly because nowadays the manager that set the objectives often already works in a different company when time for the employee’s evaluation comes.

Job design is in itself a convention. Starting with the Scientific Management of Frederick W. Taylor, the work of the employees (managers not included) was simplified to the smallest unit possible, mainly repetitive tasks.

The concern for motivation in the work environment has change the purpose of job design. Job satisfaction, performance, customer satisfaction, and quality of working life are the goals that must be accomplished through job design and the associated techniques: job enlargement, job enrichment, job rotation.

Job scope is defined as a combination of the number of different activities performed by an employee and the level of control that an employee has upon how to perform those activities.

A manager has a high scope job because he performs a large number of activities (see Management – art of controlling processes and outcomes) and has a broader or narrower decision-making power.

An employee will perform when he sees a strong connection between his performance and a reward.

A manager is required to evaluate the performance of his/her subordinates, usually on a yearly basis. Their recommendation is the basis for an extra payment – the merit pay.

Merit pay plans allow to differentiate the high performers from the rest and to reward for a non repetitive task. Most researchers agree that they are not really working.  The main issue could be that the employee’ performance is judged in a subjective manner by the manager.

The lack of effectiveness comes from:

• Low discrimination distance. When there is no accurate measuring system in place, a manager will have the tendency to equalize the merit pay. This will make high performers unhappy, and low performers confused.
• Merit pay is too small. Because the merit pay is calculated as percentage from the salary, it will go unnoticed, and the level of satisfaction will not act as a motivator.
• Pay level is secret. Merit pay is too. Most of the companies in this world impose a policy of secrecy over wages, benefits and bonuses. I am sure that there arguments in favor of this. But, companies are made of people. When people do not know something they assume or invent. You can be sure that everybody will think that the other is paid better! Job satisfaction and motivation will decrease exponentially. If merit pay is kept secret, none of the employees will know who performs better and how much is performance paid with.

The methods of evaluating performance are evolving all the time. I think that, by now, there are enough objective criteria even to evaluate “the impossible to evaluate in numbers” white-collar employees’ performance. Merit pay could work only if managers give up their royal right of granting rewards and punishment based only on their subjective reasoning.

Organizational commitment is an attitude that describes the psychological attachment of the employee with the organization.

According to John Meyer and Natalie Allen there are three different types of organizational commitment:

Affective commitment is based on positive emotions. The employee is identifying with the organization. He also identifies with a good financial compensation, job satisfaction.

Continuance commitment is when you have no other choice but to stay. Leaving the company involves economic costs and social costs based. This type we are going to see more often these days.

Usually continuance organizational commitment was determined by being in the same company for years. Because people developed competencies that could be applied to new positions they started to move more often. Talented people were scarce. Now, with the “crisis”, jobs are scarce. Only for now …

Normative commitment is based on what you feel is right. You perceive as having an obligation and you stay with the organization because is the right thing to do. Loyalty is never overrated … is only underpaid.