Job

Satisfaction

Chapter 4

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 LEARNING GOALS

4.1 What is job satisfaction?

4.2 What are values, and how do they affect job satisfaction?

4.3 What specific facets do employees consider when evaluating their job satisfaction?

4.4 Which job characteristics can create a sense of satisfaction with the work itself?

4.5 How is job satisfaction affected by day-to-day events?

4.6 What are mood and emotions, and what specific forms do they take?

4.7 How does job satisfaction affect job performance and organizational commitment?
How does it affect life satisfaction?

4.8 What steps can organizations take to assess and manage job satisfaction?

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 Job Satisfaction

• A pleasurable emotional state resulting from the

appraisal of one’s job or job experiences

• It represents How you feel about your job and

What you think about your job.
๏ It is based on both cognition (calculated
opinions of your job) and affect (emotional
reactions to your job)
๏ Affect colors cognition, and vice-versa

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 Job Satisfaction

Satisfied employees are becoming more &

more rare
What explains the drop?
Why are some employees more satisfied than
others?

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 Job Satisfaction

• Employees are satisfied when their job

provides the things that they value.
• Values are those things that people consciously or
subconsciously want to seek or attain.
What do you want to attain from your job?

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 Value-Percept
Theory

Which of these things are

most important to you?

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 Value-percept Theory

Values play a Key role in explaining job

satisfaction.
•Value-percept theory suggests that job satisfaction
depends on whether employee perceive that your job
supplies the things that you value, i.e., Dissatisfaction =
(Vwant-Vhave) x (Vimportance)

•Value-percept theory also suggests that people

evaluate job satisfaction according to specific facets
of the job, i.e., pay, promotion, supervision,
coworker, and work itself.

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 Value-Percept
Theory

• Does your job supply what

you value?

Dissatisfaction = (Vwant-Vhave)
x (Vimportance)

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 Value-percept Theory

• Pay satisfaction
refers to employees’ feelings about their pay
including whether it’s as much as they deserve,
secure, and adequate for both normal expenses
and luxury items.
(Paywant − Payhave)× Payimportance

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 Value-percept Theory

• Promotion satisfaction
refers to employees’ feelings about the
company’s promotion policies and their
execution, including whether promotions are
frequent, fair, and based on ability
(Promotionwant − Promotionhave)× Promotionimportance

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 Value-percept Theory

• Supervision satisfaction
reflects employees’ feelings about their boss,
including whether the boss is competent, polite,
and a good communicator (rather than lazy,
annoying, and too distant).
“Can they help me attain the things that I value?”
“Are they generally likable?”
(Supervisionwant − Supervisionhave)×Supervisionimportance

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 Value-percept Theory

• Coworker satisfaction
refers to employees’ feelings about their fellow
employees, including whether coworkers are
smart, responsible, helpful, fun, and interesting
as opposed to lazy, gossipy, unpleasant, and
boring.
“Can they help me do my job?”
“Do I enjoy being around them?”
(Coworkerwant − Coworkerhave)× Coworkerimportance

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 Value-percept Theory

• Satisfaction with the work itself

reflects employees’ feelings about their actual
work tasks, including whether those tasks are
challenging, interesting, respected, and make use
of key skills rather than being dull, repetitive,
and uncomfortable.
(Workwant − Workhave)× Workimportance

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Value-Percept Theory

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 The Work Itself

What kind of tasks are especially satisfying?

•Three critical psychological states makes work satisfying
๏ Meaningfulness of work
๏ Responsibility for outcomes
๏ Knowledge of results

Think about times when you felt especially proud of a job well
done.

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 The Work Itself
Job Characteristics Theory
• Jobs are more intrinsically enjoyable when work tasks are
challenging and fulfilling
๏ Five “ core job characteristics” combine to make some jobs more
rewarding than others
๏ Variety (V)

๏ Identity (I)

๏ Significance (S)

๏ Autonomy (A)

๏ Feedback (F)

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Job Characteristics
Theory

• Core job characteristics

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 The Work Itself
Job Characteristics Theory

• Variety
is the degree to which the job requires a number of different
activities that involve a number of different skills and talents.
When variety is high, almost every workday is different in some
way, and job holders rarely feel a sense of monotony or
repetition.

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 The Work Itself
Job Characteristics Theory

• Identity
is the degree to which the job requires completing a whole,
identifiable, piece of work from beginning to end with a
visible outcome.
When a job has high identity, employees can point to something
and say, “There, I did that.” The transformation from inputs to
finished product is very visible, and the employee feels a
distinct sense of beginning and closure.

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 The Work Itself
Job Characteristics Theory

• Significance
is the degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the
lives of other people, particularly people in the world at large.
Virtually any job can be important if it helps put food on the
table for a family, send kids to college, or make employees
feel like they’re doing their part for the working world. That
said, significance as a core job characteristic captures
something beyond that—the belief that this job really matters.

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 The Work Itself
Job Characteristics Theory
• Autonomy
is the degree to which the job provides freedom, independence,
and discretion to the individual performing the work.
When your job provides autonomy, you view the outcomes of it as the
product of your efforts rather than the result of careful instructions
from your boss or a well-written manual of procedures. Autonomy
comes in multiple forms, including the freedom to control the timing,
scheduling, and sequencing of work activities, as well as the
procedures and methods used to complete work tasks .

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 The Work Itself
Job Characteristics Theory
• Feedback
is the degree to which carrying out the activities required by
the job provides employees with clear information about how
well they’re performing.
A critical distinction must be noted: This core characteristic reflects
feedback obtained directly from the job as opposed to feedback
from coworkers or supervisors. Most employees receive formal
performance appraisals from their bosses, but that feedback occurs
once or maybe twice a year. When the job provides its own
feedback, that feedback can be experienced almost every day.

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Job Characteristics Theory

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Job Characteristics Theory

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 Mood and Emotions

• Each employee’s satisfaction level fluctuate

over time, rising and falling like some sort of
emotional stock market.
• What you feel in your GUT while you are at
work or thinking about work.
• Even the most satisfied employees aren’t
satisfied every minute of every day.
• Satisfaction levels wax and wane as a function
of mood and emotions.

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 Mood and Emotions

• What is responsible for

those ebbs and flows in
satisfaction levels?
• Two related concepts:
Moods and Emotions

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 Mood and Emotions

• Moods
are states of feeling that are often mild in
intensity, last for an extended period of time,
and are not explicitly directed at or caused by
anything.
When people are in a good or bad mood, they
don’t always know who (or what) deserves the
credit or blame; they just happen to be feeling
that way for a stretch of their day.

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Mood and Emotions

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 Mood and Emotions

• Affective events theory

๏ Specific events trigger
discrete emotions during
the course of the work day
Emotion are states of feeling that are
often intense, last for only a few
minutes, and are clearly directed at
(and caused by) someone or some
circumstance.

“I’m feeling grouchy,”

“I’m feeling angry at my boss.

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 Positive vs. Negative Emotions

• Joy • Anger

• Envy • Pride

• Shame • Hope

• Compassion • Guilt

• Fear • Sadness

• Anxiety • Disgust

• Relief • Love

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 Positive vs. Negative Emotions

• Joy • A distressing condition has changed for the better

• Pride • Fearing the worst but wanting better

• Relief • Being moved by another’s situation

• Hope • Desiring or participating in affection

• Love • A feeling of greet pleasure

• Compassion • Enhancement of identity by taking credit for achievement

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 Positive vs. Negative Emotions

• Anger • Having broken a moral code

• Anxiety • Facing an immediate and concrete danger

• Fear • Having experienced an irreversible loss

• Guilt • Wanting what someone else has

• Shame • Revulsion aroused by something offensive

• Sadness • Failing to live up to your ideal self

• Envy • A demeaning offense against me and mine

• Disgust • Facing an uncertain or vague threat

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Mood and Emotions

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 Mood and Emotions

• Feeling vs. showing

๏ Emotional labor

๏ Emotional contagion

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Why are some employees more satisfied
than others?

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How Important is Job Satisfaction?

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Life Satisfaction

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OB: At the Bookstore

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OB: Internationally

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 Application

• Tracking satisfaction
๏ Job Descriptive Index

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 Discussion Questions

• We sometimes describe colleagues or friends as “moody.” What do you think it means to be

“moody” from the perspective of Figure 4-6 ?

• Consider the list of positive and negative emotions in Table 4-2 . Which of these emotions are
most frequently experienced at work? What causes them?

• Which of the values in Table 4-1 do you think are the most important to employees in
general? Are there times when the values in the last three categories (altruism, status, and
environment) become more important than the values in the first five categories (pay,
promotions, supervision, coworkers, and the work itself)?

• What steps can organizations take to improve promotion satisfaction, supervision satisfaction,
and coworker satisfaction?

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