Introduction
Background
Job satisfaction is the appraisal and evaluations of the different aspects of the job and whether a person is suitably and fairly rewarded for the effort he puts in performing his job. Satisfied employees have a favorable outlook of their jobs and thus they might be motivated to perform better and put in more effort (answers.com). Organizational core values like pay, training, fringe and health benefits affect employee job satisfaction. It is not only their mere presence that might satisfy employees but their presence in a fair and proportionate manner with respect to employee effort. Studies dating back to the Herzberg (1957) have tried to investigate the different elements that boost employee job satisfaction and the subsequent affect of job satisfaction on productivity and motivation (FASSEL 2002)
Problem Statement & Hypothesis Question
With this study we want to investigate whether core values such as training, flexible working hours and the amount of salary have any relationship with boosting or adversely affecting the amount of job satisfaction an employee has. Another aspect that needs to be evaluated is the employee’s level of perceived fairness and its subsequent effects on job performance, productivity and motivation. Furthermore our problem statement and hypothesis can be further expanded to investigate the role of the overall organizational culture in influencing employee job satisfaction and reducing employee turnover. In order to find a conclusive answer for our investigation we need collect data from a representative sample of employees that belong to various races, ethnicities, cultures and religions so that we may be able to gauge and measure our findings over a wide spectrum of diversified individuals that constitute the modern global workforce. In order to do so development of a model and the use of various statistical tools (such as Regression Analysis) is very important. Our main focus will be towards developing such a model that can provide us with accurate, measurable and conclusive results. The null hypothesis in our case is that there is apparently no relationship between job satisfaction and the fore mentioned independent variables and also there is no significant relationship between job satisfaction and productivity.
Importance for the Business
Ensuring Job Satisfaction is one of the key challenges facing corporate leaders in the modern work place. Realizing the importance of employee job satisfaction organizations are paying more attention to the various elements that affect job satisfaction because by doing so they hope to influence critical employee behaviors such as absenteeism, punctuality, honesty and can hard work. Another reason for the importance of job satisfaction in the modern work place is the expectations of the community & society from the organizations to provide fair salaries, work benefits and safe working conditions to their employees. If the organization fails to do this and this information goes public than the organization risks a major decline in goodwill and the formation of a negative public opinion which could be very harmful for the organization in the long run (may lead to potential loss in sales). Job Satisfaction may not have a proven or conclusive effect on job performance and productivity but studies and models like the “employee-customer-profit chain” suggest that employee satisfaction have a direct and clear effect on customer satisfaction. More satisfied employees generally have a more positive way of dealing with employees and secondly satisfied employees are more resistant to quitting their job and hence have more skills and experience to provide high quality service to their clients.
References
DIANE FASSEL. (2002). Effective Organizations Are Driven by Values. Volume 83, Number 5. The Catholic health Association of United States: Health Progress.
Answer.com. Job Satisfaction. 2009. Web.