LECTURE 7 - JOB SATISFACTION

Definition: A collection of attitudes that people have about their jobs.

A positive (or negative) feeling about ones job resulting from an evaluation of jobs
characteristics or an individuals emotional response towards work or workplace.
6 questions that define job satisfaction:
The variety in my work
Being able to take pride in my work
The chance to work by myself
The amount I get paid
The credit I get for the work that I do
The people whom Im working with
Facet satisfaction: Tendency to be more or less satisfied with various aspects of the job.
Overall satisfaction: An overall or summary indicator of a persons attitude towards the job
Discrepancy between expectations and current state:
Expectations > Actual outcomes Not satisfied
Expectations Actual outcomes Satisfied
Expectations <Actual outcomes Highly satisfied
Dispositional Influences:
Extraversion (or positive affectivity)
High PA = cheerful, enthusiastic, confident, active, & energetic
PA = Reward-signal sensitivity (E.g., Pay)
Neuroticism (or negative affectivity)
High NA = negative mood states
Affective Event Theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996)
Emotions are triggered by events and happenings at work
Stressful events:
- The extent of a nurses exposure to AIDS patients is positively associated with negative
mood at work (George et al., 1993)
- Unpleasant mood spilled over from family to work (Williams & Alliger, 1994)

Leaders:
- A role in the production of moods and emotions (e.g., what angered people depended
on their organizational position (Fitness, 2000))

Job/ Work Group Characteristics
- Job type (e.g., service industry)
- Work group members tend to share moods and emotions

A happy worker is a productive worker (Hawthorne studies at Western Electric, 1930s and
1940s)
Happiness = daily emotions or job satisfaction
Happiness = daily emotions
Emotion manipulation
Happy individuals had approximately 12% greater productivity (Oswald et al., 2009)
This proposition is true!
Happiness = job satisfaction
Mixed results
Moderately strong association between job satisfaction and job performance (Judge et
al., 2001)
Does [more] money make people happy?
- Insufficient pay can make us unhappy and dissatisfied, so need to pay employees enough
- But after a certain threshold, more pay doesnt necessarily make us more happy
- However, we may continue to evaluate our lives more positively with increasing $
- People who get paid hourly are less happier than people who work for salaries.

Organizational Commitment
- The desire to be the member of an organization

Three types:
Affective commitment
Normative commitment
Continuance commitment
Affective Commitment:
- Commitment due to an emotional attachment to, and involvement with, the organization
- Affective commitment is influenced by the bonds between employees
- You stay because you want to
- Employees with affective commitment are more likely to engage in organizational
citizenship behavior (which means Go beyond what is expected and required)
Normative Commitment
- The obligation an employee feels to stay with an organization (e.g., moral or ethical
reasons)
- You stay because you ought to
- Build a sense of obligation-based commitment
Continuance Commitment
- It occurs when an employee is influenced by salary and benefits and the degree to which
she/he is embedded in the community
- You stay because you need to
- Tend to more passive
- Continuance commitment is increased by
- Lack of employment alternatives
- The investment
Why should we care about organizational commitment?
Answer: Turnover
- Good people are valuable resources
- Turnover is costly
- Decrease in productivity
- Costs of recruitment and training
- Public relationship costs