Employee Satisfaction: Research, Application and Developments Through the Years, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Every person has a need, and satisfying that need is essential if good results of performance are expected of him. This fact is the very reason why most organizations today struggle to find the most effective procedure to know what satisfies their employees to be able to motivate them to work accordingly. It could be realized that through time, the specifications of employee satisfaction changes. Just as the uniqueness of each human individual is, the satisfaction level of each person differs from each other as well. Nevertheless, there are general grounds that are considered in the field of psychology that defines the most crucial points of understanding human behavior and how people respond to situations including matters that entail to stimulate their motivational power in performing better at work.

Through the years, continuous research is being handled just so to define the new discoveries on how human individuals could be motivated further. It seems that as the years change, people also change their perspective. In this case, it could then be realized that the same thing is true when it comes to establishing courses of identifying particular elements that contribute to employee satisfaction. As time changes, the needs and demands of human individuals adjust, and based on these adjustments, the manner by which they become motivated to work at a better pace for better results also adjust dramatically.

Purpose

In this research, the author hopes to seek out different research materials that would be best able to describe what employee satisfaction is. Alongside such consideration is the focus on how the research materials define the actual scenario occurring in most organizations today. Seeing through the different mirrors of human behavior, it is the purpose of this discussion to discover particular elements that contribute to employee satisfaction basing from the studies completed. Psychological implications about the issue shall also be explored to be able to gain a professional perspective on understanding the concept and reality of satisfaction among employees as they complete the tasks that are assigned for them to accomplish. Developments and future assumptions shall also be given a specific consideration to be able to create a distinctive perception on the possibilities that could be expected from departments handling the application of rules and policies dedicated to improving employee satisfaction in several organizations around the globe.

Objective

Based from the purpose of this writing, here are some of the objectives targeted to be presented herein:

a) To define what employee satisfaction is and create a distinction on how it is viewed by organizations at present

b) To create a sense of definition on how employee satisfaction and its meaning has changed through the years through connecting it with the principles of globalization and the establishment of immigration of employees as one of the primary factors for such adjustments

c) To seek a more well-created background that could support the conditions of development that could still be expected from the changing tides of considering employee satisfaction as one of the primary elements of successful organizational management

Expectations

Through the entire course of this research, these expectations are hoped to be accomplished:

a) Gain a definition that will most likely create a distinction on how employee satisfaction is taking a great role in the aspect of organizational growth

b) Gain understanding over the how’s and why’s behind the developments and adjustments in defining employee satisfaction through the years

c) Understand how the application of theories and research results about employee satisfaction actually develop business reputation and organizational growth among distinct business establishments around the globe

Based from these expectations, the research is then hoped to create a blueprint-like guide that Human Resources Management personnel would be able to recognize and use as relatively important in developing a better working condition for their people working in their main stations and even those who are working in offshore facilities.

What is Employee Satisfaction?

As mentioned in the earlier section of this research, employee satisfaction is basically the manner by which the needs and demands of the employees are given attention to hence giving the employees a chance to realize their worth and in turn react responsibly towards the demands of their superiors (Moorman, 1993, 759). Relatively, it is believed that this particular aspect of working condition allows employees to focus on giving their best in performing better for their organizations and for themselves as well.

Before the full understanding about employee satisfaction could be achieved, it is necessary to learn the term satisfaction first. Satisfaction is often defined as a state of mind. A satisfied person is considerably noted to gain happiness from what he does or what receives from doing his tasks. It is basically the emotional distinction on how a person becomes relatively convinced that he is ‘happy’ and ‘contented’ with what he is currently experiencing in his life. Overall, satisfaction in life provides a person the chance to attain happiness and likely the idea of contentment. However, although the definition of satisfaction maybe common to all, its components are very different from one person to another (Kalleberg, 1997, 124). Being unique and personally defined, human individuals consider different components in life as they entail to consider that they are satisfied with the life that they are currently living. This is the reason why several psychological researches focused on identifying the most common elements of human behavior specifically pertain to creating the possibility of identifying the basic components of employee satisfaction (Spector, 1997, 67).

Components of Employee Satisfaction

To note, there are different components that make up the overall consideration of employee satisfaction and the manner by which it is specifically viewed by the organization administrators and the employees themselves. The truth to the matter is that employee satisfaction attends to two particular aspects of consideration. The appeal towards administrative satisfaction is defined to be the most common source of the need to identify employee satisfaction and its base dependence (Judge, et al, 1997, 151). The other aspect is defined by the capacity of the employees to be relatively affected by the effort of their administrators to attend to their needs accordingly (Judge, et al, 1997, 153). The appreciation that they receive from their administrators basically create a notion of being appreciated therefore motivating them to become more involved at work and specifically become more specifically focused on the responsibilities that were given to them in relation to their job assignments. Here as follows are some of the most common components of employee satisfaction:

(a) Proper compensation

It is of course essential that employees are given the best chance of being compensated for the efforts that they put forth for the organization. It is of course the primary desire of every worker to be paid accordingly (Spector, 1997, 78). In determining the compensation grade for each individual, it is often the practice of organization to identify pay-grade depending on their position, their qualifications, their tasks and the contributions that they are making to the development of the business.

There are instances when extra reward-money is given to particular employees who perform exceptionally. For selling companies, it is often that these rewards include personal commissions coming from sales. For manufacturing companies, such extra reward comes from being able to produce above the quota that was placed upon their shoulders as part of their responsibility (Bowling, et al, 2005, 1044). Other companies find other ways to make sure that their people are compensated properly.

It is also of course important to give the monetary compensation on time. Both large and small companies should not be giving excuses for late giving of salaries to their employees. These individuals, considered as the bloodline of the company, also have their needs and families to feed. Giving them payment on time is then an essential part of establishing satisfaction employees.

(b) Proper chances of achieving

Apart from being compensated properly, it is also important to create programs that would help the employees receive a sense of achievement. Their works and efforts ought to be recognized, and if possible should be rewarded accordingly through giving them promotional options. It is often a common sense of achievement among employees as they tend to reach qualifications through performing better all the time to achieve their goals of being promoted. Relatively, this approach should be handled carefully by administrators especially in connection with the creation of unfriendly environment at work because of massive competition that exists between the employees. Setting the rules and policies in relation to this matter should then be given proper attention to.

(c) Realization of Personal accomplishment

Personal accomplishments often involve being able to reach quota or being able to respond to the assigned duties within a specific time. Hence, it is essential for administrators to seek possibilities in making their goal-oriented tasks as reasonable as possible. It is indeed important for the workers to find their goals reasonable enough so that they would be motivated to reach the said goals accordingly. Being presented with unreachable goals only pushes the employees to tone down their working attitude and lessen the efforts simply because of believing that they would never be able to complete their assigned tasks on time.

This fact then suggests that administrators should see to it that they provide good options of growth to each of their employees through giving them reasonable goals to reach. This aspect of realization would give the employees a better sense of developing the way they respond to their duties to be able to realize a sense of personal accomplishment from their works.

(d) Improved learning possibilities

Everyone has the desire to grow. Giving the employees a large room to allow them to improve themselves, gain new skills and develop new personal capacities shall provide the working individuals a sense of accepting the fact that not only are they working for the money, but also for the sake of professional maturity (Solomon, et al, 1995, 158).

It is often mentioned that learning is a constant element that humans desire to have. Hence, in the establishment of a good working environment, creating a learning arena is important. This would lead the workers to find good ways to further improve themselves and learn better from their works. In relation to this, improved work attitude and work approaches also develop hence giving back to the organization what it has given to its employees.

(e) Rules and policies concerning personal issues of employees

Personal concerns such as health, family and other personal issues should be given attention to by the administrators. Although they work for the company, realizing the fact that they are humans should not be set aside (Walster, et al, 1993, 151). Instead, this should insist the managers in creating policies that specifically address these issues of personal concerns, thus avoiding any problems in the future. It should also be realized that there are some laws that specifically impose policies on such matters and the administrators should fully give attention to these matters for the sake of establishing legal integrity of the business as well as for the sake of establishing good working environment for each individual in the business.

Impact of Employee Satisfaction to work Performance

One of the largest companies operating in the world today is IBM. Being a computer-defined pioneer that is currently recognized worldwide, it could be realized how many people IBM serves within their internal operations. People from all over the globe recognize the culture that IBM provides their people with. Giving them fine compensation and a good chance to improve themselves, people are able to become the best that they could be while earning properly and still gaining a better chance of learning new skills in the industry. Following rules and legal matters with regards treating employees equally, the company is able give attention to the needs and the personal concerns of their people as well (Bowling, et al, 2005, 97). This allowed IBM to avoid many controversies with regards treating employees fairly both in their local branches and even on their offshore branches located on some specific areas of the globe.

On the other end, Walmart, a relatively huge name in the retail industry, has been involved in several concerns about employee treatment issues. The large number of employees they have under their care and the diversity of the said population made it hard for the business to contain satisfaction as desired (Bowling,et al, 2005, 95). This is the reason why Walmart continues to restructure its HR culture hence making it possible for new adjustments and innovative ways of dealing with the people to come in handy as the organization tries to reestablish the way it operates.

Basing from these two examples, it could be realized how important it is for organizations to fully recognize their responsibility towards their people. Being able to handle such responsibility is then considerably able to create good sources of employee motivation (Bowling, et al, 2005, 96). It is expected that in the coming years, more adjustments are still to be considered since the changes in the society would continue to develop especially with regards the growth of working individuals coming from different nations. Being able to serve a diversified population of employees is then a must.

Conclusion

As seen from this discussion, employee satisfaction is focused upon how the needs, demands and conditions of development of the workers is given particular attention to by the administrators. True, there are established guidelines that are ready to provide a good sense of distinction on how employees should be given attention to, there are specific needs that are supposed to be addressed and in relation to these matters, it is important for the administrators to make some assumptive adjustments as needed. Through the years, as the field of business progresses, it is understood that human resource management should be largely dependent on addressing issues of employee satisfaction accordingly.

References:

Moorman, R.H. (1993). “The influence of cognitive and affective based job satisfaction measures on the relationship between satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior“. Human Relations 6: 759–776.

Kalleberg, A.L. (1997). “Work values and job rewards—Theory of job satisfaction”. American Sociological Review 42: 124–143.

Spector, P.E. (1997). Job satisfaction: Application, assessment, causes and consequences. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Judge, T. A., Locke, E. A., & Durham, C. C. (1997). The dispositional causes of job satisfaction: A core evaluations approach. Research in Organizational Behavior, 19, 151–188.

Bowling, N. A., Beehr, T. A., Wagner, S. H., & Libkuman, T. M. (2005). Adaptation-Level Theory, Opponent Process Theory, and Dispositions: An Integrated Approach to the Stability of Job Satisfaction. Journal Of Applied Psychology, 90(6), 1044-1053

Solomon, R. L., & Corbit, J. D. (1993). An opponent-process theory of motivation: II. Cigarette addiction. Journal Of Abnormal Psychology, 81(2), 158-171.

Walster, E. E. Berscheid and G. W. Walster. (1993). “New Directions in Equity Research.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. pp. 151-176.