Individuals who find satisfaction in their daily job and usually noted to be more productive adding to the individual as well as organizational performance. Employees who derive job satisfaction at work also have high morale or self-confidence allowing them to exude positivity, encouraging better performance.
Even Napoleon said: ‘The effectiveness of the army depends on its size, training, experience and morale, and morale is worth more than all the other factors together.’
Workers who are happy at work will even devote private time to their work activities, they will be creative and committed, they will seek a way to cross any obstacle which might exist in the realization of their jobs, and they will assist their colleagues and superiors.
However, it is important to emphasize that the relationship between job satisfaction and performance or success is far from simple and direct.
It is obvious that job satisfaction is an unobservable variable. Therefore, there is no definite way of measuring job satisfaction. But there are a variety of ways can be identified from the current literature. There are several factors that influence job satisfaction. The major ones can be summarized by recalling the dimensions of job satisfaction. They are pay, the work itself, promotions, supervision, workgroup, and working conditions.
Rewards are the most common incentives provided by organizations to aid job satisfaction. Though the rewards are provided by the organization, they are evaluated by the individual. To the extent that the rewards are adequate and equitable, the individual achieves a level of satisfaction. The rewards can be broadly categorized into two groups, namely intrinsic rewards and extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic rewards are psychological rewards that are experienced directly by an individual. These are defined as rewards that are part of the job itself. Extrinsic rewards are provided by an outside agent such as a supervisor or workgroup. Pay, promotions, interpersonal relationships, status and fringe benefits are some of the examples for extrinsic rewards. Responsibility, achievement, autonomy, personal growth, challenge, complete work and feedback characteristics of the job are some intrinsic rewards.
Performance depends greatly on perception, values and attitudes. There appear to be so many variables influencing the job performance that is almost impossible to make sense of them.
Several studies have been conducted to assess the relationship between productivity and job satisfaction. One study conducted for private employees in developing countries concluded:
- Employees who are in higher levels tend to derive more satisfaction from intrinsic rewards while employees who are in lower levels tend to derive more satisfaction with extrinsic rewards
- Financial benefits play an important role to satisfy, retain and attract employees
- The job satisfaction appears to be gender agnostic
