Monday, April 18, 2022

Job satisfaction and employee turnover

 Fulfillment of many factors will lead to job satisfaction of an individual. These factors may take a different hierarchy depending on the individual perception. The main factors that affects job satisfaction are shown below. (Kapoor 2018).

                    

Remuneration

According to Shaw et al (1998), Pay is something given in exchange for services rendered in an organization. Where the exchange is less favorable to the employee than to the employer, the employee is most likely to leave the firm as soon as alternate employment options are available. (Tsui 1997, sited in Shaw et al 1998). Therefor we can see that pay or the remuneration plays a significant role in retaining and rewarding high quality human resources. To be more precise, one of the critical factors of employee turnover is lower salary. When employees receive lower salary and insufficient financial rewards, they tend to stay no longer with the organization (Lavob, 1997). A common opinion is that good pay can be a strong determinant of job satisfaction that leads to achieve higher productivity in the organization. Naeem et al (2016) also revealed that the turnover intention is significantly negatively associated with the salary, which means that when salary decreases as a result turnover intention increases and vice versa.

Work life balance

Clutterbuck (2003) defined work life balance is a state where individual try to manage potential demand on his or her time and energy in a way that fulfilled needs for his or her well-being. Klopping (2011) defined that work life balance is a measure of control where, when and how individuals work. The best balance between work and personal life depends on individual requirements and as such a general measurement or an equation cannot be drawn.

 Researchers have proved that, mostly employees who are suffering from heavy working hours have to struggle to manage the needs of their family life and they suggested that, flexible working schedules may positively impact on employees in their intention to stay in the job. The matter of maintaining the balance between person’s personal and professional life is mostly a talked topic in modern business world. Noor (2011) revealed that, there is a negative correlation between work life balance satisfaction and intention to leave. And this relationship is mediated by job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

Working conditions

Working conditions mainly refers to the employees working environment. Poor lighting, poor ventilation, noise and disturbances, rest rooms, lunch rooms, furniture and equipment, safety measures available for people who are engaged in hazards jobs makes the working environment of an employee. If these are bad or not up to the expectation of the employee the employee may not be able to cope up for a long period (Singh 2008).  

Long work shifts, heavy and difficult physical tasks, very strict rules and regulations with regard to individual freedom and supervisor’s attitude also makes a part of the employees working environment even though it is not a part of the physical environment of the work place.

Career development and career growth.

Career Development Association of Alberta defined career development as “the lifelong process of managing learning work, leisure and transitions in order to move toward a personally determined and evolving preferred future” (2012).

There are 4 components in career development.

I. Education – Includes basic education requirements and the training and coaching                                         required to have an up to date knowledge in the job.

II. Capability – Individual capabilities and skills required to perform the job well 

III. Networking – Having the correct relationships to perform the job.  

IV. Experience – The hands on experience required to perform the job well.


 Career development is a process and it is a part of the organizations HR strategy. It will span through several years in a person’s career or even take his entire life in the job. 

Below is the career development process.

Figure 2.


Career development is a part of an employee’s career growth process. Career growth is the big picture and it is the overall growth of someone’s professional life. It is the different roles and responsibilities a person handles in different hierarchies in a person’s professional life. 

The existence of a clear career development and a growth path will lead to increase job satisfaction of employees and thereby will negatively impact turnover. If an organization lacks career development programs, it may lose talented employees. By implementing a career development program, it will not retain all the valuable talented employees, but will decrease the risk of losing them.

Job security

Herzberg (1968 cited in Yousef 1998) defines Job security as the extent to which an organization provides stable employment for its employees. It is an assurance to the employee that his/her job will be there for them to be employed as long as they wish. 

When employees are satisfied with the security of their employment they tend to be more satisfied with their jobs than in a situation when the job security is poor. It has been observed that those employees who are hired on contract basis are less motivated than permeant employees and it is mainly because of job security (Anwar 2011).  


Recognition

 Dessler (2011), explains that recognition positively effect on employee performance. Recognition mostly refers to the formal programs that recognizes employees based on various criteria’s like employee of the year, best performer. Best attendance etc. Employers in many countries use recognition program such as long service award or loyalty award for employees who complete many years. Such an action enhances the retention of employees in industries where turnover rate is high

According to Mobely’s theory (1979), as described in an earlier blog, when an employee gets an intention to leave the job he will evaluate the current job that he is employed in now to see whether he is satisfied or happy with it as the initial step. Job satisfaction will play a major role in an employee in deciding whether he is happy in the job and if he finds that all the elements which is required to be happy or satisfied in the job are fulfilled he will not proceed further in the intention to leave the job. As such we can argue that job satisfaction is the main determinant in employee turnover and that it has a strong negative relationship with the turnover intention. 

References

1.  Anwar,S,. Aslam,M. and Tariq,M.R. (2011). Temporary job and its impact on employee performance. Global journal of management and business research. vol 11, no 8 of 2011.

2.    Career Development Association of Alberta. (2012).  What is Career Development? Available from: https://www.careerdevelopment.ab.ca/whatiscd (Accessed on 3rd April 2022).

3. Clutterbuck, D. (2003). Managing work-life balance: A guide for HR in achieving organizational and individual change. Charted Institute of Personal and Development (CIPD) Publishing.

4. Dessler,G.B.V. (2011). Human Resource management (12th ed.). Florida International University.

5. Fadel,S (2019) Career Development an overview. Available from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336812981_Career_Development_An_Overview. (Accessed on 3rd April 2022).

6. Hoppock, R. (1937). Job satisfaction of psychologists. Journal of Applied Psychology, 21(3), pp300–3.Available from  https://doi.org/10.1037/h0057579 (Accessed on 2nd April 2022.).

7.  Yousef,D.A (1998). Satisfaction with job security as a predictor of organizational commitment and job performance in a multicultural environment. International Journal of man power. May 1998. pp 184.

8. Klopping, L. (2011). Work Life Balance. Druck and Binding ,Norderstedt, Germany.

9. Naeem, A, Awan, A.W.A, Anwar M.A. ,Sajid Ali S.S and Qurban, M (2016). Impact of Job Satisfaction & Remuneration on Turnover Intention: A Survey of (Private) Schools of (Okara) Pakistan. International Review of Management and Business Research, 5(2), 653-75.

10. Noor, K.M. (2011). Work-life balance and intention to leave among academics in Malaysian public higher education institutions. International journal of business and social science, 2(11).

11. Shaw, J.D., Delery, J.E., Jenkins JR, GD. & Gupta, N. (1998). An Organization-level Analysis of Voluntary and Involuntary Turnover, Academy of Management Journal, Vol.41.No 5,pp 512.

12. Singh, B.D. (2008). Industrial Relations: Emerging Paradigms. New Delhi: Naraina.




     

11 comments:

  1. As for the Research 3 authors ( done by done by REPE , February 2003 (file:///C:/Users/User/Desktop/Job_autonomy_and_job_satisfaction_new_evidence.pdf)
    In most cases, job happiness does not appear to be linked to personal qualities. However, there are two exceptions. Black workers are less likely than white workers to be content with their jobs overall (other ethnic groups are not significantly different from white workers); and there is some indication that single workers are less satisfied with their jobs overall than married workers. When considered combined, being black and unmarried has a significant negative influence on total job satisfaction.

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  2. Thank you Upul for your comment and agree with you that job happiness or job satisfaction may change from person to person depending on various factors.
    According to Ma et al. (2003), ‘Employees who are young, inexperienced and with high education level tend to have low level of satisfaction about jobs and careers, and have lower commitment to the organization, these negative attitudes are associated with turnover intention’.

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  3. This is a great blog further I noticed one component which has significant relationship to the employee job satisfaction and turnover is different compensation methods. https://www.jois.eu/files/11.pdf this research has proved that this has positive relationship between these two factors

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  4. Thank you for your comment Hasara.
    A good performance management system will act as a motivator according to Herzburgs two factor theory and will increase motivation. Motivated employees will benefit from being satisfied in their job. But the possibility to monitor whether an employee is satisfied with the job from a performance management system is doubtful.

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  5. Imagine having all the factors mentioned yet without the right leadership or supervisory, the system may tend to fail. Mathieu et al(2016) concludes several researchers view as, which "reported that employees with supervisors high on transformational leadership experienced more positive emotions throughout the workday and were less likely to experience decreased job satisfaction, than were those with supervisors low on transformational leadership". And also concludes "that organizational commitment develops through job satisfaction and that organizational commitment mediates the influence of job satisfaction on turnover intentions."

    Mathieu, C., Fabi, B., Lacoursiere, R. and Raymond, L., 2016. The role of supervisory behavior, job satisfaction and organizational commitment on employee turnover. Journal of Management & Organization, 22(1), pp.113-129.

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  6. Amal I would like to suggest another factor which causes Employee turnover. The factor is the culture of the organization. According to Elizabeth( 2012), While organizational culture varies by industry, employer and even by department, it is important in all working environments. Organizational culture influences employee’s job satisfaction, and in prior studies, high job satisfaction has been associated with better job performance. High performing cultures have also been shown to produce excellent results, attract, motivate, and retain talented employees, and adapt readily to change. Job satisfaction is inversely related to turnover intention and low turnover has been shown to increase organizational productivity and performance. Job satisfaction is inversely associated with turnover intention and that organizational culture moderates the magnitude of this relationship.

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  7. Amal, other than these factors, demographic factors can also affect to the employee turnover, Men and women have different turnover rates, according to the findings. Women were traditionally thought to be substantially more likely than males to leave their jobs (Moynihan and Landuyt 2008). Other research has found that job-specific factors such as remuneration and advancement opportunities considerably moderate the gender effect (Kellough and Osuna 1995; Lewis and Park 1989). Surprisingly, recent research in this area finds evidence that women are now less likely than men to leave public groups, with the authors claiming that changes in labor force participation largely explain the result (Moynihan and Landuyt 2008).

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  8. Sree Rekha, and Kamalanabhan (2013) states It is important to satisfy the employees to reduce employee turnover and it is not only about monetary benefits, an organization should look into creating a happy work environment and look into other aspects of job satisfaction to have a positive work environment and reduce employee turnover.

    Sree Rekha, K.R. and Kamalanabhan, T.J. (2013), February. A study on the employee turnover intention in ITES/BPO sector. In Proceedings of the International Conference-Frontiers of Management–Encore. India (pp. 1-10).

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  9. Yes it is very much interconnected as job satisfaction is inversely related to turnover intention and low turnover has been shown to increase organizational productivity and performance. This study finds that job satisfaction is inversely associated with turnover intention and that organizational culture moderates the magnitude of this relationship (Medina, Elizabeth, 2013)

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  10. According to Perumal (2008), emphasis that the employee motivation has relationship with employee demographics further, employee gender, age, nationality and designation reflects the motivation level. The most successful motivation is self motivation therefor, Employee can apply this for personal life or organization to achieve objects and targets (Diamond and Diamond, 2010). Motivation theories improve employee job satisfaction as a result this will improve organization performance and growth (Ramlall, 2004).

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  11. Reviews of the literature on the relationship between employee turnover and job satisfaction have reported a consistent negative relationship (Brayfield & Crockett, 19SS; Locke, 197S; Porter & Steers, 1973; Vroom, 1964).

    ReplyDelete

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