Free Custom «Theories of Job Satisfaction» Essay Paper

Job satisfaction can be defined as the contentment that comes with the performance of a certain task. It is impossible to quantify this term with reference to a particular individual. There are a number of factors that spells if a person can really be contented in a particular task that he undertakes to carry out.

Groups that a person belongs to say a lot when it comes to job satisfaction. His social class, childhood friends, family, do dictate his or her level of satisfaction. People from wealthy families will derive more satisfaction from jobs with that pay very well as opposed to those paying little amounts of money.

The culture of a person also defines this. If a person has been brought up within cultures that uphold that a person should work hard and be content with the conditions the task is offering, the person will most likely derive a lot of satisfaction from this job.

The employees own opinion also dictates if he is content with his job. This opinion is also shaped by the culture of the people. People associating themselves with a certain trait are also likely to be satisfied. There are people who will feel contented with a job because the employer is a famous company. This is association with the company’s trait of fame

The facet model breaks down individual qualities in a job that dictate a person’s satisfaction. These may include the pay, level of engagement, terms of service etcetera. The sum of this and other individual traits add up to maximum satisfaction of an individual.

Jobs affect workers in many ways and this makes organizational policies to count a lot to employees as they spell their level of satisfaction. Some job facets are more important than others making it a relative term to define job satisfaction between different individuals.

Sex and marital status also define the level of satisfaction in people. Males and females have different levels of satisfaction. For singles, security and compensation might as well count more.

Herzberg’s motivator hygiene theory has gone two sets of propositions. He proposes that an employee has both motivator and hygiene needs. Motivator needs deal with how challenging a task itself is while hygiene needs define the psychological and physical needs of this individual. Herzberg therefore proposed that if motivator needs are met, an individual is satisfied and if not the individual is dissatisfied. If hygiene needs are met, an individual is satisfied and if they are not, the individual is dissatisfied.

A job may also cause both satisfaction and dissatisfaction. A person may be satisfied because his motivator needs are being met but dissatisfied because his hygiene needs are not being met. The motivator and hygiene needs are two separate dimensions.

The theory of Herzenberg has been tested by researchers some of whom strongly oppose his propositions.