Job Satisfaction Versus Job Performance

8/13/2019 Job Satisfaction Versus Job Performance

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This essay shall review and explain how the relation between job satisfaction and job performance is the

most complicated and major argument among organizational research centers. What Job satisfaction &

Job performance is individually. The nature of the Job satisfaction & employee performance will also be

discussed. The two scenarios of this essay are that Job Satisfaction leads to Employee performance OR

Job Performance leads to the Employee’s Satisfaction towards his job. These will be explained by

theories & examples that support or are against these scenarios.

Locke (1976) defines “Job satisfaction can be defined as a pleasurable or positive emotional state

resulting from the appraisal for one’s job or job experience”. Job satisfaction is related to being happy

with the job. People differ, from one another, in what they expect from a particular job. Thus, research

has proved that any job should include five very important dimensions which reflect the responses of the

employees on all the aspects of a job. The first dimension is The Work Itself. This dimension shows the

relationship between expectations & experience. The second dimension is The Pay. Pay & satisfaction is

connected to each other. The relation between them is very complex. The connection between them

shows whether the pay offered to people is enough for the job they perform & weather is it enough in

comparison to what the other employees receive. The third dimension is Promotion. Since promotion is

an increase in an employee’s pay it provides major satisfaction. The fourth dimension is Supervision. This

reflects the relation between an employee & his or her immediate supervisor which is an important

ingredient in job satisfaction. The fifth dimension is the Co-workers. This is similar to the fourth

dimension. These 5 dimensions play a very important role to satisfy an employee at his workplace. Job

satisfaction is a very vital milestone. It helps in reducing employee absenteeism which enhances the

employee productivity & increases the turnover of an organization (Rollinson, 2005). Job Performance is

an essential part of Human resource management. It is the most important factors which determine the

companies or organization’s outcomes & success. An individual’s performance is one of the major

concepts in work & organizational psychology. Researchers in the past few years have made

advancement in expanding & clarifying the performance concept (Campbell, 1990).

However, improvements have been made in elaborating predictors & processes linked with individual

performance. The nature of job satisfaction & job performance is related. Various ways have been

determined in which satisfaction & performance are connected. Few researches have used cross-lagged

designs, longitudinal & panel designs to show this relation. Two very important models of this nature are

job satisfaction leading to job performance & job performance causing job satisfaction. Discussing the

first scenario G. Strauss expressed his views by saying “Early human religionists’ viewed the morale-

productivity relationship quite simply: higher morale would lead to improved productivity” (P.264). This

means that the morale & productivity link is very tranquil. Higher levels of morale in employees will





responses & job characteristics. There are five job facets that help in outcomes which are beneficial. They

are skill variety, task significance, autonomy, and task identity and job feedback. The first three

dimensions that is skill variety, task identity & task significance make the employee feel the importance

of the task he/she performs. Autonomy shows the encountered responsibility of conclusions of the work.

Feedback of the job helps understanding if the job performed is up to the expected results (Hackman and

Oldham, 1976, 1980).

For instance, an employee working in a company which produces cereals for children would hire an

employee based on the skill required in the making which would give skill variety, & task identity is the

completion of that job from the start to end process and the task significance would depend on the impact

that the product (cereal) makes on the rest of the people consuming the product & this contributes to the

amount of responsibility which is on the shoulders of that employee which is the fourth characteristic of

the theory called autonomy, the fifth one called the feedback is the follow up procedure used by the

employee to be aware of the concerns raised by the people who consume the end product which helps in

the betterment of the product. When it comes to explaining job satisfaction leading to job performance

The Herzberg’s Two Factor theory is of increased relevance. Here the two factors are Hygiene Factors &

Motivator factor. They consist of extrinsic & intrinsic factors respectively. The hygiene factors consist of

pay, job security, fringe benefits & status. Whereas motivator factors include opportunities for growth, a

stimulating task, recognition & the feeling of achieving something. Hygiene factors dissatisfy the

employee, whereas, motivational factors helps in increasing satisfaction among employees. So, there is

hygiene factors have a negative effect. But for the motivational factors the effect is only positive factors.

Therefore, factors that lead to satisfaction are recognition, responsibility, growth & advancement. The

factors that lead to dissatisfaction are salary, work conditions, relationship with colleagues. For instance,

if a worker is paid less but given lot of responsibility he will be dissatisfied but if the worker is given not

much responsibility but is highly paid he will be satisfied. Thus, Herzberg claims that the satisfaction of

an employee with his work directs to betterment in the job performance.

The Big Five Personality theory by Costa & McRae (1992) includes five factors which are openness,

conscientiousness, extravert, agreeableness and neuroticism. Openness means being imaginative, open

minded & logical. Conscientiousness is modest, self-discipline & behaves in an orderly manner.

Extraverts are self-confident, active & gregarious. Agreeableness is straight forward, truthful & passivity.

Neuroticism or negative emotionality is self-conscious, defenseless & impulsive. These factors have a

negative impact on the organization & the employee which shows that not only job satisfaction but other

aspects also affect the job performance of an employee in an organization. (Buchanan & Huczynski,

2007, P149). Much research has been directed on the Big Five. This has brought about both denunciation



and support for the model. Reviewers contend that there are restrictions to the degree of Big Five as an

illustrative or prescient hypothesis. It is contended that the Big Five does not illustrate all of human

emotional persona. The approach used to distinguish the dimensional structure of emotional disposition

qualities, component investigation, is regularly tested for not having a generally-distinguished foundation

for picking around explanations with distinctive various variables. An additional incessant sentiment is

that the Big Five is not speculation-driven. It is just an information-driven examination of certain

descriptors that will usually bunch as one unit under variable investigation.

The Value percept theory, The Job Characteristics Theory & Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory shows that

Job satisfaction leads to better Employee performance. Value percept theory shows that every factor leads

to satisfaction in a worker. The job characteristics theory shows the five facets that satisfy the employee

which leads to performance. The Herzberg’s two factor theory shows the negative & positive factors . The

Big Five Personality theory shows the negative facts which affect the employee and / or the

organization’s turnover . Even though there have be a lot of hindrances & restrictions while researching &

conducting the study, it can be concluded that the managers must improve the level of job satisfaction

which in-turn will help in the betterment of performing the job. After all the discussion, research &

arguments, the essay concludes that Job satisfaction leads to better Job Performance. Thus answering the

question, it is desirable that the employees perform well and so high level of job satisfaction is very

important in an organization.



Reference list:

Buchanan, D.A. & Huczynski, A.A. (2007). Organizational behavior (6th ed.) Harlow Pearson Education

Limited.

Campbell, J. P. (1990). Modeling the performance prediction problem in industrial and organizational

psychology. In M. D. Dunnette & L. M. Hough (Eds.), Handbook of industrial and organizational

psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 687 – 732). Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press.

Colquitt, J. A., LePine, J. A., & Wesson, M. J. (2009). Organizational behavior: improving performance

and commitment in the workplace (2nd ed.) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Hackman, J.R. and Oldham, G.R. (1976) Motivation through the design of work: Test of a Theory.

Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 16, 250-279.

Hackman, J.R. and Oldham, G. R. (1980) Work Redesign, Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.

Judge, T. A., Thoresen, C. J., Bono, J. E., & Patton, G. K. (2001). The Job Satisfaction-Job performance

Relationship: A Qualitative and Quantitative Review. Psychological Bulletin, 127(3), 376-407.

Kreitner, R., Kinicki, A. & Buelens, M. (2002), Organizational behavior (2nd ed.), New York: McGraw-

hill

Luthans,L. (2005) Organizational Behavior(10th ed.) New York, McGraw-hill Companies.

Pushpakumari, M.D. (2008). The impact of Job Satisfaction on Job Performance. P 89-103

Rollinson, D. (2005) Organizational Behavior & Analysis An Intergrated Approach. (3rd rd.) Harlow

Pearson Education Limited.

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Job Satisfaction Versus Job Performance