Determinants of Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is a multi-variable and indescribable concept. There is a number of factors that influence job satisfaction of employees. These factors can be classified into two categories. They are-

• Organizational and
• Personal variables.

The organizational determinants of job satisfaction play a very important role. The employees spend a major part of their time in the organization so there is a number of organizational factors that determine job satisfaction of the employees. The job satisfaction in the organizations can be increased by organizing and managing the organizational factors. The organization determinants of job satisfaction are as follows:-

• Wages: Wage can be described as the amount of reward that a worker expects from the job. Wages are an instrument of fulfilling the needs as every worker expects to get an appropriate reward. The wages are supposed to be fair, reasonable and equitable. A feeling of job satisfaction is felt by attaining fair and equitable rewards.
• Nature of Work: The nature of work has a significant impact on the job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is highly influenced by the nature of work. Employees are satisfied with the job that involves intelligence, skills, abilities, challenges, and scope for greater freedom. Job dissatisfaction arises with a feeling of boredom, poor variety of tasks, frustration, and failures.
• Working Conditions: Employees are highly motivated with good working conditions as they provide a feeling of safety, comfort, and motivation. On contrary, poor working conditions brings out a fear of bad health in employees.
• Job Content: Factors like recognition, responsibility, advancement, achievement etc can be referred to as job content. A job that involves the variety of tasks and less monotonous results delivers greater job satisfaction. A job that involves poor content produces job dissatisfaction.
• Organizational Level: The jobs that are at higher levels are viewed as prestigious, esteemed and opportunity for self-control. The employees that are working at higher level jobs express greater job satisfaction than the ones working at lower level jobs.
• Opportunities for Promotion: Promotion can be reciprocated as a significant achievement in the life. It promises and delivers more pay, responsibility, authority, independence, and status. So, the opportunities for promotion determine the degree of satisfaction to the employees.
• Work Group: There is a natural desire of human beings to interact with others and so the existence of groups in organizations is a common observable fact. This characteristic results in the formation of work groups at the workplace. Isolated workers dislike they’re The work groups make use of a remarkable influence on the satisfaction of employees. The satisfaction of an individual is dependent on largely on the relationship with the group members, group dynamics, group cohesiveness and his own need for affiliation.
• Leadership Styles: The satisfaction level on the job can be determined by the leadership styles. Job satisfaction is greatly enhanced by the democratic style of leadership. It is because democratic leaders promote friendship, respect and warmth relationships among the employees. On contrary, employees working under authoritarian_. and dictatorial leaders express a low level of job satisfaction.

The personal determinants also help a lot in maintaining the motivation and personal factors of the employees to work effectively and efficiently. Job satisfaction can be related to psychological factors and so numbers of personal factors determine the job satisfaction of the employees. They are as follows:-

• Personality: The personality of an individual can be determined by observing his individual psychological conditions. The factors that determine the satisfaction of individuals and his psychological conditions is perception, attitudes, and learning.
• Age: Age can be described as a noteworthy determinant of job satisfaction. It is because younger age employees possessing higher energy levels are likely to be having more job satisfaction. In older age, the aspiration levels in employees increase. They feel completely dissatisfied in a state where they are unable to find their aspiration fulfilled.
• Education: Education plays a significant determinant of job satisfaction as it provides an opportunity for developing one’s personality. Education develops and improvises individual wisdom and evaluation process. The highly educated employees can understand the situation and assess it positively as they possess persistence, rationality and thinking power.
• Gender Differences: The gender and race of the employees play important determinants of Job satisfaction. Women, the fairer sex, are more likely to be satisfied than their male counterpart even if they are employed in small jobs.

The job satisfaction can also be determined by other factors like learning, skill autonomy, job characteristics, the unbiased attitude of management, social status etc. It is important for managers to consider all these factors in assessing the satisfaction of the employees and increasing their level of job satisfaction.