Employee attitude and job satisfaction

In the modern workplace, the majority of employers want to encourage and prepare their personnel for work, but they are unsure of how to do so since they do not comprehend the drivers of employee motivation. The value of motivation is understood when all employees are treated with respect since they will all be happy with their work and the responsibilities they are required to perform within the company. Despite this, the percentage of job satisfaction has increased in some firms over the past few years, primarily due to lack of the right communication between the managers and the workers. The workers in these situations do not feel part of the organization and they develop a negative attitude towards it. A negative attitude is mainly developed when the employees are not satisfied with the job environment or the roles that they play in these organizations. They may also feel not satisfied mainly due to lack of motivation in the activities that they involve ion the organizations. Theories such as the hierarchy of needs, motivator-hygiene theory, job characteristic model and the dispositional approach have been used to explain the link between attitude, job satisfaction, and motivation. To increase organization performance, managers need to look at the factors that affect the operations and make the right changes to ensure the employees are not satisfied.

Key words: Attitude, job satisfaction, motivation, and behavior.

Introduction

In many arguments, people have wondered why there is the need for employers to spend resources and time to motivate their employees. The managers need to extend the existence and they are cannot achieve this without the right motivation of employees. The employees are part of an organization and when they are not committed to the organization, there is no incentive to excel in their duties. The motivation of the employees should hence take into consideration the attitudes of the employees. When attitudes and job satisfaction is considered, the managers will have an understanding and come up with the right organizational behavior that motivates the employees (Egan, Yang and Bartlett, 2004). The attitude of a person is the general sense against which the person views the actual events, people, and activities. A given subset of the general background sense against which a person appraises various extents of the job that the person involves is referred to as job satisfaction.

To effectively address the challenges that have been experienced in an organization due to an unproductive workforce, there is need to consider the attitudes and job satisfaction of the employees and how this can be achieved through the right motivation strategy. This research paper will look at how attitude and job satisfaction have affected the performance of the organization and how the use of the right motivation strategies improve the performance of the employees. In the first part of the paper, there will be an analysis of the importance of motivation and the right attitudes and job satisfaction in the operations of an organization. The section will look at the importance of the factors to the managers and to an organization as a whole. The net section of the paper will analyze the link between the impact of attitude and job satisfaction to employee motivation and to the organizational behavior. The third section will analyze theories and models that have been used to explain the relationship between attitudes and job satisfaction to employee motivation and organization. The last section will be a conclusion of the main findings.

Analysis

The attitude that a worker has in his workplace is directly linked to the job satisfaction. A worker who is satisfied with the performance in their job place will have a better performance and excel in what they do. In a study that was done by Brayfield and Rothe, (2011),it was determined that when a person gets a job or a promotion, almost 85% of the time is mainly because of the attitude that they have towards the job and only 15% due to the intelligence and the knowledge that they have towards the needs of the job. The attitudes are important for any organization since it dictates the success of an organization. When the attitudes are positive, the organization is likely to be successful as compared to when the attitudes of the employees are negative (Egan, Yang and Bartlett, 2004). When they are negative, they are symptoms of an underlying problem and also a cause of forthcoming difficulties which would be experienced in the organization. Negative attitudes and lack of job satisfaction may result to low performance, strike, shabby customers, poor product quality, absence and employee turnover and work slowdowns.

Job satisfaction is important since a person’s beliefs and attitudes may affect their behavior. Attitudes and belief may make a person perform better through hard work or they may also lead to the negative side where the workers will not be willing to work harder and hence poor performance. Job satisfaction also affects the general well-being of a person since the employees spend a better part of their day at work (Egan, Yang and Bartlett, 2004). Depending on the satisfaction that the employees receive in their workplace, they develop certain attitudes. When they are not satisfied in their area of work, they tend to be dissatisfied with the other areas of life. Job satisfaction also reduces stress for workers. This increases their job performance; physical health and psychological well-being stress affect the decision making which in many situations lead to unethical choices. Contented workers on the other hand always uphold a carefree and positive viewpoint about their work. The positive outlook of the organization also spread to the co-workers and this can make them have a positive experience on the performance of the others.

Importance of the topic

Attitudes are reasonably good predictors of the behaviors that an individual may have. The attitudes are important in providing a clue to the managers on the behavioral intentions of employees and what makes them act in a given way. Managers need to know the attitudes that the employees have in the workplace. Positive attitudes will be important and effective as they are the predictors of constructive behaviors. Negative job attitudes on the other hand help in the prediction of constructive behaviors. When the employees are discontented with their jobs, they lack job participation and they are low in the commitment to the organizations. Managers always aim and need high performance from their employees (Ilardi, Leone, Kasser and Ryan, 2013). The topic on attitudes and job satisfaction and how the two factors affect the behavior is hence an importance consideration when they need to achieve the goals. When the managers determine the attitudes and the job satisfaction that the employees in an organization need, they are able to come up with the right motivation strategies.

Usefulness of the attitude and job satisfaction to organizations and managers

In the operation of an organization, having the right skills and knowledge is important. To have the right skills for a longer time, the organization needs a workforce that is motivated and performs their duties as intended (Ilardi, Leone, Kasser and Ryan, 2013). It is also important to retain the employees. Job satisfaction is important for employee retention. Through job satisfaction, positive attitudes are created in an organization. The organization needs to identify the main factors that influence the motivation of the employees for increased employee performance. The knowledge of the attitudes is also important in formulating strategies for the organization as it is from the strategies that all the factors can be considered and makes the employees feel satisfied within their workplaces.

Managers need the right information of the level of satisfaction and how attitudes affect the motivation of these employees when making decisions in the organization. Managers also need the knowledge in determining the factors that affect the performance of the employees and how this translates to impact the overall production of the organization (Ilardi, Leone, Kasser and Ryan, 2013).

Importance of motivation

Motivation is all about what energizes controls and maintains behavior in an organization. This makes it clear that plays an important role in any organization. The motivation of employees is important for any business. When a workforce is motivated, it implies that it has a highly productive staff, all who will work towards achieving the aims and goals of the organization (Locke and Latham, 2010). In organization and business plan, employee motivation should be an important consideration. In building a motivation strategy, a manager should be able to understand what motivate their workforce. They need to understand what drives the employees to their peak performance. This will be effective in the development of the right programs that will both retain the best workforce and motivate the others in the organization (Locke and Latham, 2010). It is through motivation that employee performance in increased which in turn leads to a high productivity of an organization.

Employee motivation is directly linked to employee job satisfaction and attitudes. There are managers who have held the old myth that when the employees are highly satisfied, it will transform employee performance. This is incorrect. Employees can be motivated through several ways and it is through the processes that they develop positive attitudes towards the organization and this will also make them work towards achieving the objectives of the organization since they will be satisfied with their roles (Locke and Latham, 2010). The satisfaction performance relationship is, however, more complex than just the assumption that satisfaction leads to performance. Commitment in a workplace is achieved when the employees feel they are motivated and when they are satisfied with their job. The link that is between motivation and job satisfaction is hence illustrated more through the commitment that a worker shows towards this organization. Therefore motivation together with job satisfaction leads to employee commitment. Job satisfaction is achieved through the right attitudes of the employees.

Managers in their decisions should use the right approaches in achieving both to lead to job commitment in the organization. The managers need to vary the approaches that they use to keep the workplace interesting to all the employees, these results to increased motivation and job satisfaction. The managers are expected to have the right approaches to enable them to achieve this.

Theories of job satisfaction and work motivation

There are theories and models that can be used to explain the link between motivation and job satisfaction. Some of the theories and models include a hierarchy of needs, motivator-hygiene theory, job characteristic model and the dispositional approach.

Maslow’s needs hierarchy theory examine the important factors that lead to job satisfaction. The theory argues that human beings have needs that can be summarized in a five-level hierarchy. The level discussed include physiological needs, self-actualization, esteem, safety and belongs. According to the theory, these are the motivating factors that lead to job satisfaction. From the factors, the attitudes that are formed by employees in an organization can be determined. The theory also holds that the essential needs are met first before the complex needs are satisfied. The theory was mainly developed to explain the general factors that influence the motivation of human beings but it has been applied in many workplace setting.

Motivator-hygiene theory proposes that job satisfaction and discontent are two different ends that are also at two opposite ends of the same continuum. The theory argues that motivating factors of employees such as benefits and pay, achievement and recognition need to be met to make the employees satisfied with their work. On the other hand, hygiene issues such as company strategies, working settings, job security and communication with the other workers are associated with dissatisfaction in the job places. Since both motivational and hygiene factors are seen as two independent entities, it is possible that the employees are neither contented nor discontented but they are not necessary satisfied. The satisfaction that the employees get is independent of the motivator factor. It is also thought that when the motivators are met by the management the employee is thought to be contented. The separation that is among the factors may be used in accounting for the complexity of the attitudes and the behavior that is developed by the employees since they may feel both satisfied and dissatisfied at the same time.

Job characteristics model explains that the satisfaction that an employee gets from their workplace is when the environment encourages essentially motivating characteristics. The model is mainly based on five main job characteristics including task significance, skill variety, autonomy, task identity and feedback. According to the model, the view that organizations have is that when they improve the five core dimensions of a job. They will have better working environments and hence increase job satisfaction.

Dispositional approach argues that job satisfaction is closely connected to character. The approach argues that the workers have a feeling towards a given level of gratification. The feeling and the attitudes that the employees have towards a given level of job satisfaction remain constant and stable for sometimes. The approach hence holds that different levels of satisfaction have different levels of motivation to the employees and it is the motivation that the performance of the employees is encouraged.

Importance of the topic to understanding employee behavior at work

Employees play an important role in the success of an organization. Through the study of attitudes and job satisfaction of employees, the organization will be able to know that reason why employees may behave in a given way. Customers always view the behavior of a business’s employees as the representatives of how the owners run the company. Through understanding the attitudes that the employees have towards the activities and the process in an organization, the management will have the ability to reach a conclusion on how the attitudes have affected the behavior of the organization. The behavior in an organization can also be determined through the organization performance. When attitudes and the level of satisfaction of the employees are understood the behaviors that impact the performance of the organization can be determined.

Limitation

The limitation of approaching employee motivation by looking at the attitudes and job satisfaction is that satisfaction is neither motivation nor engagement. There has been a confusion of the three concepts and the managers and organization have had the belief that job satisfaction is all about engagement and motivation, the survey that is mainly centered in motivation hence becomes awkward when a deep analysis is done. In an example, there can be a group of young employees who are happy in their area of work due to the part-time pay that they get or the environment that they work and they might spend most of their time on social media when they are in these environments. This indicates that they are satisfied with their job and the environment that they work but they are not engaged. The study of employee motivation through surveying satisfaction is inadequate since most of the surveys that have been done are misused.

Conclusion

In most organizations, employees want to feel that they are being hard by their managers and that they are part of the organization. Employee motivation is an important aspect of organization success and managers need to form the right motivation strategies. Employee motivation ensures that they have the right attitudes towards the operations of the organization and that they are satisfied with their jobs. Employee motivation leads to the development of positive attitudes which increases employee involvement and hence performance. A positive attitude is a sign of success in both the management of the organization and it also transforms to the production of high-quality goods. Management needs to set a positive tone. The tone of any organization begins at the top as it comes down. It is the role of the managers to inspire the employees and help create a positive environment. The managers can achieve this through employing simple techniques as long at the employees feel motivated. From the research, it is evident that the importance of motivation cannot be ignored. It is also evident that achieving increased production, improvement of the overall performance and lowering employee turnover can be achieved through employee motivation.

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