things like public recognition encouraging B u s i n e s s F i n a n c e

Identify the consequences of having dissatisfied employees and describe ways of applying the four theories of job satisfaction and how you would use them to boost job satisfaction. Discuss how intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors affect job satisfaction. 

When answering consider how goals may help with job satisfaction and how to design jobs to enhance motivation.

R1

Understanding the reasons behind an employee’s motivation is something that has always fascinated me. I have personally always been a very much so intrinsically motivated employee. But I have found over the years of my professional career that this is not always the case for everyone.

In just my personal experience, I have witnessed first-hand the impact of having dissatisfied employees in the workplace. Dissatisfied employees are more likely to cause high turnover, contribute to high levels of absenteeism, be less efficient, and contribute to the overall negative moral of the workplace environment. The theory that I would choose to use to boost job satisfaction would be the affect theory. Job satisfaction is not something that you can make a checklist for and if you complete x, y and z, all of your employees will be satisfied. Affect theory is more so focused on creating an environment where the energy will promote satisfied employees (Chiew and Braver, 2011). I would use this theory to boost job satisfaction by first surveying the staff to see what types of work environment they find the most effective when it comes to their work and based on those results, implement them into the everyday work day.

Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivational factors has also been an area of interest of mine. Being intrinsically motivation, I am motivated by knowing that I am making a different in my organization.  I want to know that what I am doing is helping someone in the long term and that my job isn’t just “a monkey pushing buttons”. While money does have a factor in my satisfaction, it is not the highest rated factor. I would absolutely sacrifice a small pay cut to have a job that was rewarding. Extrinsically motivated employees are those who are motivated by physical things. These could be things such as job benefits, pay, or the recognition they get from an award. I feel HR departments have a tricky job of figuring out and balancing the motivational factors of its employees. What motivates one person, may be a huge turn off to another. If that balance is not maintained, one group of employees is going to become dissatisfied with their jobs.

Having goals built into jobs may not be the most ideal tactic to use to promote job satisfaction. But if it is done correctly, it could have some positive outcomes. Goals that are tied to positive and negative outcomes could contribute to low employee morale. Whereas if you have a goal tied to positive outcomes, but no negative consequences, it could help enhance motivation. An example for this is similar to what a credit union I used to work for did. Each month we had a goal to meet x amount of referrals for new accounts. At first, this was a huge turn off to me. I didn’t feel it was fair to judge my job performance off of a member’s willingness or need for a new account. Shortly after I started, the company changed their referral goal model to be the qualifying factor for bonuses, but there were not any negative consequences for not meeting this goal other than not being eligible for the bonus.

References

Chiew, K. S., & Braver, T. S. (2011). Positive affect versus reward: emotional and motivational influences on cognitive control. Frontiers in psychology, 2, 279. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00279

R2

A dissatisfied employee can feel incomplete and see their job as only a means to make money. With this outlook they will lack productivity and no desire to excel in their career (Testa, 2021). Using the affect theory, a leader should be clear of their expectations, this would alleviate any confusion of what the worker will be really doing. To use dispositional theory a leader must be willing to familiarize themselves with their workers. Doing this will help a leader know their workers personalities, helping to put them in positions that fit best to encourage self-esteem. Being familiar with the workers a leader could benefit from the two-factor theory. A leader would know if a worker thrived from things like public recognition encouraging a worker to repeat the great behavior getting awarded. On the other hand, someone may simply appreciate to be cut out an hour early. Lastly is the job characteristics model, which seems to be a variety pack of how significant a worker is to the organization. By giving a worker the tools to succeed on their own and feedback on their work can influence the workers perception of their importance to an organization.

The video in our lesson this week shows how intrinsic and extrinsic motivation plays a role in job satisfaction while comparing Costco and Wal Mart. With better pay, health benefits, and showing appreciation to workers, Costco has a lower turnover rate. With a lower turnover rate workers are more competent in their job, increasing job satisfaction. With job satisfaction workers work harder for the organization.

Leaders when getting to know their workers personalities should also learn their goals. This is done in the military by completing an individual development Plan. These are meant to discuss a person’s personal and professional goals. If jobs were designed to have leaders be aware of the workers goals, it would be easier for a leader to assess what can help an individual’s potential to meet them. This in turn can lead to a worker feeling the need to do their best to help a leader who helps them (good use of extrinsic motivation). This can lead to fulfillment that a worker is somewhere that they are cared about, and they are also successful in what they are doing, creating job satisfaction.

Testa, K. (2021, February 3). What is job satisfaction?Smart Capital Mind. Retrieved December 19, 2021, from