Dispositional and organizational sources of job satisfaction: a cross-national study

ABSTRACT

Job satisfaction has proven to be a resilient contributor to employee motivation, productivity, organizational commitment, absenteeism, and turnover. Utilizing cross-national data from five Asian countries/settings and the United States we examine the impact of organizational and psychological factors on job satisfaction. This study contributes to the literature by showing that while organizational factors, such as performance appraisals and leadership behaviours are important sources of job satisfaction, what matters most is whether individuals perceive themselves to be efficacious in their jobs. Self-efficacy was found to be the strongest determinant of job satisfaction in both, the U.S., and the Asian contexts. Based on cultural characteristics of power-distance and collectivism, this study also examines cross-national differences in the level of public employee job satisfaction.     

Effects of job stress on self-esteem,job satisfaction,and turnover intention

ABSTRACT

This study is focused on female inbound call center counselors who are easily exposed to emotional labor when customers express anger and hostility and use swear words toward invisible targets on the phone. Our study is based on 244 responses from female inbound call center counselors. Job stress has a significantly negative effect on job satisfaction and self-esteem. It was shown that self-esteem has a partially mediating effect, and turnover experience had a moderating effect. It is important to shed new light on the roles of self-esteem among determinants of job satisfaction.     

Surveying transitional experience and subjective well-being: Income, work, family

This paper reviews subjective well-being studies on income, work and family life with particular attention to transition countries. The main differences in conclusions for two types of economic systems seem to be the result of uncertainty and fast changing conditions and their effect on the perception of subjective economic conditions and on expectations formation. The terms ‘happiness’ and ‘life satisfaction’ should be distinguished when evaluating the success of socio-economic policies or of a transformation period as well as when predicting the reaction of economic systems to shocks/crisis. A short summary for more than 70 studies involving subjective well-being and attitudes indicators on data from the economies in transition is included.     

Work hour congruence: the effect on job satisfaction and absenteeism

This study examines the effect of work hour congruence on employee job satisfaction and absenteeism using a large, longitudinal sample from the Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey (WES). An employee is said to have work hour congruence when they actually work the number of hours that they desire. Results indicate a difference between employees who desire more hours and those who desire fewer hours: employee desire for and receipt of more hours was related to positive changes in job satisfaction, while employee desire for and receipt of fewer hours was related to reduced absenteeism. In addition, the results suggest that employees respond to employers who at least try to meet their needs, those who desired more hours and received some, but not all of these additional hours showed a positive increase in job satisfaction. This study contributes to the literature by using of a precise measure of work hour preference and change, differentiating employees who desire fewer hours from those who desire more and examining both full and partial work hour congruence.     

Coworker support as a double-edged sword: a moderated mediation model of job crafting,work engagement,and job performance

Abstract

This research aims to test the mediating effect of work engagement on the relationship between job crafting and job performance, as well as the moderating effects of two forms of coworker support on the job crafting–work engagement relationship. We collected survey-based data from two South Korean samples. Study 1 was conducted on 175 flight attendants. The results of Study 1 were then replicated in Study 2 wherein 181 hotel employees reported their own job crafting and work engagement, and their supervisors rated their job performance one month later. In both studies, work engagement fully mediated the relationship between job crafting and job performance. The positive association between job crafting and work engagement was more pronounced when coworker emotional support was high than when it was low. In contrast, the positive link between job crafting and work engagement was stronger when coworker instrumental support was low than when it was high. Coworker emotional and instrumental support further moderated the indirect effect of job crafting on job performance through work engagement.     

Customer satisfaction of bicycle sharing: studying perceived service quality with SEM model

ABSTRACT

Bicycle sharing is an emerging business in many cities worldwide and has attracted a large number of users, due to its convenience, environmental friendliness, low cost, and flexibility for short-distance travels. This study evaluates main factors affecting the perceived service quality, satisfaction, and loyalty of bicycle sharing customers. We design measurement variables, conduct a satisfactory survey on customers using OFO bicycle sharing service in Ningbo, China, develop a Service-Satisfaction-Loyalty model using structure equation modeling (SEM), and conduct statistical analysis. The perceived service quality was simplified to three dimensions including: perceived service quality of platform, perceived quality of bicycle entity, and perceived quality of value. The results show that SEM model can account for commonly unobserved variables within satisfaction and loyalty of bicycle-sharing. Perceived services quality of bicycle entity and platform are found to affect customer satisfaction significantly, while perceived quality of value is not a significant factor. This study confirms that satisfaction decisively leads to loyalty of bicycle sharing.     

Expatriate pay satisfaction: the role of organizational inequities,assignment stressors and perceived assignment value

Using equity, stress and buffer theories, we investigate the role played by organizational inequities (organizational justice and provision of benefits) and assignment stressors (work adjustment and role novelty) in predicting expatriate pay satisfaction. We also assess the role of perceived assignment value as an important buffer that moderates the above relationships. With a sample of 78 expatriates from nine nationalities working in Hong Kong, we find that organizational justice and work adjustment are both positively related to expatriate pay satisfaction. We also find that perceived assignment value strengthens the provision of benefits–pay satisfaction and work adjustment–pay satisfaction relationships. Limitations and managerial implications are discussed.     

Racial harassment and job satisfaction in South Africa: the moderating effects of career orientations and managerial rank

Employee job satisfaction is a strong predictor of pivotal individual and organizational outcomes, e.g. commitment, productivity, retention. This study examines the mediating role of workplace racial harassment in the association of employee racioethnicity and job satisfaction in the South African context. Furthermore, this study investigates the moderating effects of career-related variables, i.e. career orientations and managerial rank. Results of a survey of 154 employees in South Africa indicate that black South Africans experience more workplace racial harassment than white employees and thus show lower job satisfaction. Moreover, the detrimental effects of workplace racial harassment on job satisfaction are more pronounced among highly career-oriented individuals and/or among employees with no or low managerial rank. The implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.     

The impact of sourcing enterprise system use and work process interdependence on sourcing professionals’ job outcomes

We examine sourcing professionals’ work context to conceptualize how they use sourcing enterprise systems (SESs) and to understand when SES use results in positive/negative job outcomes. We differentiate between SES use for supplier selection and supplier governance, identify sourcing professionals’ work process interdependence as a moderator for the impacts of SES use on job satisfaction, and suggest job satisfaction mediates the impacts of SES use on job performance. We conducted a field study of sourcing professionals’ SES use at one of the largest consumer product companies in the United States, which has implemented an SES to innovate its sourcing professionals’ work processes. Based on our analysis of the survey and qualitative data we collected, we found the impacts of both types of SES use (1) to be negative on job satisfaction when work process interdependence was high, (2) to be positive on job satisfaction when work process interdependence was low, and (3) to be mediated by job satisfaction for job performance. We discuss the implications of our findings for the literature at the intersection of information systems and operations management as well as for the information technology enabled innovation of sourcing processes and, more generally, complex business processes.     

Role overload,knowledge acquisition and job satisfaction: An ambidexterity perspective on boundary-spanning activities of IT employees

Abstract

Building upon the ambidexterity perspective, this study conceptualizes boundary-spanning activities as both transactional and learning to illuminate their different effects on IT employees’ job satisfaction. Specifically, we offer an overarching theoretical framework rooted in ambidexterity by connecting the role theory and knowledge acquisition perspective to reconcile the inconsistency of extant findings. Role overload has a mediating effect on the relationship between boundary-spanning activities (both transactional and learning) and job satisfaction, whereas knowledge acquisition mediates the relationship between learning boundary-spanning activities and job satisfaction. Furthermore, high achievement motivation and learning goal orientation moderate the positive effect of learning boundary-spanning activities on job satisfaction. The quantitative analysis of IT employees in Chinese state-owned enterprises largely supports our hypotheses. We conclude this paper by discussing theoretical and managerial implications for ambidexterity, boundary spanning, and job satisfaction.     

Treating employees fairly and organizational citizenship behavior: Sorting the effects of job satisfaction,organizational commitment,and procedural justice

A study was conducted to measure the relative contribution of perceptions of procedural justice toward predicting organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) controlling for the effects of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Employees in a national cable television company completed a survey containing measures of work satisfaction, affective and continuance commitment, and perceptions of fairness, while their managers completed an OCB survey. Results using LISREL 7 indicated support fpr relationships between procedural justice and commitment, satisfaction, and OCB. However, no individual relationships between commitment and OCB nor between satisfaction and OCB were found once the relationships between justice and citizenship were controlled. These findings are discussed using the group value model of procedural justice.     

Factors influencing applicant willingness to apply for the advertised job opening: the mediational role of credibility,satisfaction and attraction

The present study examined the effects of the information given in a job advertisement on the potential applicants' willingness to apply for the job opening with the mediating roles of credibility of and satisfaction from the information given in the ad and attraction to the organization. One hundred and fifty-four students were randomly assigned to the three different versions of job advertisement. Additionally, a questionnaire package was given to each participant. The results showed that advertisement type affected the willingness of potential applicants to apply for the job and this relationship was mediated by credibility.     

The impact of employee satisfaction on quality and profitability in high-contact service industries

The extant operations management literature has extensively investigated the associations among quality, customer satisfaction, and firm profitability. However, the influence of employee attributes on these performance dimensions has rarely been examined. In this study we investigate the impact of employee satisfaction on operational performance in high-contact service industries. Based on an empirical study of 206 service shops in Hong Kong, we examined the hypothesized relationships among employee satisfaction, service quality, customer satisfaction, and firm profitability. Using structural equations modeling, we found that employee satisfaction is significantly related to service quality and to customer satisfaction, while the latter in turn influences firm profitability. We also found that firm profitability has a moderate non-recursive effect on employee satisfaction, leading to a “satisfaction–quality–profit cycle”. Our empirical investigation suggests that employee satisfaction is an important consideration for operations managers to boost service quality and customer satisfaction. We provide empirical evidence that employee satisfaction plays a significant role in enhancing the operational performance of organizations in the high-contact service sector.     

Job satisfaction and gender: Why are women so happy at work?

By most objective standards, women's jobs are worse than men's, yet women report higher levels of job satisfaction than do men. This paper uses a recent large-scale British survey to document the extent of this gender differential for eight measures of job satisfaction and to evaluate the proposition that identical men and women in identical jobs should be equally satisfied. Neither the different jobs that men and women do, their different work values, nor sample selection account for the gender satisfaction differential. The paper's proposed explanation appeals to the notion of relative well-being, especially relative to workers' expectations. An identical man and woman with the same jobs and expectations would indeed report identical job satisfaction, but women's expectations are argued to be lower than men's. This hypothesis is supported by the finding that the gender satisfaction differential disappears for the young, the higher-educated, professionals and those in male-dominated workplaces, for all of whom there is less likely to be a gender difference in job expectations.     

社区人居环境满意度研究——以大连市为例

以大连市为例,通过问卷调查形式,引入DPSIR模型,运用数学和地理空间分析的方法,定量研究社区人居环境的满意度.研究表明,虽然大连市是人居环境优秀城市,但是居民对社区人居环境满意度的评价却属"一般"等级;从指标权重排列看,社区人居环境的满意度受居民自身状况影响较大,如收入状况、文化层次等;大连市社区人居环境满意度较高社区的分布形式既有分散的核心点分布,又有集中连片的条带状布局.     

The adoption of innovative work practices in service establishments

Using data from the 1994 US National Establishment Survey, the author investigates differences between manufacturing and service establishments in the use of five innovative work practices: total quality management, self-managed teams, job rotation, job sharing and flextime. Service establishments are more likely to use job sharing and flextime. Manufacturing establishments are more likely to use total quality management and self-managed teams. These results hold when controlling for establishments’ business strategies, worker demographics, institutional connections and use of technology. Determinants of adoption of total quality management, self-managed teams and flextime also varied by sector.     

Influence of high performance work systems on employee subjective well-being and job burnout: empirical evidence from the Chinese healthcare sector

Over the last two decades, high performance work systems (HPWSs) research has been dominated by examining the effects of these systems on firm performance. Research on the impact of HPWSs on employees has been marginalised. This study examines the impact of HPWSs on two psychological outcomes for employees, namely, subjective well-being (SWB) and workplace burnout, by utilising data collected from 1488 physicians and nurses in 25 Chinese hospitals. It also examines the moderating effects of employees' organisational based self-esteem (OBSE), as an individual intervention and physician–nurse relationships, as an organisational intervention, on the relationship between HPWSs and employee outcomes. HPWS is found to increase employees' SWB and decrease burnout. Such well-being-enhancing and burnout-relieving effects are stronger when employees have high OBSE. The positive effect of HPWS on SWB is also stronger when there is a collaborative relationship among employees in an organisation. The major contribution of this study is to unpack the ‘black box’ of how HPWS influences employee well-being in the Chinese healthcare sector context.     

Change of work schedule and its implications during financial crisis: the case of the Philippines

This study was conducted on the human resource management response of ten manufacturing companies in the Philippines to the financial crisis that affected the country. Instead of implementing manpower reduction, the companies adopted either flexitime or working-week reduction. The study tried to capture the effects of this approach on employees' job satisfaction and work stress. The study deduced that the change of work schedule affected the level of job satisfaction significantly but did not elicit the same effect in the area of work stress. The results negated the expectations of the management. Employees' perception of their work schedule is among the different factors that affect their job satisfaction.     

The effects of IT-enabled supply chain process change on job and process outcomes: A longitudinal investigation

Prior research on information technology (IT)-enabled supply chain management (SCM) has primarily focused on macro-level issues (e.g., IT capabilities related to SCM, and SCM design and optimization) and outcomes (e.g., firm performance). There has been limited research that focuses on micro-level outcomes related to employees who actually execute SCM processes in organizations. These employee-level outcomes are important because successful implementation of SCM systems and processes hinges on SCM employees’ support and commitment. I develop and test a model positing that SCM employees’ perceptions of changes in their work process characteristics, i.e., process complexity and process rigidity, following a new SCM system implementation will influence their job outcomes, i.e., job performance, job satisfaction, job anxiety, and job security, and their perceptions of process outcomes, i.e., process performance and relationship quality. The model incorporates a holistic appraisal of the extent of change—change radicalness—as a mechanism between work process characteristics and outcomes. The model is supported in three studies conducted in the context of three different SCM system implementations (N = 278, 282, and 304, respectively). In particular, I found that individuals perceived a significant change in their work process characteristics following an SCM system implementation, and changes in work process characteristics had a significant impact on job and process outcomes. These findings contribute to the information systems and operations management literatures and their intersections by offering insights on challenges related to IT-enabled SCM innovation implementation in organizations.     

Predicting employee commitment and satisfaction: the relative effects of socialization and demographics

This study compared the relative influences of organizational socialization and demographic variables on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Organizational variables were assessed by asking 193 Chinese employees in Hong Kong to evaluate socialization within their companies, namely: (1) training received; (2) understanding of the organization; (3) co-worker support; and (4) future prospects within their companies. Dependent variables were standard measures of (affective, continuance and normative) commitment and of satisfaction (with co-workers, pay, promotion, supervisors and the work). Results revealed higher correlations between the socialization measures and job satisfaction and commitment than between the demographic measures and the dependent variables. Although a few demographic measures had some predictive power, the regression analyses confirmed that the socialization variables were consistently stronger predictors of both satisfaction and commitment. Strategic implications for human resource management are discussed.