job satisfaction research topics

What drives job satisfaction? Researchers think this is the answer

It's less of what you do, but more who you do it with. Image:  Unsplash/Marten Bjork

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Stay up to date:, future of work.

• Being interested in your work might not be the key to job satisfaction.
• Your boss and colleagues are more important, a new study of data going back to 1949 says.
• But being interested in what you do will improve your pay and promotion prospects.

Hate your job and want to move on? Chances are that it's down to your boss or the people you work with, rather than how interesting you find the work.

What defines job satisfaction?

A new study based on data going back to 1949 turns conventional wisdom about the sources of job satisfaction on its head. Far from the generally accepted notion that it's down to the work itself, people, it seems, could be the most important ingredient.

“To be satisfied with a job, you don’t have to worry too much about finding a perfect fit for your interests because we know other things matter too,” says Levin Hoff, an assistant professor of psychology at Houston University.

“As long as it’s something you don’t hate doing, you may find yourself very satisfied if you have a good supervisor, like your coworkers, and are treated fairly by your organization.”

To reach his conclusions, Hoff and his team analyzed 39,600 interviews conducted over 65 years.

Pay and promotions

They also found that while interest in a job may not matter much when it comes to satisfaction, it does help with career prospects. “Being interested in your work seems more important for job performance and the downstream consequences of performing well, like raises or promotions,” says Hoff.

Career guides have traditionally advised young people to look for a job in an area that fits with their personal interests. Hoff says it's still a useful approach but it's no predictor of long-term job satisfaction.

“In popular career guidance literature, it is widely assumed that interest fit is important for job satisfaction,” he says.

“Our results show that people who are more interested in their jobs tend to be slightly more satisfied, but interest assessments are more useful for guiding people towards jobs in which they will perform better and make more money.”

Job Satisfaction factors

Hoff’s findings are borne out by a study of 2,500 US workers last year in which more than half said the people they worked with and their immediate boss were more important to their job satisfaction than whether they were interested in their work.

Fewer than half of those surveyed said their satisfaction at work depended on their pay or their work-life balance, instead rating job security, paid holidays and their workplace environment, more highly.

A survey in June this year by HR firm Randstad found that although two-thirds felt COVID-19 had negatively impacted on their work, three-quarters thought their boss was supportive and was looking after their well-being.

Who’s happiest?

In the same survey, workers at both ends of the age range and those with higher qualifications said they were the most satisfied.

Men were more satisfied than women, although the balance was reversed among workers aged 45-67 with older women enjoying more job satisfaction than male colleagues.

On the global stage, India has the most satisfied workforce, followed by Argentina and the US, while, according to Randstad , Portugal, Hong Kong, SAR and Japan sit at the bottom of the job satisfaction league table.

Future skills

Still, as Hoff’s report says, while it may not always be key to satisfaction, interesting work plays an important role in many people’s careers and performance. And with the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution , jobs that exercise the grey matter will grow in importance.

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2020 forecasts that COVID-19 will accelerate remote working and automation, predicting that machines will displace 85 million manual repetitive jobs.

At the same time, it says, 97 million new jobs will be created. In-demand skills of the future will include analytical thinking and problem solving as well as creativity, social influencing, team working and resilience.

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The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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• v.7(4); 2021 Apr

Job satisfaction behind motivation: An empirical study in public health workers

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The data that has been used is confidential.

The health sector is characterized as labor-intensive, which means that the effectiveness of an organization that operates within its context is inextricably linked to the level of employee performance. Therefore, an essential condition, in order to achieve higher standards, in terms of the effectiveness of the health units, as well as set the foundations of a solid health system, is to take maximum advantage of the full potential of human resources. This goal can only be accomplished by providing the appropriate incentives, which will naturally cause the adoption of the desired attitude and behavior. In the case of Greece, there is not enough research relative to the needs of health workers and, consequently, the incentives that can motivate them. This article aims to investigate the dynamics that may be behind health workers at a public hospital in Northern Greece. Data were collected from 74 employees in the hospital and were analyzed using ANOVA analysis. The results show that key motivators for the employees can be considered the relationships with their colleagues and the level of achievement, while the level of rewards and job characteristics play a secondary role. These results make it clear that, in order for the hospital's management to be able to improve the level of employee performance, it should ensure the establishment of a strong climate among employees, and also acknowledge the efforts made by them.

Motivation; Job satisfaction; Performance; Health personnel; Healthcare.

1. Introduction

The field of health is particularly complex as it focuses on the provision of health services, which are mainly produced by the human resources that staff the health units. The quality of the services under study is largely determined by the behavior of health workers as a result of their efforts ( Musinguzi et al., 2018 ). For this reason, the administrations of the health units must give great importance to the utilization of the human factor, to increase their effectiveness and, consequently, the effectiveness of the health units. In order for healthcare workers to be efficient and provide patients with superior quality services, the followings are necessary: health workers must have clear expectations of the subject of their work and their work environment, they must have the appropriate knowledge and skills needed for their work, they must have access to necessary equipment, receive feedback on their performance and have a supervisor who motivates them. More simply, healthcare workers need incentives to motivate them in order for them to satisfy patients and increase their effectiveness ( Hotchkiss et al., 2015 ; Huber and Schubert, 2019 ; Schopman et al., 2017 ).

Even in those cases where health workers do not have the proper means and equipment, incentives given to them seem to help them overcome these problems and attend to patients to the fullest. Popa and Popescu (2013) and Rossidis et al. (2016) argue that meeting the needs of employees through the provision of incentives is a powerful tool that administrations can use to motivate them and increase their productivity. This is an element that all health organizations should take advantage of, as this can help them to deal with and overcome serious problems that limit their effectiveness ( Borst et al., 2020 ; Valdez and Nichols, 2013 ). In this context, it is important to state that motivating healthcare workers is an urgent need as it increases their performance and consequently increases the efficiency of the services provided as well as patients’ satisfaction ( Hotchkiss et al., 2015 ; Rubel et al., 2020 ).

The present research aims to examine the factors that may motivate employees at a public hospital in Northern Greece. The need to provide incentives for healthcare workers in order to increase their performance is urgent, as the health systems of several countries have been severely affected bythe global financial crisis, which must be overcome. Reducing the number of health care workers coupled with shortages of material and technological equipment limits the efficiency and effectiveness of health care units, making it necessary for their administrations to look for a way out. The management of health units, in order to achieve effective management of available resources and produce higher quality health services, must make the best use of the human factor.

Essentially, the administrations of the Greek health units must design realistic incentive programs for their employees so that they can increase their efficiency. The provision of incentives to health workers is necessary for them to meet their needs. This means that healthcare management needs to know what motivates its staff to meet their needs and also needs to know whether their needs differ based on their personality type and profession. The results of this work are expected to be particularly useful and collaborate with other research work done during the last years of the economic crisis on the needs of health employees and knowing the incentives that can motivate them.

The research questions posed for the present research work to answer are:

• 1. What are the internal factors that motivate health professionals and the administrative staff of the hospital?
• 2. What are the external factors that motivate health professionals and the administrative staff of the hospital?

This paper is divided into sections: section 1 introduction of the subject, section 2 presents the theoretical background about the motivation of healthcare workers. Section 3 is the methodology, Section 4 presentation of research findings and Section 5 comments on the research results and the conclusions of the study.

2.1. Hospital management

The management of hospitals is very important for their proper functioning. It is also worth noting that hospital management differs from that of other sectors. Additionally, there are important differences between the management of private and public hospital management. The main goal of the management of private health units is to achieve profit and reduce costs and required resources. On the other hand, the main purpose of public hospitals is to promote and provide health services to all citizens without discrimination and exclusion criteria. There is also a great deal of effort in public hospitals to increase the quality of services provided, which often leads to a waste of available resources, creating problems for public health units ( Masango-Muzindutsi et al., 2018 ; Musinguzi et al., 2018 ).

In public hospitals, due to the difficult economic conditions prevalent in this country, there are problems in the quality of services provided. Great efforts are being made to reduce the cost of health services without quality being compromised. The measures taken by governments include attempts to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of public organizations, and rational use of the limited resources available. Thus, it is necessary to have the appropriate management in the health sector, which will be able to use resources rationally and in particular to coordinate the human resources in the most effective way to increase the quality of services provided in public health units ( Aysen and Parumasur, 2011 ; Liu et al., 2015 ). Also, in modernizing the administration of the public health units, efforts should be made to eliminate the pathogenesis of the Greek health system and reduce its weaknesses that have existed for years. It is worth noting that the management of public hospitals should be free from influences such as government policy so that it can carry out its work in the best possible way and be guided by the social interest and service of the citizens.

It has been found that leadership is very important in creating the necessary conditions within an organization to successfully achieve its goals. In essence, leadership is influenced by the reactions and behaviors of employees in relation to organizational change, the performance of the business as a whole, job satisfaction of staff and the culture that prevails within an organization. A leader, based on his values and characteristics, can positively or negatively affect employees and their behavior. Every leader, based on his or her skills and abilities, makes appropriate decisions and influences the way employees work and is also responsible for the elimination and proper management of conflicts and issues that may arise in the business ( Belrhiti et al., 2020 ; Curtis & O'Connell, 2011 ).

If a leader is effective, he or she can create an attractive vision for employees and inspire them to pursue and work toward the success of their goals. Also, a leader is effective when he can motivate his subordinates and make them committed to achieving their goals. Other actions of an effective and successful leader include the creation of performance and reward criteria, and the creation of effective teams and modes of communication between employees ( Musinguzi et al., 2018 ; Rubel et al., 2020 ).

Several factors have been reported to increase the job satisfaction of health care workers. One of the factors that contribute to the increase in staff satisfaction is their salary and wages. In fact, due to the pathogenesis of the Greek health system as well as their economic crisis and cuts in health care expenditures, there have been reductions in staff's salaries, invalid payments of medical and nursing staff and non-payment of various allowances in this profession. These factors lead to a reduction in healthcare staff's job satisfaction ( Halldorsdottir et al., 2018 ; Kontodimopoulos et al., 2009 ).

To improve the job satisfaction of medical and nursing staff as well as productivity, there could be some level of reward. Thus, each health care worker could be more productive if there is a corresponding reward that would lead to an increase in his/her job satisfaction. This can make the entire performance of the whole health unit to increase, which in turn would increase the quality of services provided ( Borst et al., 2020 ; Kontodimopoulos et al., 2009 ; Rubel et al., 2020 ).

Equally important is the fact that there is an increased sense of job satisfaction in workers at health organizations and a sense of justice within the unit. Meritocracy, objective judgment on promotions and salary increases, rational division of duties and work within the unit, fair distribution of shifts and impartial attitude of the administration are significant factors that can influence job satisfaction of nursing and medical staff ( Kontodimopoulos et al., 2009 ; Schopman et al., 2017 ). These factors can contribute to the increase in employees’ satisfaction, and as will be analyzed in the next section, they can also be incentives for employees in health units.

Other important factors that can lead to increased job satisfaction of healthcare workers are factors related to working conditions and the work environment. In particular, these factors include the existence of comfortable and functional workplaces and staff rest, the existence of appropriate equipment and consumables and the relationships among employees and those between employees with management. The factors that boost job satisfaction of medical and nursing staff include good communication that should be reciprocal, teamwork, and cooperation as well as the existence of good relations and respect within the health unit ( Kontodimopoulos et al., 2009 ; Schopman et al., 2017 ).

Another factor that increases the job satisfaction of healthcare employees is the acknowledgment of their work and appreciation they receive from their colleagues, management and patients. When the work of employees is acknowledged, they have increased levels of job satisfaction ( Borst et al., 2020 ; Lambrou et al., 20 , 10 ). Aside the acknowledgment of their work, employees are highly satisfied with their job when there are opportunities for development and growth within the health unit ( Lambrou et al., 2010 ). There is a need for these conditions to be present in the health units to increase the job satisfaction of their staff.

Other important factors that increase employees’ job satisfaction include the assignment of important responsibilities to them and allowing them to participate in the decision-making process ( Lambrou et al., 2010 ; Schopman et al., 2017 ). This will make them to feel that it is important to carry out important decisions and actions within the unit, thereby increasing their job satisfaction. From the above, the management and the leadership in each health unit should take into account the factors that can increase the job satisfaction of their employees. In this way, they will be able to increase their efficiency and productivity and make the health unit work much more efficient and successful, increasing the satisfaction of health service users.

2.2. Encouraging healthcare workers

In recent years, the interest in motivating health workers has been particularly strong as it seems to be crucial to the quality and effectiveness of the services provided. Rosak-Szyrocka (2015) argues that motivating health workers is a necessary and important process as it ensures their commitment both to their organization and the work they produce. As a result, the quality of the work of health and administrative staff is increasing. Therefore, it is expected that patients will receive not only satisfaction from the services they receive but also from the relationships they develop with doctors, nurses and the administrative staff of the health units. The effect of health workers' motivation on the quality of health care provided to patients is also confirmed by Alhassan et al. (2013) and Babic et al. (2014) . In particular, Alhassan et al. (2013) , through their research, showed that health workers who are not motivated by the administrations of the health units in which they are employed are very likely to provide unsafe health services.

Tsounis et al. (2013) , through a literature review, concluded that healthcare workers may not perceive incentives the way employees in other sectors do. They also argue that the individual categories of healthcare workers can be motivated in different ways and degrees due to their different needs and requirements. Typically, financial rewards are not an incentive for doctors to increase their performance. This is contrary to what happens in many different industries and also with other categories of healthcare workers. Instead, doctors seem to be motivated when they meet their goals and are acknowledged by both hospital management and their colleagues.

Identifying the factors that motivate healthcare workers has also been a significant subject of research by Babic et al. (2014) . They tried to identify whether there are differences between the incentives that motivate employees in the private health sector and those in the public health sector. The results of the survey showed that not all employees are motivated by material rewards as they are very low and employees in the private sector are positively motivated by the existence of security conditions. Also, in both private and public sectors, healthcare workers seem to be positively motivated by peer relationships and the support that develops between them. In contrast, employees in both private and public sectors do not seem to be satisfied with the way their superiors assess them, which does not help to motivate them. The results are moving in the same direction regarding the development incentives provided to both private and public health sectors, which are very limited and cannot motivate healthcare workers to increase their performance ( Mariappan, 2013 ).

Bhatnagar et al. (2017) argue that various motivations can lead to the promotion of healthcare workers, which can be either internal or external. Characteristically, they argue that their faith, values and self-efficacy are internal factors that influence or motivate them; economic gains and working conditions are external motivations that can affect their performance. Lambrou et al. (2010) , in their study, tried to investigate the factors that can motivate healthcare workers to adopt the desired behavior. The results of the research showed that salary, the relations between the colleagues as well as the nature of the work, are the determining factors of their motivation.

Hotchkiss et al. (2015) also researched on the incentives that health unit administrations can provide to employees to increase their effectiveness. They found that being motivated by both internal and external factors influences the effectiveness of workers. More specifically, employees' self-efficacy and self-esteem are two of the main internal motivations that motivate healthcare workers. It also emerged that in Ethiopia, healthcare workers’ satisfaction with their financial earnings, working conditions and relationships with their colleagues are the main external motivations that can motivate them.

Dagne et al. (2015) conducted another study in Ethiopia that tried to explain the factors that drive healthcare workers. The results of this research showed that healthcare workers are primarily motivated by their superiors and the relationship they create with them, by financial rewards, the nature of the work and the tasks they undertake and the location of the hospital where they work.

In addition, Shah et al. (2016) , in their research, concluded that the main factors that can motivate employees in the field of health are the safety of the work environment, recognition and rewarding of their work, provision of incentives and the possibility of their development within work.

Janus et al. (2008) identified various incentives that can be offered by healthcare unit management so that healthcare workers can be motivated and increase their effectiveness. Such incentives are participation in the decision-making process, participation in educational programs, the existence of security conditions in the work environment, good relations between colleagues as well as fair treatment given by their superiors. However, the most important incentives seem to be the financial rewards provided to healthcare workers by the management of health facilities ( Alotaibi et al., 2016 ; Halldorsdottir et al., 2018 ).

In a bid to examine the importance of motivating health workers in Greece, Gaki et al. (2013) investigated the factors that can motivate the nurses of Greek hospitals. The study involved 200 nurses who argued that they cannot be motivated only by material rewards (financial rewards) but also by factors that contribute to their personal and professional development. They also argued that their motivating factor is the job satisfaction they receive both from the exercise of their duties and from the conditions prevailing in their work environment. Holmberg et al. (2016) found the same results in a survey conducting in a Swedish clinical nursing staff.

2.3. Differentiation of incentives according to the personal and professional characteristics of health workers

A particularly interesting study is that of Rosak-Szyrocka (2015) , which makes it clear that gender is a significant factor in differentiating the health needs of workers and therefore the motivations of those who positively influence their behavior. More specifically, he argues that perceptions and social stereotypes affect their needs and thus seek different motivations to be able to be motivated. Lambrou et al. (2010) to this; it makes it clear that female health workers are more easily motivated by salary compared to men. Goncharuk (2018) found that the most significant motivator for women is salary but for men is the characteristics of their job.

Like the above researchers, Shah et al. (2016) found that there is a difference between the factors that motivate women and men who work in the health sector, making it clear that motivating women is a more difficult process. Like gender, the age of healthcare workers seems to be a determining factor in differentiating the motivations that can lead to the promotion of healthcare workers ( Gaki et al., 2013 ; Kantek et al., 2015 ; Park and Lee, 2020 ). Contrary to the above research, the research of Babic et al. (2014) did not identify the existence of different needs between the sexes. Babic et al. (2014) concluded that demographic characteristics do not affect employees' views on those factors that may affect their performance and actually motivate them. Similarly Dagne et al. (2015) found no significant statistical relationship between the demographic characteristics of the sample and the factors that motivate them.

The study led by Toode et al. (2015) provided additional support for the assertion that demographic factors for example age, working experience, position and educational training influence nurses’ motivation. They found that older and more tenured nurses were more probable motivated by external reasons. For managers, this is a particularly significant outcome to underline and brings up the issue of how to help and keep up intrinsic motivation when staff get older and have worked longer in medical care. Another important outcome is that workers who have had received limited training during the most recent years were less motivated than colleagues who were accomplished. Concerning family life, having children and whether the staff members lived alone or with a partner had no relation to their work motivation.

It is also important to note that the position of employees in the health unit affects their needs and requires the formation of different policies on the part of management to motivate them. Tsounis et al. (2013) argue that physicians are motivated by different factors and motivations compared to nurses and administrative staff. Similarly, Lambrou et al. (2010) showed that nurses are more interested in motivations that relate to material rewards than physicians who are interested in other motivations as stated earlier on. The highest ranked factor for nurses’ motivation is “achievements” according to Grammatikopoulos et al. (2013) which conducted in Greece.

The following hypotheses have been identified on the basis of existing studies:

Job related factors positively affect healthcare professionals' satisfaction.

Factors related to salary positively affect healthcare professionals' satisfaction.

Factors related to relationships with colleagues positively affect healthcare professionals' satisfaction.

Factors related to work achievements positively affect healthcare professionals' satisfaction.

3. Materials and methods

The research is carried out on the employees of a public hospital in Northern Greece and specifically, on the administrative employees, nurses and doctors. This means that the research population is the staff of the hospital under study, which amounts to 947 people. The study involved 74 hospital staff as the number of correctly completed questionnaires collected. It is important to note that 150 questionnaires were distributed, of which 11 were incorrectly completed and 65 were not completed at all, indicating a relatively high reluctance to participate in the survey.

The questionnaire is based on Paleologou et al. (2006) and it includes 4 categories of factors in order to examine the level of workers’ motivation in healthcare. These factors are related to job, salary, relationships with colleagues and work achievements. A 5point Likert ordinal satisfaction scale was used. Appendix displays the items as they appeared in the survey. Data were analyzed using ANOVA.

This paper does not involve chemicals; procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use. Furthermore, it does not include experiments that may raise biosecurity concerns or human subjects or a clinical trial. Finally, the paper does not involve experimentation on animals.

Majority of the 74 employees were women (n = 60, 81.08%) while a smaller percentage were men (n = 14, 18.92%). 37.84% (n = 28) of the participants were aged 36–45 years, 36.48% (n = 27) of the participants were aged 46–55 years, 17.57% (n = 13) of the participants were aged 26–35 years and 8.11% (n = 6) of the participants were aged 18–25 years. 43.24% (n = 32) of the participants were graduates form Technological Institutes, 29.73% (n = 22) of the participants were high school graduates, 8.11% (n = 6) were postgraduate degree holders, 4.05% (n = 3) were graduates from Universities, 2.7% (n = 2) were school graduates and only 12.16% (n = 9) stated another level of education. The vast majority were health professionals (n = 73, 98.65%) and only 1 person (1.35%) was an executive staff ( Table 1 ).

Table 1

Descriptive statistics of the sample.

Internal consistency was calculated via Cronbach's alpha with the minimum requirement of 0.70 ( Newkirk et al., 2003 ). The Cronbach's alpha coefficient values for the variables are calculated in Table 2 .

Table 2

Reliability analysis of the questionnaire items.

The outcomes of Pearson's correlation analysis done to ascertain the level and type (direct or inverse) of relationship amongst the variables are presented in Table 3 .

Table 3

Correlation matrix.

From the normal P–P and scatter plots ( Figure 1 ), the data are usually distributed (all residuals cluster around the ‘line’) and conform with the assumptions of homogeneity of variance (homo-scedasticity) and linearity. The residual errors are evenly spread and not linked to the predicted value, thereby suggesting that the correlation is linear, and the variance of y is the same among all values of x, which supports the homoscedasticity assumption ( Kachigan, 1991 ). Z-score was used to evaluate the univariate outliers and all values were within the acceptable range. Mahalanobis and Cook's distances were used to evaluate the multivariate outliers. No influential outliers were identified. Variance inflation factors (VIFs) was used to evaluate Multicollinearity.

Standard P–P plot of the regression standardized residual and a residual scatter plot.

Table 4 presents the regression coefficients and the results of hypothesis testing. The path coefficient between job factors and satisfaction was negative and not statistically significant (β = -0.008, p > 0.05). Therefore, H1 was not supported. There was a negative and not statistically relationship between the factors that are related to salary and satisfaction (β = -0.012, p > 0.05). Therefore, H2 was not supported. There was a negative and not statistically significant relationship between the factors that are related to relationship with colleagues and satisfaction (β = -0.186, p > 0.05). Thus, H3 was not supported. There was a positive and statistically significant relationship between the factors that are related to work achievements and satisfaction (β = 0.577, p < 0.05). Thus, H4 was supported.

Table 4

Regression analysis between independent variables and dependent variable.

∗p < 0.05, ∗∗p < 0.01, ∗∗∗p < 0.001.

5. Discussion

The findings show that the majority of the sample is moderately satisfied with the exercise of power within the hospital as well as moderately satisfied with the clarity of their work objectives. However, it should be noted that there is a significant percentage of respondents who are not at all satisfied with the clarity of their work goals. This raises significant concerns as these employees do not have a goal to guide their actions and behavior. Also, a large part of the sample states moderate to good satisfaction with the clarity of their duties, but again several employees do not seem to understand what their obligations are.

The majority of the survey participants are moderately satisfied with the safety of their work environment. A large part of the participants believes that their potential cannot be maximized as they are not provided with the appropriate opportunities. Regarding the satisfaction they receive from the conditions prevailing in the work environment of the hospital, majority of the sample statement is very satisfied, which is very encouraging as it seems that there is a positive atmosphere; however, all the employees are not very satisfied with the resources of the hospital in order to be able to perform their work.

Regarding the possibilities of personal and professional development through the educational programs provided to the employees of the hospital, majority of the sample and specifically almost half of the participants expressed moderate satisfaction. This makes it clear that there are significant opportunities for improvement as job development and training opportunities must be provided to employees in order to improve their skills and abilities. Also, it seems that most of the participants are moderately satisfied with the ability to exercise control over the decisions made and with the ability to participate in the decision-making process. In this regard, with the satisfaction that employees receive from their job position, several employees show little satisfaction, several employees who show great satisfaction and finally many who show great satisfaction.

Of particular interest are the views of employees at the Hospital regarding the satisfaction they receive with the achievements they make. Typically, majority of the sample claim to be moderate to very satisfied with the importance of their work as well as the levels of respect that exist between hospital staff. A large part of the participants claims that they receive moderate to significant satisfaction from the recognition of the efforts they make and the achievements they make. However, majority of the participants believe that there are no suitable opportunities for personal growth and development in the hospital. Of particular interest is the finding of satisfaction with the incentive effort adopted by the administration as the majority of the sample is not at all satisfied with this process or is at least satisfied with it. This is a finding that makes it necessary to change the attitude and behavior of management regarding the way employees are treated as they need to adopt more effective techniques that will contribute to their effective motivation.

The satisfaction of the participants in this study regarding the external incentives provided to them, in particular, the remuneration they receive and their relations with their colleagues was investigated. The results showed that majority of the sample are not at all even slightly satisfied with the financial earnings they receive and moderately satisfied with the benefits of pension and insurance coverage. However, they are moderately satisfied with their work environment and not at all satisfied with the policies for dealing with absenteeism.

In contrast to the above incentive categories, where there seems to be overall moderate satisfaction, in the case of relationships with colleagues, the results differ significantly: majority of the sample are moderate to very satisfied with the interpersonal relationships developed in their work, by the existence of a spirit of teamwork and cooperation, stimulation of pride and respect, appreciation of the role of employees, the support they receive from supervisory staff and supervisors, the fair treatment they receive and the ability they have to express themselves creatively. Finally, most of the hospital staff members are very satisfied with their relationship with their colleagues ( Ayalew et al., 2019 ; Belrhiti et al., 2020 ; Chmielewska et al., 2020 ; Huber and Schubert, 2019 ).

Regarding the results of those factors that drive hospital staff, it became clear that the main factor is the relationship with their colleagues and the achievements that follow. Both the salary and the characteristics of the job position are not the main motivating factors for the employees at the hospital. Similarly, Hotchkiss et al. (2015) and Lambrou et al. (2010) found that relationships between colleagues are a major motivator for health workers. The finding that differs from the aforementioned surveys concerns their remuneration which seems to be a key motivating factor, which is not confirmed by this research.

The increase in hospitalization and the prices of medicines and the reductions in the state health budget have led to significant problems in the health sector. Citizens can no longer afford private insurance thereby increase the workload in public hospitals. Unemployment has also risen. There is an increased social exclusion of the unemployed or those who do not have a job, leading to increased psychological disorders of individuals. Unemployment has even led to an increase in illness and psychological problems, as well as the number of disability and suicide cases. Thus, the public sector cannot effectively meet the health needs of citizens in a quality manner ( Potipiroon and Faerman, 2020 ). Respectively, health professionals cannot meet the particularly high needs of citizens and therefore their job satisfaction is reduced; there is also a strong brain drain phenomenon, during which many health professionals go abroad.

It is also important to mention that the process of financing the Greek public sector cannot meet the ever-increasing needs that exist, and therefore the proper functioning of public hospitals is affected. In fact, due to the shortages of material, consumables and equipment, the work of health professionals has become much more difficult in recent years ( Stuckler et al., 2009 ). Also, the economic crisis has led to a reduction in the income of citizens which has in turn led to a restriction on the use of health services by citizens, increasing the workload in public Greek hospitals. Thus, the pathogenesis of the Greek health system combined with the reduction of state health budgets has led to even more problems for health professionals and a reduction in job satisfaction. There is a need to provide the right incentives to increase the quality of health services.

6. Conclusion

The aim of this paper was to investigate internal and external factors that may motivate employees at a public hospital in Northern Greece. The results of this paper point out that without a strong motivational plan, the inner incentive of hospital nurses to work can become an extrinsic motivation over time. Managers should recognize and note when their nursing staff, who have been dedicated to self-focused for many years, require additional help or improvement in their position and be sensitive to giving them the extra assistance they may need to stay effective and independent.

The results of this paper can be used by the hospital to formulate more effective strategies, as they show that health workers are not fully satisfied with the prevailing conditions and that improvements need to be made to produce better quality health services. As it turned out, healthcare workers are not particularly happy with the level of knowledge of the strategic goals of healthcare units and their tasks, as well as the opportunities given to them to participate in decision-making processes and to develop personally and professionally. This means that the administrations will have to adopt a different leadership that will emphasize the needs of the employees and allows them to develop a more active role within the health unit. They should also encourage the creation of educational programs and create conditions for development so that hospital employees know that their work encourages their development and gives them opportunities for advancement.

It also became clear that hospital staff is more motivated by the good relations that exist between colleagues. This means that the management of the hospital should ensure in every way that there is a positive atmosphere of cooperation between its staff members and that there is a strong element of mutual support. It must look for all ways to create harmonious cooperation among members of the organization as well as strong interpersonal relationships and ties. Otherwise, employees cannot be productive and will not be able to provide quality health services, which are necessary for the citizens of the country, especially in such a difficult time.

The results of this work are of great interest, but cannot be generalized to the entire population of hospital staff as the sample involved in the study came from only one hospital in the country. It should also be noted that the results of the survey were obtained from a small sample of participants. These data make it clear that it is necessary to conduct a future survey of a larger population of health workers, from different parts of the country, to determine the situation in the whole country and to investigate the factors that motivate the staff to acquire the appropriate attitude and behavior needed for work. Through such future research, all hospital administrations in the country will know the needs of their employees as well as what motivates them. Besides, the paper gives some useful materialness to inspect medical attendants' work inspiration qualities. The questionnaire can be used to design a number of effective interview methods and spotlight on explicit individual mediations that can build the degree of motivation in a specific position or work unit.

Declarations

Author contribution statement.

Maria Kamariotou: Analyzed and interpreted the data; Contributed reagents, materials, analysis tools or data; Wrote the paper.

Fotis Kitsios: Conceived and designed the experiments; Performed the experiments; Contributed reagents, materials, analysis tools or data; Wrote the paper.

Funding statement

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Data availability statement

Declaration of interests statement.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

No additional information is available for this paper.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job involvement: the mediating role of job involvement.

• Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia

We conducted an empirical study aimed at identifying and quantifying the relationship between work characteristics, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational policies and procedures in the transition economy of Serbia, South Eastern Europe. The study, which included 566 persons, employed by 8 companies, revealed that existing models of work motivation need to be adapted to fit the empirical data, resulting in a revised research model elaborated in the paper. In the proposed model, job involvement partially mediates the effect of job satisfaction on organizational commitment. Job satisfaction in Serbia is affected by work characteristics but, contrary to many studies conducted in developed economies, organizational policies and procedures do not seem significantly affect employee satisfaction.

1. Introduction

In the current climate of turbulent changes, companies have begun to realize that the employees represent their most valuable asset ( Glen, 2006 ; Govaerts et al., 2011 ; Fulmer and Ployhart, 2014 ; Vomberg et al., 2015 ; Millar et al., 2017 ). Satisfied and motivated employees are imperative for contemporary business and a key factor that separates successful companies from the alternative. When considering job satisfaction and work motivation in general, of particular interest are the distinctive traits of these concepts in transition economies.

Serbia is a country that finds itself at the center of the South East region of Europe (SEE), which is still in the state of transition. Here transition refers to the generally accepted concept, which implies economic and political changes introduced by former socialist countries in Europe and beyond (e.g., China) after the years of economic stagnation and recession in the 1980's, in the attempt to move their economy from centralized to market-oriented principles ( Ratkovic-Njegovan and Grubic-Nesic, 2015 ). Serbia exemplifies many of the problems faced by the SEE region as a whole, but also faces a number of problems uniquely related to the legacy of its past. Due to international economic sanctions, the country was isolated for most of the 1990s, and NATO air strikes, related to the Kosovo conflict and carried out in 1999, caused significant damage to the industry and economy. Transitioning to democracy in October 2000, Serbia embarked on a period of economic recovery, helped by the introduction of long overdue reforms, major inflows of foreign investment and substantial assistance from international funding institutions and others in the international community. However, the growth model on which Serbia and other SEE countries relied between 2001 and 2008, being based mainly on rapid capital inflows, a credit-fueled domestic demand boom and high current account deficit (above 20% of GDP in 2008), was not accompanied by the necessary progress in structural and institutional reforms to make this model sustainable ( Uvalic, 2013 ). The central issue of the transition process in Serbia and other such countries is privatization of public enterprises, which in Serbia ran slowly and with a number of interruptions, failures and restarts ( Radun et al., 2015 ). The process led the Serbian industry into a state of industrial collapse, i.e., deindustrialization. Today there are less than 400,000 employees working in the industry in Serbia and the overall unemployment rate exceeds 26% ( Milisavljevic et al., 2013 ). The average growth of Serbia's GDP in the last 5 years was very low, at 0.6% per year, but has reached 2.7% in 2016 ( GDP, 2017 ). The structure of the GDP by sector in 2015 was: services 60.5%, industry 31.4%, and agriculture 8.2% ( Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, 2017 ).

Taking into account the specific adversities faced by businesses in Serbia, we formulated two main research questions as a starting point for the analysis of the problem of work motivation in Serbia:

1. To what extent are the previously developed models of work motivation (such as the model of Locke and Latham, 2004 ) applicable to the transition economy and business practices in Serbia?

2. What is the nature of the relationships between different segments of work motivation (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job involvement and work characteristics)?

The Hawthorn experiment, conducted in early 1930s ( Mayo, 1933 ), spurred the interest of organizational behavior researchers into the problem of work motivation. Although Hawthorn focused mainly on the problems of increasing the productivity and the effects of supervision, incentives and the changing work conditions, his study had significant repercussions on the research of work motivation. All modern theories of work motivation stem from his study.

Building on his work, Maslow (1943) published his Hierarchy of Needs theory, which remains to this day the most cited and well known of all work motivation theories according to Denhardt et al. (2012) . Maslow's theory is a content-based theory , belonging to a group of approaches which also includes the ERG Theory by Alderfer (1969) , the Achievement Motivation Theory, Motivation-Hygiene Theory and the Role Motivation Theory.

These theories focus on attempting to uncover what the needs and motives that cause people to act in a certain way, within the organization, are. They do not concern themselves with the process humans use to fulfill their needs, but attempt to identify variables which influence this fulfillment. Thus, these theories are often referred to as individual theories , as they ignore the organizational aspects of work motivation, such as job characteristics or working environment, but concentrate on the individual and the influence of an individual's needs on work motivation.

The approach is contrasted by the process theories of work motivation, which take the view that the concept of needs is not enough to explain the studied phenomenon and include expectations, values, perception, as important aspects needed to explain why people behave in certain ways and why they are willing to invest effort to achieve their goals. The process theories include: Theory of Work and Motivation ( Vroom, 1964 ), Goal Setting Theory ( Locke, 1968 ), Equity Theory ( Adams, 1963 ), as well as the The Porter-Lawler Model ( Porter and Lawler, 1968 ).

Each of these theories has its limitations and, while they do not contradict each other, they focus on different aspects of the motivation process. This is the reason why lately they have been several attempts to create an integrated theory of work motivation, which would encompass all the relevant elements of different basic theories and explain most processes taking place within the domain of work motivation, the process of motivation, as well as employee expectations ( Donovan, 2001 ; Mitchell and Daniels, 2002 ; Locke and Latham, 2004 ). One of the most influential integrated theories is the theory proposed by Locke and Latham (2004) , which represents the basis for the study presented in this paper.

The model of Locke and Latham is show in Figure 1 . As the figure shows, it includes individual needs, values and motive, as well as personality. Incorporating the theory of expectations, the goal-setting theory and the social-cognitive theory, it focuses on goal setting, goals themselves and self-efficiency. Performance, by way of achievements and rewards, affects job satisfaction. The model defines relations between different constructs and, in particular, that job satisfaction is affected by the job characteristics and organizational policy and procedures and that it, in turn, affects organizational commitment and job involvement. Locke and Latham suggested that the theory they proposed needs more stringent empirical validation. In the study presented here, we take a closer look at the part of their theory which addresses the relationship between job satisfaction, involvement and organizational commitment. The results of the empirical study conducted in industrial systems suggest that this part of the model needs to be improved to reflect the mediating role of job involvement in the process through which job satisfaction influences organizational commitment.

Figure 1 . Diagram of the Latham and Locke model. The frame on the right indicates the part of the model the current study focuses on.

Job satisfaction is one of the most researched phenomena in the domain of human resource management and organizational behavior. It is commonly defined as a “pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of oneś job or job experiences” ( Schneider and Snyder, 1975 ; Locke, 1976 ). Job satisfaction is a key element of work motivation, which is a fundamental determinant of one's behavior in an organization.

Organizational commitment, on the other hand, represents the degree to which the employees identify with the organization in which they work, how engaged they are in the organization and whether they are ready leave it ( Greenberg and Baron, 2008 ). Several studies have demonstrated that there is a strong connection between organizational commitment, job satisfaction and fluctuation ( Porter et al., 1974 ), as well as that people who are more committed to an organization are less likely to leave their job. Organizational commitment can be thought of as an extension of job satisfaction, as it deals with the positive attitude that an employee has, not toward her own job, but toward the organization. The emotions, however, are much stronger in the case of organizational commitment and it is characterized by the attachment of the employee to the organization and readiness to make sacrifices for the organization.

The link between job satisfaction and organizational commitment has been researched relatively frequently ( Mathieu and Zajac, 1990 ; Martin and Bennett, 1996 ; Meyer et al., 2002 ; Falkenburg and Schyns, 2007 ; Moynihan and Pandey, 2007 ; Morrow, 2011 ). The research consensus is that the link exists, but there is controversy about the direction of the relationship. Some research supports the hypothesis that job satisfaction predicts organizational commitment ( Stevens et al., 1978 ; Angle and Perry, 1983 ; Williams and Hazer, 1986 ; Tsai and Huang, 2008 ; Yang and Chang, 2008 ; Yücel, 2012 ; Valaei et al., 2016 ), as is the case in the study presented in this paper. Other studies suggest that the organizational commitment is an antecedent to job satisfaction ( Price and Mueller, 1981 ; Bateman and Strasser, 1984 ; Curry et al., 1986 ; Vandenberg and Lance, 1992 ).

In our study, job involvement represents a type of attitude toward work and is usually defined as the degree to which one identifies psychologically with one's work, i.e., how much importance one places on their work. A distinction should be made between work involvement and job involvement. Work involvement is conditioned by the process of early socialization and relates to the values one has wrt. work and its benefits, while job involvement relates to the current job and is conditioned with the one's current employment situation and to what extent it meets one's needs ( Brown, 1996 ).

2.1. Research Method

Based on the relevant literature, the results of recent studies and the model proposed by Locke and Latham (2004) , we designed a conceptual model shown in Figure 2 . The model was then used to formulate the following hypotheses:

H0 - Work motivation factors, such as organizational commitment, job involvement, job satisfaction and work characteristics, represent interlinked significant indicators of work motivation in the organizations examined.

H1 - Work characteristics will have a positive relationship with job satisfaction.

H2 - Organizational policies and procedures will have a positive relationship with job satisfaction.

H3 - Job satisfaction will have a positive relationship with job involvement.

H4 - Job satisfaction will have a positive relationship with organizational commitment.

H5 - Job involvement will have a mediating role between job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

Figure 2 . The research model.

2.2. Participants

For the purpose of this study, 125 organizations from the Serbian Chamber of Commerce database ( www.stat.gov.rs ) were randomly selected to take part in this study. Each organization was contacted and an invitation letter was sent. Eight companies expressed a desire to take part and provided contact details for 700 of their employees. The questionnaire distribution process was conducted according to Dillman's approach ( Dillman, 2011 ). Thus, the initial questionnaire dissemination process was followed by a series of follow-up email reminders, if required. After a 2-month period, out of 625 received, 566 responses were valid. Therefore, the study included 566 persons, 235 males (42%) and 331 women (58%) employed by 8 companies located in Serbia, Eastern Europe.

The sample encompassed staff from both public (53%) and private (47%) companies in manufacturing (31%) and service (69%) industries. The companies were of varied size and had between 150 and 6,500 employees, 3 of them (37.5%) medium-sized (<250 employees) and 5 (62.5%) large enterprises.

For the sake of representativeness, the sample consisted of respondents across different categories of: age, years of work service and education. The age of the individuals was between 20 and 62 years of age and we divided them into 5 categories as shown in Table 1 . The table provides the number of persons per category and the relative size of the category wrt. to the whole sample. In the same table, a similar breakdown is shown in terms of years a person spent with the company, their education and the type of the position they occupy within the company (managerial or not).

Table 1 . Data sample characteristics.

2.3. Ethics Statement

The study was carried out in accordance with the Law on Personal Data Protection of the Republic of Serbia and the Codex of Professional Ethics of the University of Novi Sad. The relevant ethics committee is the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Technical Sciences of the University of Novi Sad.

All participants took part voluntarily and were free to fill in the questionnaire or not.

The questionnaire included a cover sheet explaining the aim of the research, ways in which the data will be used and the anonymous nature of the survey.

2.4. Measures

This study is based on a self reported questionnaire as a research instrument.

The questionnaire was developed in line with previous empirical findings, theoretical foundations and relevant literature recommendations ( Brayfield and Rothe, 1951 ; Weiss et al., 1967 ; Mowday et al., 1979 ; Kanungo, 1982 ; Fields, 2002 ). We then conducted a face validity check. Based on the results, some minor corrections were made, in accordance with the recommendations provided by university professors. After that, the pilot test was conducted with 2 companies. Managers from each of these companies were asked to assess the questionnaire. Generally, there were not any major complaints. Most of the questions were meaningful, clearly written and understandable. The final research instrument contained 86 items. For acquiring respondents' subjective estimates, a five-point Likert scale was used.

The questionnaire took about 30 min to fill in. It consisted of: 10 general demographic questions, 20 questions from the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), 15 questions from the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ), 10 questions from the Job Involvement Questionnaire (JIQ), 18 questions of the Brayfield-Rothe Job Satisfaction Scale (JSS), 6 questions of the Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) and 7 additional original questions related to the rules and procedures within the organization.

The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), 20 items short form ( Weiss et al., 1967 ), was used to gather data about job satisfaction of participants. The MSQ – short version items, are rated on 5-points Likert scale (1 very dissatisfied with this aspect of my job, and 5 – very satisfied with this aspect of my job) with two subscales measuring intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction.

Organizational commitment was measured using The Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ). It is a 15-item scale developed by Mowday, Steers and Porter ( Mowday et al., 1979 ) and uses a 5-point Likert type response format, with 3 factors that can describe this commitment: willingness to exert effort, desire to maintain membership in the organization, and acceptance of organizational values.

The most commonly used measure of job involvement has been the Job Involvement Questionnaire (JIQ, Kanungo, 1982 ), 10-items scale designed to assess how participants feel toward their present job. The response scale on a 5-point scale varied between “strongly disagree/not applicable to me” to “strongly agree/fully applicable”.

The Brayfield and Rothe's 18-item Job Satisfaction Index (JSI, Brayfield and Rothe, 1951 ) was used to measure overall job satisfaction, operationalized on five-point Likert scale.

Psychometric analysis conducted showed that all the questionnaires were adequately reliable (Cronbach alpha > 0.7). The suitability of the data for factor analysis has been confirmed using the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) Test (see Table 2 ).

Table 2 . Basic psychometric characteristics of the instruments.

For further analysis we used summary scores for the different scales. Job satisfaction was represented with the overall score of MSQ, as the data analysis revealed a strong connection between the extrinsic and intrinsic motivators. The overall score on the OCQ was used as a measure of organizational commitment, while the score on JDS was used to reflect job characteristics. The JSS and JIQ scales have been modified, by eliminating a few questions, in order to improve reliability and suitability for factor analysis.

Statistical analysis was carried out using the SPSS software. The SPSS Amos structural equation modeling software was used to create the Structural Equation Models (SEMs).

The data was first checked for outliers using box-plot analysis. The only outliers identified were related to the years of employment, but these seem to be consistent to what is expected in practice in Serbia, so no observations needed to be removed from the dataset.

3.1. Exploratory Factor Analysis

Although research dimensions were empirically validated and confirmed in several prior studies, to the best of our knowledge, the empirical confirmation of the research instrument (i.e., questionnaire) and its constituents in the case of Serbia and South-Eastern Europe is quite scarce. Furthermore, the conditions in which previous studies were conducted could vary between research populations. Also, such differences could affect the structure of the research concepts. Thus, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted in order to empirically validate the structure of research dimensions and to test the research instrument, within the context of the research population of South-Eastern Europe and Serbia.

Using the maximum likelihood method we identified four factors, which account for 67% of the variance present in the data. The scree plot of the results of the analysis is shown in Figure 3 . As the figure shows, we retained the factors above the inflection point.

Figure 3 . Scree plot of the EFA results.

The communalities for the variables loading into the factors are shown in Table 3 and the questions corresponding to our variables are listed in Table 4 . Initial communalities are estimates of the proportion of variance in each variable accounted for by all components (factors) identified, while the extraction communalities refer to the part of the variance explained by the four factors extracted. The model explains more of the variance then the initial factors, for all but the last variable.

Table 3 . Communalities.

Table 4 . Questions that build our constructs.

More detailed results of the EFA for the four factors, are shown in Table 5 . The unique loadings of specific items measured with the different questions in the questionnaire on the factors identified are shown in the pattern matrix (Table 6 ). As the table shows, each factor is loaded into by items that were designed to measure a specific construct and there are no cross-loadings. The first factor corresponds to job characteristics, second to job satisfaction, third to job involvement and the final to organizational commitment. The correlation between the factors is relatively low and shown in Table 7 .

Table 5 . Total variance explained by the dominant factors.

Table 6 . Pattern matrix for the factors identified.

Table 7 . Factor correlation matrix.

3.2. Confirmatory Factor Analysis

In the next part of our analysis we used Structural Equation Modeling to validate and improve a part of the model proposed by Locke and Latham (2004) that focuses on work characteristics, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job involvement.

Although the EFA suggest the existence of four, not five, dominant factors in the model, diverging from the model proposed by Locke and Latham (2004) , in our initial experiments we used their original model, shown in Figure 4A , taking into account also organizational policies and procedures.

Figure 4 . The evolution of our model (the path coefficients are standardized): (A) the initial model based on Locke and Latham (2004) , (B) no partial mediation, and (C) partial mediation introduced.

In this (default) model, the only independent variable are the job characteristics. The standardized regression coefficients shown in Figure 4A (we show standardized coefficients throughout Figure 4 ) indicate that the relationship between the satisfaction and organizational commitment seems to be stronger (standard coefficient value of 0.54) than the one between satisfaction and involvement (standard coefficient value of 0.37). The effect of job characteristics and policies and procedures on the employee satisfaction seems to be balanced (standard coefficient values of 0.31 and 0.30, respectively).

The default model does not fit our data well. The Comparative Fit Index (CFI) for this model is 0.759, the Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) is 0.598, while the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) is 0.192.

A more detailed analysis of the model revealed that it could indeed (as the EFA suggests) be improved by eliminating the organizational policies and procedures variable, as it has a high residual covariance with job involvement (−3.071) and organizational commitment (−4.934).

We therefore propose to eliminate the “Organizational policies and procedures” variable from the model. Dropping the variable resulted in an improved model shown in Figure 4B . The improved model fits the data better, but the fit is still not good ( RMSEA = 0.125, CFI = 0.915 and TLI = 0.830).

We then hypothesized that job involvement influences organizational commitment, yielding the final model tested in this study (Figure 4C ). This model turned out to be the one that fits our data very well ( RMSEA = 0.000, CFI = 1 and TLI = 1.015).

4. Mediation Analysis

In the final part of the study we conducted the mediation analysis, to understand the relationship between job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational commitment. We used bootstrapping, based on 5000 samples and the confidence interval of 95%.

We started with a model that contains just one relation between satisfaction and commitment (Figure 5A ), then tested for full mediation (Figure 5B ) and finally partial mediation as indicated in out proposed model (Figure 5C ). The unstandardized, direct effect regression weights and the p -values obtained in these experiments are shown in Table 8 . As the p -values show, all the connections in our three models are significant and that they remain so throughout the evolution of the model. Therefore, job involvement mediates the influence of satisfaction on organizational commitment, but this is a partial mediation and a major part of the effect of satisfaction on the organizational commitment is achieved directly.

Figure 5 . Mediation analysis models. (A) , Model 1; (B) , Model 2; (C) , Model 3.

Table 8 . Mediation analysis regression weights.

5. Discussion

We conducted an empirical study aimed at exploring the relationship between employee satisfaction, job involvement, organizational commitment, work characteristics and organizational policies and procedures.

Based on the relevant scientific literature, recent studies in the area and the integrative model of work motivation of Locke and Latham (2004) , we have formulated an initial conceptual model for our research and hypothesized the connections between the relevant variables. The initial model has been improved iteratively, with the goal of increasing its fit to the empirical data collected in the study.

Starting from the model proposed by Locke and Latham (2004) we determined that their model does not fit our experimental data well and that we observe a connection between job involvement that is not present in their model. In addition, our data does not support the hypothesis that organizational procedures and policies affect employee satisfaction in the organizations considered. As a result we propose a 4 factor model shown in Figure 4C for the relationship between the concepts of work characteristics, employee satisfaction, job involvement and organizational commitment.

We analyzed the results of the study based on 1 general and 5 specific hypotheses. The research confirms that there is a link between work characteristics and job satisfaction (H1), but that it is weak, suggesting that a dominant effect of the material factors of motivation exists.

We have also determined that there is a connection between the rules and procedures variable (H2) and the rest of the variables, indicating that it should be considered in future studies, but that the constructs need to be operationalized better.

The third specific hypothesis (H3) that job satisfaction has a positive relationship with job involvement has been confirmed and we have observed that extrinsic work motivation has a stronger effect than intrinsic, which can be explained by low wages and insufficient funds for everyday life. Other research has confirmed this link ( Govender and Parumasur, 2010 ) and showed that most of the employee motivation dimensions have significant links with the dimensions of job involvement (9 out of 10 pairs).

The fourth specific hypothesis (H4 - Job satisfaction will have a positive relationship with organizational commitment) has also been confirmed and we can conclude that a positive relationship exists, which is in line with recent research in this area. The subscale focused on identification with the organization is strongly connected with both intrinsic and extrinsic factors of job satisfaction, but this cannot be said for the subscale focused on organizational attachment. Our research supports the existence of a weak connection between job satisfaction and organizational attachment, both when intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction is considered as a motivator. A study of work motivation and organizational commitment conducted in Bulgaria (Serbia's neighbor) showed that extrinsic factors are key sources of organizational commitment ( Roe et al., 2000 ), as well as that job involvement and the chances for the fulfillment o higher-order needs pay a very important part in the motivation of the employees.

One of the reasons for such a result can be the economic situation in Serbia, which has a severely detrimental effect on work motivation. The transition and economic crisis is accompanied by the shrinking purchasing power of the population, higher unemployment rates and a rising disparity in the salary levels, all of which causes the adjustment of the behavior of the employees to these conditions. Under the economic conditions that exist in Serbia it is to be expected that the individuals will put more value on the salary and advancement prospects than on the opportunities for growth and development, which do not present a direct financial benefit.

The research did not reveal any differences with respect to the sex of the participants, regardless of the variable considered. Other research has not reached a consensus on the matter, as a part of the studies suggests that there are differences in job involvement between men and women ( Lodahl and Kejnar, 1965 ; Hall and Mansfield, 1975 ; Rabinowitz and Hall, 1977 ; Saal, 1978 ).

Regarding the ownership of the organizations examined, the research revealed statistically significant differences between the employees working in public and private companies, i.e., that the participants working in the private sector scores significantly higher on every variable except work characteristics, meaning that they are more committed to work, more involved and more satisfied.

In addition, we have determined that there are statistically significant differences when it comes to the position of the employees in the organization's hierarchy, i.e., whether they occupy a managerial or a non-managerial position. The study shows that managers have higher scores for organizational attachment, organizational commitment, intrinsic motivators, extrinsic motivators, job satisfaction and job involvement. We can, therefore, conclude that the managers are more satisfied with their work in general and that they are more committed to the organization than other employees. This can be explained by the fact that, due to the nature of the work they do, they are able to make decisions, they have a more varied job and have better material and non-material rewards. A more detailed analysis of the commitment of the managers, focused on identifying if we are dealing with normative, continuous or affective commitment would provide more insight into the structure and nature of the relationship between the organization and the individual.

Considering the type of the company (manufacturing or service) our study showed that the participants working in manufacturing companies are the ones who identify more with the company, are more committed to the company, more satisfied with their work and more involved.

Our study also identified a significant difference with respect to the vocation of the participants, showing that those with training in humanistic sciences awarded most positive scores to the characteristics of their work, while the opposite was true for those of technical vocations.

The part of our analysis focused on the age of the participants revealed that there is a statistically significant connection between the age and job satisfaction, where the older the employee, the less satisfied he/she is with their job and cares less about the characteristics of work. A reason for such a result could again be found in the economic situation of Serbia and the high unemployment rate (over 20%), causing the younger people to be satisfied with the simple fact that they managed to get a job, rather than being satisfied with the job itself. Another reason could be the difference in the perception of desires and possibilities that exists between the younger and older employees.

The years with the company are negatively linked with employee satisfaction, as well as job characteristics, which is in line with the effect discussed in the previous paragraph, as those with more time spent in the company are less satisfied with their job and care less about the characteristics of their work.

Considering the level of education of the participants, our study showed that the more educated the employees are, the less involved they are in their work and that they seem to care more about the characteristics of their work.

Our research showed that links exist between all the variables studied and that the weakest of these links is between work characteristics and other constructs. Of those, the weakest link in turn is the link between the work characteristics and the subscale of organizational commitment related to the identification with the organization. Thus, we can conclude that work characteristics do not exhibit a significant influence on whether and to what extent the employee will identify with the organization in which he/she works, i.e., whether he/she will be committed to the organization.

A moderate to strong connection exists between organizational commitment and job satisfaction, which is in line with the results of numerous previous studies ( Currivan, 1999 ; Meyer et al., 2002 ; Malhotra and Mukherjee, 2004 ; Saari and Judge, 2004 ; Chen, 2007 ; Falkenburg and Schyns, 2007 ; Moynihan and Pandey, 2007 ; Getahun et al., 2008 ; Colakoglu et al., 2010 ; Yücel, 2012 ; Fu and Deshpande, 2014 ).

Our study confirms the existence of a strong connection between job satisfaction and job involvement ( Moynihan and Pandey, 2007 ; Wegge et al., 2007 ; Griffin et al., 2010 ; Raymond and Mjoli, 2013 ; Zopiatis et al., 2014 ). Many studies have been carried out in an attempt to examine and define the relationship between job involvement and organizational commitment. Our results are in line with previous studies, which diverge only on the strength of the connection, ranging from moderate to strong ( Blau and Boal, 1989 ; Brewer and Lok, 1995 ; Sjöberg and Sverke, 2000 ; Brooks and Swailes, 2002 ; Toga, 2011 ). Our study provides more evidence for the existence of such a relationship, which is moderately strong. Such a relationship does not exist in the integrative model of Locke and Latham (2004) , which served as a starting point for this study.

In addition, we have determined that job involvement has a mediating role between job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Job involvement mediates the influence of satisfaction on organizational commitment, but this is a partial mediation and a major part of the effect of satisfaction on the organizational commitment is achieved directly.

The construct related to organizational policies and procedures seems not to have significant bearing on employee satisfaction, based on the data collected. Two plausible explanations exist for this. The first is the fact that this was the only construct in our study for which a suitable standard questionnaire could not be found, so one had to be constructed specifically, meaning that the construct should be operationalized better in future studies and that this represents the limitation of our study. The other is the fact that in Serbia, as in most transition economies, the lack of suitable institutional and legislative framework at the national level is often accompanied with lax, not clearly defined and even less adhered-to business policies and procedures. In such a state of affairs, the employees seldom have a relatively clear idea of what the policies and procedures of their organization are and are unable to evaluate them with respect to those of other organizations, making this construct very hard to measure. At the same time it can be argued that, in such a situation, the policies and procedures are not perceived by the employees as a significant factor of their organizational behavior and indeed do not affect their work motivation. Whatever the reason, the relationship of policies and procedures to the other variables of work motivation within the transition economies merits further investigation.

Author Contributions

JĆ and SM designed the study. JĆ collected the data and conducted the bulk of the research. MD and DĆ conducted the statistical analysis and modeling. All authors took part in the manuscript writing, led by JĆ and DĆ.

The research leading to these results has received funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2012-2016/ under REA grant agreement n° 295220.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Keywords: work, job, satisfaction, involvement, employee, commitment, organizational, behavior

Citation: Ćulibrk J, Delić M, Mitrović S and Ćulibrk D (2018) Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment and Job Involvement: The Mediating Role of Job Involvement. Front. Psychol . 9:132. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00132

Received: 07 November 2017; Accepted: 29 January 2018; Published: 16 February 2018.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2018 Ćulibrk, Delić, Mitrović and Ćulibrk. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Milan Delić, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Stuck in Commuter Hell? You Can Still Be Productive

Commuters who listen to music or browse social media might be increasing their chance of a stressful workday. Research by Francesca Gino and colleagues offers better ways to cope with a bad commute. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 02 Feb 2018
• Working Paper Summaries

Last Place Aversion in Queues

While no one likes standing in line for service, being last intensifies the pain of waiting, doubles the probability of switching queues, and quadruples the chances of leaving the line altogether. Many service settings could be improved if managers actively mitigated last place aversion.

• 27 Feb 2017

Seeking to Belong: How the Words of Internal and External Beneficiaries Influence Performance

Employees seek to fulfill a deep and fundamental need to belong at work. Positive words from one’s own colleagues can lead to an increased sense of belonging and can, in turn, create enhanced motivation. Results from experiments involving real-world and laboratory data help support the argument.

• 05 Aug 2013

To Buy Happiness, Purchase an Experience

Michael Norton explains why spending money on new experiences yields more happiness than spending it on new products. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

• 02 Apr 2010
• What Do You Think?

Why Are Fewer and Fewer U.S. Employees Satisfied With Their Jobs?

This month's column yielded many hypotheses to explain why U.S. employees' job satisfaction is at a 23-year low, says HBS professor Jim Heskett. Readers also offered antidotes to job malaise. (Online forum now closed. New forum begins May 5.) Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

• 21 Apr 2008

The New Math of Customer Relationships

Harvard Business School professor emeritus James L. Heskett has spent much of his career exploring how satisfied employees and customers can drive lifelong profit. Heskett and his colleagues will soon introduce a new concept into the business management literature: customer and employee "owners." Key concepts include: Service profit chain concepts are global, subject only to local cultural practices. Businesses are experimenting with the idea of creating "owners" out of both customers and employees, who create the highest lifetime value to the organization. During times of economic stress, relationships between customer and employee satisfaction, loyalty, and productivity become more critical. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

• 15 May 2007

I’ll Have the Ice Cream Soon and the Vegetables Later: Decreasing Impatience over Time in Online Grocery Orders

How do people’s preferences differ when they make choices for the near term versus the more distant future? Providing evidence from a field study of an online grocer, this research shows that people act as if they will be increasingly virtuous the further into the future they project. Researchers examined how the length of delay between when an online grocery order is completed and when it is delivered affects what consumers order. They find that consumers purchase more "should" (healthy) groceries such as vegetables and less "want" (unhealthy) groceries such as ice cream the greater the delay between order completion and order delivery. The results have implications for public policy, supply chain managers, and models of time discounting. Key concepts include: Consumers spend less and order a higher percentage of "should" items and a lower percentage of "want" items the further in advance of delivery they place a grocery order. Encouraging people to order their groceries up to 5 days in advance of consumption could influence the healthfulness of the foods that people consume. Similarly, asking students in schools to select their lunches up to a week in advance could considerably increase the healthfulness of the foods they elect to eat. Online and catalog retailers that offer a range of goods as well as different delivery options might be able to improve their demand forecasting by understanding these findings. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

• 22 Apr 2002

Does Spirituality Drive Success?

Is there a place for spirituality in the workplace? Executives from Silicon Valley to Boston tell how they twine their business leadership with religious and personal values. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Articles on Job satisfaction

Displaying all articles.

New research debunks the ‘unhappy worker’ narrative, but finds most still believe it

Scott Schieman , University of Toronto

Older workers still struggle with work-life balance – and there’s no one-size - fits-all remedy

Candice Harris , Auckland University of Technology ; Barbara Myers , Auckland University of Technology , and Jarrod Haar , Massey University

Working one day a week in person might be the key to happier, more productive employees

Sam Andrey , Toronto Metropolitan University ; Cory Searcy , Toronto Metropolitan University , and Patrick Neumann , Toronto Metropolitan University

5 drawbacks to following your passion

Erin A. Cech , University of Michigan

Vast majority of American workers like their jobs – even as a record number quit them

4 ways companies can avoid post-pandemic employee turnover

Erica Pimentel , Queen's University, Ontario

What makes a job meaningful and why that matters

Andrew Bryce , University of Sheffield

Why bosses should let employees surf the web at work

Stephanie Andel , IUPUI

Everyone wants meaning in their work — but how do you define it?

Elodie Chevallier , Université de Sherbrooke

Universities don’t control the labour market: we shouldn’t fund them like they do

Denise Jackson , Edith Cowan University and Ruth Bridgstock , Griffith University

Why having both male and female teachers is a good idea for schools

Deevia Bhana , University of KwaZulu-Natal ; Kevin F. McGrath , Macquarie University ; Penny Van Bergen , Macquarie University , and Shaaista Moosa , University of KwaZulu-Natal

Gender differences at work: relishing competence or seeking a challenge?

Rachel Morrison , Auckland University of Technology

High turnover of staff spells trouble – just ask Donald Trump and Theresa May

Margaret Mackay , University of Portsmouth

Working four-day weeks for five days’ pay? Research shows it pays off

Jarrod Haar , Auckland University of Technology

Why are more people doing gig work? They like it

Cheryl Carleton , Villanova University

How transitioning leads to better mental health – and job satisfaction

Nick Drydakis , Anglia Ruskin University

Should I grade-skip my gifted child?

Jonathan Wai , Duke University ; Ann Lupkowski Shoplik , University of Iowa , and Susan Assouline , University of Iowa

Five ways to boost your job satisfaction

Shoshana Dobrow , London School of Economics and Political Science

Does work leave you tired, stressed with no time for family? You’re not alone

Heejung Chung , University of Kent

Related Topics

• Employee turnover
• New Zealand stories
• Work-life balance

Top contributors

Dean's Chair in Management and Māori Business, Massey University

Professor of Sociology and Canada Research Chair, University of Toronto

Head of School of Education and Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Wollongong

Professor in Economics, Anglia Ruskin University

Associate Professor of Education Policy and Psychology and 21st Century Chair, University of Arkansas

Assistant Professor of Management, London School of Economics and Political Science

Professor / Director of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) programs, ECU School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University

Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management, University of Portsmouth

Associate Professor, Auckland University of Technology

Affiliated Researcher, Alumnus, Macquarie University

Professor of Education, University of Iowa

Administrator, Acceleration Institute and Research, University of Iowa

Assistant Professor of Economics, Villanova University

Professor of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Kent

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IResearchNet

Job Satisfaction Topics

Job satisfaction refers to the overall feelings one has and the evaluation one makes about one’s job. People with high job satisfaction experience a pleasurable or positive emotional state when they think about their job or job experiences. In simple terms, they like their jobs. Since early studies in the 1930s, job satisfaction has become one of the most widely investigated concepts in the field of industrial/organizational psychology. It is a valuable outcome in its own right but also a driver of other important individual and organizational outcomes. The importance of this concept is reflected in its central role in numerous theories, such as those concerning job design, leadership, and employee withdrawal. Read more about  Job Satisfaction .

Job Satisfaction Research Topics

• Affective Events Theory
• Attitudes and Beliefs
• Boredom at Work
• Emotional Burnout
• Emotional Labor
• Job Satisfaction Measurement
• Job Security and Insecurity
• Organizational Commitment
• Organizational Cynicism
• Organizational Justice
• Psychological Contract
• Quality of Work Life
• Role Ambiguity
• Role Conflict
• Role Overload and Underload
• Stress Consequences
• Stress Coping and Management
• Stress Models and Theories
• Theory of Planned Behavior
• Union Commitment
• Work-Life Balance

How much we like our jobs—our job satisfaction—is a critical concept in the study of work. Job satisfaction is likely to result in a number of positive benefits, both for individuals (their well-being, mental health, and life satisfaction) and for organizations (better performance, more citizenship, less counterproductive behavior, and less withdrawal). Importantly, job satisfaction can be changed. Even though our job satisfaction is in part a product of who we are, regardless of our job or work situation, our job satisfaction is also significantly affected by the work situation. In many instances, the work environment can and should be changed, such as by reducing excess workload, increasing levels of job autonomy, or introducing practices to reduce home-work conflict. Such change initiatives are especially likely to be successful in raising job satisfaction if one takes into account individual values and personality in this process.

• Industrial-Organizational Psychology Topics

7 Best Job Satisfaction Scales, Questionnaires & Surveys

Sometimes we feel very satisfied, other times we feel incredibly disheartened and unsatisfied.

Measuring job satisfaction is important because it can predict our future behavior (Faragher, Cass, & Cooper, 2013).

For example:

• Are we likely to resign from our jobs?
• Are we at risk of poor health?
• Is it highly likely that we will suffer burnout?

In this post, we explore various ways of measuring job satisfaction. We’ll look at the most widely used tools in the literature and discuss other challenges of measuring job satisfaction.

Finally, we will look at the resources available at PositivePsychology.com to increase job satisfaction among employees.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Work & Career Coaching Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients identify opportunities for professional growth and create a more meaningful career.

This Article Contains:

5 best practices for measuring job satisfaction, 3 evidence-based questionnaires, 2 surveys and scales to measure employees’ satisfaction, 2 key metrics to consider, 2 tools for measuring employee engagement, a note on employee health: measuring stress and burnout in the workplace, increasing job satisfaction: 6 positivepsychology.com tools, a take-home message.

What is meant by the term ‘job satisfaction,’ and how is it measured?

Challenges when measuring job satisfaction

As a psychological construct, job satisfaction is meant to reflect employees’ level of satisfaction with their work.

Questionnaires that measure job satisfaction ask questions about various attitudes and behaviors; the responses to these questions are totaled and reflect job satisfaction. This implies that an employee might have low job satisfaction, but their score might be explained by low scores on only one dimension.

Furthermore, job satisfaction develops slowly. It is a dynamic process, and job satisfaction now does not guarantee job satisfaction in five years . This is because job satisfaction is affected by many conditions within the workplace, and these conditions can change.

Therefore, job satisfaction as a measurable psychological construct describes the attitude of the employee to the current workplace conditions (Earl, Minbashian, Sukijjakhamin, & Bright, 2011).

Five best practices

Knowing this, the best practices for measuring job satisfaction are as follows:

• Measure job satisfaction regularly so that you have a baseline measurement for each employee or can calculate an average across employees. With a baseline measurement on hand, you can track changes in job satisfaction.
• Using questionnaires and surveys is one of the multiple ways to track job satisfaction. The advantage of these tools is that employees can respond privately, without the added pressure of social interaction. However, keep in mind that these responses are still self-reported, and employees may report in ways that appear socially desirable.
• Follow up questionnaires and surveys with interviews and discussions. Check in regularly with employees, address grievances, and provide feedback . Regular meetings require time and effort, but personal check-ins are very useful and can help develop positive relationships with employees .
• Check in with superiors, team leads, and managers to discuss the engagement of team members .
• Provide a way for employees to report grievances anonymously. Steps 2 and 3 are not anonymous, and therefore some employees may not feel comfortable raising thorny issues. An anonymous process, like a suggestion box, gives employees an avenue to report sensitive issues.
• Assure employees that their responses are confidential and their responses will not be shared with anyone except the people scoring the questionnaires.

Van Saane, Sluiter, Verbeck, and Frings-Dresen (2003) evaluated 35 different tools that measure job satisfaction in a meta-analysis.

To be considered in the meta-analysis, the tools had to meet acceptable psychometric standards, including an internal reliability of 0.80 or higher, a test-retest coefficient of 0.70 or higher, and at least four measured work factors that were proposed to affect job satisfaction.

Although 29 items were included in the meta-analysis, only 7 met the criteria for reliability and validity. Of these, four items were developed for nurses and physicians. The remaining three tools were:

• The Job in General Scale (JIG) & Job Descriptive Index (JDI)
• The Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS)
• The Andrews and Withey Job Satisfaction Questionnaire

Job in General Scale & Job Descriptive Index

Of these three, the JIG Scale is one of the most well-used questionnaires to measure job satisfaction (Ironson, Smith, Brannick, Gibson, & Paul, 1989). The JIG was developed to accompany another worthwhile tool to measure job satisfaction: the JDI (Smith, Kendall, & Hulin, 1969).

Both tools can be administered together as a single tool. For these tools, employees select items that appropriately describe a particular aspect of their career. For example, employees must indicate if the item ‘Stimulating’ describes their colleagues, answering ‘yes,’ ‘no,’ or ‘cannot decide.’

The JDI and JIG are freely available, and the administrative manual, norms, and a scoring manual can be requested from the Bowling Green State University website .

Job Satisfaction Survey

Although the Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 1985) was designed to measure satisfaction among employees who work in the human service, public, and nonprofit sector organizations, Spector argues that the JSS applies to other industries as well. The JSS is also much shorter than other surveys, with 36 items in total.

Each item is a statement, and the employee must show their level of agreement on a scale from 1 to 6, where 1 indicates ‘disagree very much’ and 6 indicates ‘agree very much.’ The 36 items map onto 9 different dimensions, and responses to each subscale are summed. The items, administration, and scoring instructions can be found on Paul Spector’s website .

Andrews and Withey Job Satisfaction Questionnaire

The Andrews and Withey Job Satisfaction Questionnaire was developed in 1976 and is outlined in the book Social Indicators of Well-Being: Americans’ Perceptions of Life Quality (Andrews & Withey, 2012). The almost 100-page questionnaire must be purchased from the authors.

Although the questionnaire has satisfactory psychometric properties, the questionnaire is extremely long to administer.

17 More Work & Career Coaching Exercises

These 17 Work & Career Coaching Exercises [PDF] contain everything you need to help others find more meaning and satisfaction in their work.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

Let’s look at two surveys that can be used to measure employees’ job satisfaction.

The Gallup Workplace Audit

The Gallup Workplace Audit (GWA) measures various actionable aspects of the workplace, including work satisfaction (Gallup Organization, 1992–1999). In total, there are only 13 items. Employees respond on a scale from 1 to 5.

For the first item about workplace satisfaction, 1 indicates ‘extremely dissatisfied,’ and 5 indicates ‘extremely satisfied’; however, for the next 12 items, the anchors change to ‘extreme disagreement’ and ‘extreme agreement,’ respectively.

These 12 items comprise the Q 12 (Harter, Schmidt, Killham, & Agrawal, 2009), which has been used extensively and has good psychometric properties. Although the items of the GWA are listed in Harter, Schmidt, and Hayes (2002), the GWA may not be used without permission from The Gallup Organization .

Job Diagnostic Survey

The Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) has been used across various research (Hackman & Oldham, 1974, 1975). The JDS measures overall job satisfaction and satisfaction for five dimensions of work, such as

• Job security
• Supervision
• Growth opportunities

The survey is split into eight sections, and in the fourth, the employee rates their level of satisfaction with the five dimensions of work. The survey takes less than 30 minutes to administer. The full scoring instructions are listed in Hackman and Oldham’s (1974) research paper, which is available from the ERIC Institute of Education Sciences website .

Moderating variables

The relationship between job satisfaction and job performance is complicated; job satisfaction influences job performance, which in turn, influences job satisfaction.

Furthermore, the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance is also influenced by multiple factors.

Specifically, the effect of job satisfaction on job performance can be heightened by several variables including:

• Personality/self-concept of the employee
• Autonomy of the employee
• The level of analysis used for the questionnaires

When job satisfaction is measured using a questionnaire with multiple dimensions, the correlations between each dimension and job performance are weaker than when composite job satisfaction is constructed from all the dimensions.

Furthermore, the effect of job performance on job satisfaction is also influenced by several variables including:

• Rewards for good job performance
• The nature of the job
• How important achievement is to the individual
• How important work is to the employee

In summary, measuring other variables such as employee engagement, job performance, the personality of the employee, and psychological wellbeing could be very useful to understanding the full picture of employee job satisfaction (Wright & Cropanzano, 2000).

This is what makes employees happy at work – Michael C. Bush

Although the terms ‘job satisfaction’ and ‘employee engagement’ are used interchangeably, there are subtle differences (Abraham, 2012; Harter et al., 2002).

Employee engagement as a concept

• Job satisfaction refers to how satisfied employees are with their work or how much they enjoy their work. Satisfied employees have a positive attitude toward their work.
• Employee engagement can be defined as the employee’s involvement with their work and includes their satisfaction and enthusiasm for their work. Employees who are engaged have a good work relationship with their colleagues, are interested in the company’s aim and products, are dedicated to their job, and will put in more time because they are committed to the work.

Although the concepts differ in definition, they are still related. Employee engagement is influenced by job satisfaction; employees with higher job satisfaction are more engaged (Garg & Kumar, 2012). Job satisfaction, however, is only one component of employee engagement. Despite these nuanced differences, satisfaction tools might be called employee engagement tools.

Similarly, some job satisfaction research investigates ‘work engagement’ (Attridge, 2009). Work engagement is defined as the level of commitment, involvement, and enthusiasm for one’s work (Attridge, 2009). This definition overlaps with those for job satisfaction and employee engagement.

Measuring tools for employee engagement

The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) is a 17-item tool that measures work placement engagement across three dimensions: vigor, dedication, and absorption (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2003). Each item is a statement (e.g., ‘At my work, I feel bursting with energy’), and the employee responds how frequently they experience each statement on a scale from 0 (Never) to 6 (Always/Every day).

To score the tool, an average response for each subscale and an overall average are calculated. This tool has been used extensively across different industries and has sound psychometric properties. The psychometric properties can be found in the test manual, which is available from Wilmar Schaufeli’s website , where the English version and other translations of the test can be found as well.

In a shortened version of the UWES, the 17-item tool was reduced to 9 items (Schaufeli, Bakker, & Salanova, 2006). The items that comprise the UWES-9 are labeled with asterisks in the UWES test manual referred to above.

Another tool that measures employee engagement is the Job Engagement Scale (JES; Rich, Lepine, & Crawford, 2010). This scale was developed to incorporate the job satisfaction theory of workplace engagement proposed by Kahn (1990). Rich et al. (2010) argue that some items of the UWES did not properly capture Kahn’s theory, and they developed a new scale to account for this.

More information about the validation process and psychometric properties of the tool can be found in Rich et al. (2010).

The JES comprises 18 items, which are answered on a scale from 1 ‘strongly disagree’ to 5 ‘strongly agree.’ The items in the JES measure engagement in three domains: physical, emotional, and cognitive. Domain scores are calculated by averaging responses across each domain, and an overall average is calculated by averaging across all items. Higher scores indicate higher engagement.

The full test can be found in Bruce Rich’s PhD thesis .

Regularly measuring work engagement can help identify workers who are at higher risk of burnout.

These measurements are more useful if there is a baseline for comparison. If you know what the employee’s baseline engagement score is before burnout is a possibility, then there is a useful comparison score for subsequent measurements.

Faragher et al. (2013) conducted a meta-analysis on the relationship between job satisfaction and health, and showed that:

• Higher job satisfaction was correlated with better physical health.
• Lower job satisfaction was strongly correlated with the presence of mental/psychosocial problems.
• Lower job satisfaction was strongly correlated with more experiences of burnout.
• Lower job satisfaction was moderately correlated with higher levels of depression, higher levels of anxiety, lower levels of self-esteem, and worse general mental health.

The main predictors of burnout and exhaustion are difficult job demands and a stressful working environment (Attridge, 2009). Here is a list of strategies that can be put into place to ease worker dissatisfaction (Grawitch, Gottschalk, & Munz, 2006; Warr, 2005):

• Remove or solve problems related to tasks, processes, and operations.
• Improve the ergonomics of the workplace.
• Add flexibility to workplace schedules.
• Promote and support work–life balance.
• Define tasks and roles more clearly.
• Allow employees to take part in decision making.
• Improve social relationships at work, and create opportunities for these relationships to be fostered.
• Praise, recognize, and reward hard work.
• Foster skill development.

We have several useful resources that can be used to increase job satisfaction.

W stands for Way Forward and the SMART + Goals Worksheet can be used to help with decision making, breaking down tasks into smaller subgoals, goal setting, and planning.

The Avoidance Plan Worksheet  can be used to help identify avoidant behaviors, which impede goal setting and planning.

The EQ 5-Point Tool , Anger Exit and Re-Entry Routines, and the Conflict Resolution Checklist are useful tools to assist with conflict resolution and difficult conversations. These three tools teach clients how to rely on empathetic techniques when having a potentially difficult conversation , as well as how to navigate these conversations without relying on reactionary emotions such as anger, frustration, and annoyance.

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others manage stress without spending hours on research and session prep, this collection contains 17 validated stress management tools for practitioners . Use them to help others identify signs of burnout and create more balance in their lives.

By measuring job satisfaction, employers are better prepared to make the changes that result in a healthier, happier work environment for their employees.

When measuring job satisfaction, remember the following:

• Don’t rely on only one measurement at one point in time. Try to measure job satisfaction over time so that you can track changes.
• Several variables can affect job satisfaction, including situational variables such as the work environment. Adjustments to these situational variables can improve job satisfaction for all employees.
• All measurements should be followed up with meetings and interviews so that you can better understand the employee’s situation.

A variety of job satisfaction tools are listed in this post. However, this list is not exhaustive. If you use a different tool in your workplace, then please share your experience and the name of the tool in the comments section. We love hearing from you and learning more about your work.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Work & Career Coaching Exercises for free .

• Abraham, S. (2012). Job satisfaction as an antecedent to employee engagement. SIES Journal of Management , 8(2), 27–36.
• Andrews, F. M., & Withey, S. B. (2012). Social indicators of well-being: Americans’ perceptions of life quality . Springer Science & Business Media.
• Attridge, M. (2009). Measuring and managing employee work engagement: A review of the research and business literature. Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health , 24 (4), 383–398.
• Earl, J. K., Minbashian, A., Sukijjakhamin, A., & Bright, J. E. (2011). Career decision status as a predictor of resignation behavior five years later. Journal of Vocational Behavior , 78 (2), 248–252.
• Faragher, E. B., Cass, M., & Cooper, C. L. (2013). The relationship between job satisfaction and health: A meta-analysis. In C. L. Cooper (Ed.) From stress to wellbeing (vol. 1) (pp. 254–271). Palgrave Macmillan.
• Gallup Organization. (1992–1999). Gallup Workplace Audit (Copyright Registration Certificate TX-5 080 066). U.S. Copyright Office
• Garg, A., & Kumar, V. (2012). A study of employee engagement in pharmaceutical sector. International Journal of Research in IT and Management , 2 (5), 85–98.
• Grawitch, M. J., Gottschalk, M., & Munz, D. C. (2006). The path to a healthy workplace: A critical review linking healthy workplace practices, employee well-being, and organizational improvements. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research , 58 (3), 129–147.
• Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1974). The Job Diagnostic Survey: An instrument for the diagnosis of jobs and the evaluation of job redesign projects. JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology , 4 , 148.
• Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1975). Development of the job diagnostic survey. Journal of Applied Psychology , 60 (2), 159–170.
• Harter, J. K., Schmidt, F. L., & Hayes, T. L. (2002). Business-unit-level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology , 87 (2), 268–279.
• Harter, J. K., Schmidt, F. L., Killham, E. A., & Agrawal, S. (2009). Q12 meta-analysis: The relationship between engagement at work and organizational outcomes . Gallup.
• Ironson, G. H., Smith, P. C., Brannick, M. T., Gibson, W. M., & Paul, K. B. (1989). Construction of a Job in General scale: A comparison of global, composite, and specific measures. Journal of Applied Psychology , 74 (2), 193–200.
• 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.
• Kahn, W. A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. Academy of Management Journal , 33 , 692–724.
• Rich, B. L., Lepine, J. A., & Crawford, E. R. (2010). Job engagement: Antecedents and effects on job performance. Academy of Management Journal , 53 (3), 617–635.
• Schaufeli, W. B., & Bakker, A. B. (2003). Test manual for the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale . Unpublished manuscript, Utrecht University, The Netherlands. Retrieved from http://www.schaufeli.com
• Schaufeli, W. B., Bakker, A. B., & Salanova, M. (2006). The measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire: A cross-national study. Educational and Psychological Measurement , 66 (4), 701–716.
• Schaufeli, W. B., Taris, T. W., & Van Rhenen, W. (2008). Workaholism, burnout, and work engagement: Three of a kind or three different kinds of employee well‐being? Applied Psychology , 57 (2), 173–203.
• Smith, P. C., Kendall, L. M., & Hulin, C. L. (1969). The measurement of satisfaction in work and retirement: A strategy for the study of attitudes . Rand McNally.
• Spector, P. E. (1985). Measurement of human service staff satisfaction: Development of the Job Satisfaction Survey. American Journal of Community Psychology , 13 (6), 693–713.
• van Saane, N., Sluiter, J. K., Verbeek, J. H. A. M., & Frings-Dresen, M. H. W. (2003). Reliability and validity of instruments measuring job satisfaction: A systematic review. Occupational Medicine , 53 (3), 191–200.
• Warr, P. (2005). Work, well-being, and mental health. In J. Barling, E. K. Kelloway, & M. R. Frone (Eds.), The handbook of work stress (pp. 547–573). Sage
• Wright, T. A., & Cropanzano, R. (2000). Psychological well-being and job satisfaction as predictors of job performance. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology , 5 (1), 84–94.

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Please suggest me some tools for measuring Impact of HRM practices and job satisfaction level for employees in pharmaceutical company

Could you please specify the types of tools you’re looking for? I am happy to assist you to the best of my abilities!

Warm regards, Julia | Community Manager

Hi Nicole, I would appreciate if you could suggest me a measurement tool to measure job satisfaction and performance among nurses. Thank you

I found two scales that seem to measure what you’re looking for: the Nursing Job Satisfaction Scale (NJSS) and the Nurses’ Professional Commitment Scale (NPCS). You can find more information on the two tools here .

Hope this information helps you! Kind regards, Julia | Community Manager

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Your Career Doesn’t Need to Have a Purpose

• Stephen Friedman

Focus on making your work meaningful instead.

Outside of popular anecdotes and social media stories, there is little evidence that a single, defined “purpose” is necessary for a rewarding career. In fact, it can be quite the opposite. It’s surprisingly common to go after what we think is our purpose only to discover that we hate it. Instead, shift your focus from “purpose” to “meaning.” Ask yourself:

• What do I like, prefer, or enjoy doing? Let go of yearning for a career purpose. Dial it back and consider what you liked about any of your previous jobs, school projects or other ways you spend your time. Perhaps you liked helping your peers organize their work or enjoyed researching sources for group projects. Or maybe you liked working on a team than alone. Use that as a starting point. 
• What am I good at? Early on in your career, you will have many bourgeoning skills. These are skills that you are good at now and can get even better at with more practice. Think about stuff you are progressively getting better at. Getting to use and improve skills that you’re already good will energize you, and provide you with a feeling of recognition and usefulness.
• Would this role provide growth and learning that I can use later? Research shows that what scholars call “ability development” (i.e. getting better at what you do) brings with it greater happiness, satisfaction, and meaning.

As an organizational studies professor at the Schulich School of Business in Toronto, Canada, I get the opportunity to help my students with various aspects of their career development. In the process, I’ve noticed two common threads. First, most of my students are not only eager to enter the world of work, but also to be excellent at what they do. Second, they want their post-graduation job to be loaded with purpose .

• Stephen Friedman is an Adjunct Professor of Organizational Studies and a Senior Faculty of Executive Education, at The Schulich School of Business, York University in Toronto. He teaches and writes about leadership development, organizational behavior, complexity science, career development, human resource management, workplace inclusion, and mental health.

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Majority of workers who quit a job in 2021 cite low pay, no opportunities for advancement, feeling disrespected

The COVID-19 pandemic set off nearly unprecedented churn in the U.S. labor market. Widespread job losses in the early months of the pandemic gave way to tight labor markets in 2021, driven in part by what’s come to be known as the Great Resignation . The nation’s “quit rate” reached a 20-year high last November.

A new Pew Research Center survey finds that low pay, a lack of opportunities for advancement and feeling disrespected at work are the top reasons why Americans quit their jobs last year. The survey also finds that those who quit and are now employed elsewhere are more likely than not to say their current job has better pay, more opportunities for advancement and more work-life balance and flexibility.

Majorities of workers who quit a job in 2021 say low pay (63%), no opportunities for advancement (63%) and feeling disrespected at work (57%) were reasons why they quit, according to the Feb. 7-13 survey. At least a third say each of these were major reasons why they left.  

Roughly half say child care issues were a reason they quit a job (48% among those with a child younger than 18 in the household). A similar share point to a lack of flexibility to choose when they put in their hours (45%) or not having good benefits such as health insurance and paid time off (43%). Roughly a quarter say each of these was a major reason.

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to better understand the experiences of Americans who quit a job in 2021. This analysis is based on 6,627 non-retired U.S. adults, including 965 who say they left a job by choice last year. The data was collected as a part of a larger survey conducted Feb. 7-13, 2022. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way, nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.

About four-in-ten adults who quit a job last year (39%) say a reason was that they were working too many hours, while three-in-ten cite working too few hours. About a third (35%) cite wanting to relocate to a different area, while relatively few (18%) cite their employer requiring a COVID-19 vaccine as a reason.

When asked separately whether their reasons for quitting a job were related to the coronavirus outbreak, 31% say they were. Those without a four-year college degree (34%) are more likely than those with a bachelor’s degree or more education (21%) to say the pandemic played a role in their decision.

For the most part, men and women offer similar reasons for having quit a job in the past year. But there are significant differences by educational attainment.

Among adults who quit a job in 2021, those without a four-year college degree are more likely than those with at least a bachelor’s degree to point to several reasons. These include not having enough flexibility to decide when they put in their hours (49% of non-college graduates vs. 34% of college graduates), having to work too few hours (35% vs. 17%) and their employer requiring a COVID-19 vaccine (21% vs. 8%).

There are also notable differences by race and ethnicity. Non-White adults who quit a job last year are more likely than their White counterparts to say the reasons include not having enough flexibility (52% vs. 38%), wanting to relocate to a different area (41% vs. 30%), working too few hours (37% vs. 24%) or their employer requiring that they have a COVID-19 vaccine (27% vs. 10%). The non-White category includes those who identify as Black, Asian, Hispanic, some other race or multiple races. These groups could not be analyzed separately due to sample size limitations.

Many of those who switched jobs see improvements

A majority of those who quit a job in 2021 and are not retired say they are now employed, either full-time (55%) or part-time (23%). Of those, 61% say it was at least somewhat easy for them to find their current job, with 33% saying it was very easy. One-in-five say it was very or somewhat difficult, and 19% say it was neither easy nor difficult.

For the most part, workers who quit a job last year and are now employed somewhere else see their current work situation as an improvement over their most recent job. At least half of these workers say that compared with their last job, they are now earning more money (56%), have more opportunities for advancement (53%), have an easier time balancing work and family responsibilities (53%) and have more flexibility to choose when they put in their work hours (50%).

Still, sizable shares say things are either worse or unchanged in these areas compared with their last job. Fewer than half of workers who quit a job last year (42%) say they now have better benefits, such as health insurance and paid time off, while a similar share (36%) says it’s about the same. About one-in-five (22%) now say their current benefits are worse than at their last job.

College graduates are more likely than those with less education to say that compared with their last job, they are now earning more (66% vs. 51%) and have more opportunities for advancement (63% vs. 49%). In turn, those with less education are more likely than college graduates to say they are earning less in their current job (27% vs. 16%) and that they have fewer opportunities for advancement (18% vs. 9%).

Employed men and women who quit a job in 2021 offer similar assessments of how their current job compares with their last one. One notable exception is when it comes to balancing work and family responsibilities: Six-in-ten men say their current job makes it easier for them to balance work and family – higher than the share of women who say the same (48%).

Some 53% of employed adults who quit a job in 2021 say they have changed their field of work or occupation at some point in the past year. Workers younger than age 30 and those without a postgraduate degree are especially likely to say they have made this type of change.

Younger adults and those with lower incomes were more likely to quit a job in 2021

Overall, about one-in-five non-retired U.S. adults (19%) – including similar shares of men (18%) and women (20%) – say they quit a job at some point in 2021, meaning they left by choice and not because they were fired, laid off or because a temporary job had ended.

Adults younger than 30 are far more likely than older adults to have voluntarily left their job last year: 37% of young adults say they did this, compared with 17% of those ages 30 to 49, 9% of those ages 50 to 64 and 5% of those ages 65 and older.

Experiences also vary by income, education, race and ethnicity. About a quarter of adults with lower incomes (24%) say they quit a job in 2021, compared with 18% of middle-income adults and 11% of those with upper incomes.

Across educational attainment, those with a postgraduate degree are the least likely to say they quit a job at some point in 2021: 13% say this, compared with 17% of those with a bachelor’s degree, 20% of those with some college and 22% of those with a high school diploma or less education.  

About a quarter of non-retired Hispanic and Asian adults (24% each) report quitting a job last year; 18% of Black adults and 17% of White adults say the same.

Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.

• Business & Workplace
• Coronavirus (COVID-19)
• COVID-19 & the Economy
• Income & Wages

Kim Parker is director of social trends research at Pew Research Center

Juliana Menasce Horowitz is an associate director of research at Pew Research Center

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