OTB Notes - Matovu Musa (PhD)

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

This is concerned with the study of behaviour of people within an organizational

setting. Helps to understand and to predict human behavior. Organizational behaviour
is a field study that that investigates the impact of individuals, group and structures
have on behaviour within an organization, for the purpose of applying such knowledge
towards the improving an organizations effectiveness.
Organizational behaviour we intend to understand individuals and groups
behaviours and patterns of the structure in order to improve the organizational
performance and effectiveness. Such behaviours include productivity, absenteeism
and turnover. Understanding organisational behavior might be concerned with
employee job satisfaction and organizational performance.

Organization are majorly of two types. These include;

Formal organization is a group of people working together cooperatively under
authority working towards goals which benefit the organization. It involves authority,
responsibility and accountability. Informal organization emphasizes status, power and
politics. Informal groups may not be in support of the formal goals but managers
should put them into consolidation if are to effectively accomplish goals.

Formal organizations
• Planned, rational, stable
• Profit/service to society
• Focus or particular jobs
• Communication has a well define flow; top - bottom
• Authority – there is define authority for the organization
• Behaviour – Rules, boss, regulations, policies are in play.

Informal organizations
• Spontaneous, emotional and dynamic
• Members satisfaction
• Roles bring people together
• Two-way flow of information; top – bottom and bottom - top
• Depends on a person to join or leave the organization
• Organizations work on norms, values, ethics, cultures that govern the group.

The study of organizational behavior is derived from different branches of knowledge

which include;
a) Psychology (learning, motivation, personality, emotions, training, job satisfaction,
performance appraisal, attitude, employee selection, work design, work stress)
b) Sociology (work dynamics, communication, power, inter group behaviour,
organization theory, culture, change)
c) Social psychology (Behavioural change, attitudes, group process, decision making)
d) Anthropology (comparative value, attitudes, cross cultural actors, organizational
environment)
e) Political science (conflict, inter-organizational politics, power).

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Goals of organizational behaviour

Organizational behavior to studies of business and administration seeks to develop
students’ managerial and leadership skills in organizations. A manager’s
understanding organization behavior may help him/her to;
(a) Explain: This helps the manager to explain why employees do things
they do.
(b) Predict: It helps the manager to focus on the future by predicting what
would happen in terms of employees’ behavior. i.e. If an employee comes late
consistently, what does it mean?
(c) Control: understanding eployees’ behaviour helps the manager to learn how
to control behavior.

Other goals
(d) Improves quality and productivity because managers are aware of employees’
unique behaviours that might need to be handled differently.
(e) After predicting and controlling behavior, it is hoped that employees will
improve people skills and behaviours.
(f) Understanding organization behavior this helps in managing a diverse work
force. A manager would be able to read their attitudes, perceptions, values,
motivations, etc.
(g) Organizational behaviour helps in empowering managers with administrative
skills to diverse labour force that comes from various backgrounds. This helps
in dealing with employees with diverse needs of globalization that is likely to
be different in needs, aspirations and attitudes. The different workforce usually
comprises of bosses, peers and subordinates born and raised in different
cultures.
(h) Understanding organizational behavior empowering people managers by
helping employees to be in charge of what they do. Managers learn how to
control and manage employees for them to take their responsibility.
(i) Organization behavior helps tp train employers in organizations to spearhead
innovations and change. OB acts as a foundation to wealth ideas and
techniques to aid in realizing these goals.
(j) Improving ethical behaviours; members in organization are facing the problem
of ethical dilemma. These arise in determining what is right and wrong,
corruption, absence from duty, etc.
(k) Understanding organization behavior helps managers to understand how
to motivate bi-modal work forces. This is much common in organization that
might employ both skilled and low skilled workers. In understanding OB it helps
managers to understand the two groups of employees paid differently in order
to both be motivated on their work.
(l) Organization behaviour might be used in improving employees declining loyalty.
The classical organizations believe that employees should be rewarded with
their loyalty and job security, benefits and pay increase. But modern
organizations have come up with an approach of discarding traditional policies
of job security, seniority and compensations.

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Factors influencing the differences in organization behaviour

(a) Relation to the environment: Does the working environment support to

work as group or as individuals. Both males and females can work together but
the environment might deter them from working together.
(b) Time orientation: Time in west is scarce commodity “time money” while in
other parts of the world (Africa) time can be wasted, so late coming in Africa is
okay.
(c) Nature of the people: Do people have the same culture, share the same
views or are people good, bad or a mixture of the two? This might lead to a
difference in organization behavior.
(d) Focus on responsibility: Do people know their responsibilities? People who
are responsible will do what they are supposed to do while those who are
irresponsible will not. All positions in an organization should have key
performance indicators and a score card on which the key performance
indicators are measured.
(e) Orientation to doing: Some cultures are oriented to doing while others are
not. This might bring a difference in people organization behaviours.
(f) Individualism vs collectivism: Some people prefer to work as individuals
(alone) while other prefer to work as group. This might lead employees to have
different organization behaviours.
(g) Power distance: Power in all organization is distributed unequally. High
power distance brings about a wide difference in power in organizations. Such
is likely to bring out power struggles.
(h) Masculinity and femininity: This is where one part of gender is much
favoured than the other in organizations e.g. women should stay at home to
look after children.
(i) Uncertainty avoidance: We live in the world of uncertainty, this has made
people live in a state of anxiety, stress, nervousness, aggressiveness etc. Such
state of the different people working together has led people to feel threatened
in their organization.

Foundations of individual behaviour

Human behaviour is a derivative of a number of factors. These include
(1) Genetic factors – these are biologically made up
(2) Environmental factors – Human behavior might be determined according to
the environment.
(3) Psychological factors – these depend on what an employee thinks that it is
good, or not good.

Managers’ behaviours in organizations

Managers’ behaviors in organizations might be reflected in the following ways;
a) Planning
• Defining goals
• Establishing strategies to achieve goals
• Develop plans to coordinate activities
b) Organizing

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• Determine tasks to be undertaken

• How is undertake them
• Who report to whom?
• Where are the decisions made?
c) Leading
• Motivating employees
• Directing others
• Choosing the most effective channels
• Resolving conflicts
d) Controlling
• Monitoring activities
• Correcting any divergence

Challenges of implementing adequate OB in third world countries

• Responding to the call to globalization
• Managing work force diversity (different cultures)
• Improving quality and productivity (efficiency and effectiveness)
• Responding to labour shortage (efficiency – ratio of effective output to the input
required to achieve)
• Improving customers service/care
• Improving people’s skills and adopting to change.
• Empowering people with skills that might be contrary to their culture and beliefs.
• Coping with temporariness or things that are not permanent (e.g. taking on a
contract job).
• Improving ethical behaviours among employees
• Creating a positive working environment of multi-cultural behavior.
• Managing jobs/employees in countries where there is low pay or low cost labour
• Helping employees balance work and life challenges.
• Absenteeism or failure to report for work which is a cost and disruption to the
employers.
• Turnover (voluntary or involuntary permanent withdrawal from organizations).
This increase recruiting, selection and training costs to organizations.
• Increased deviant behaviour; behaviours that violate significant organization
norms which threatens the wellbeing of the organization.

ATTITUDES

Attitudes are evaluative statements evaluative statements to persons, objectives or

events in either a favourable or unfavourable manner. They reflect how one feels
about something. When I say I like my job, I am expressing my attitudes about my
work. A person may have many attitudes as regards his/ her job. These related job
attitudes tap positive and negative evaluations that employees hold about aspects of
their work environment. Attitudes are also referred to as learned predispositions to
respond in a consistently favourable or unfavourable manner in respect to a given
object or evaluation of particular persons groups, actions or things. Attitudes reflect
how we feel about some things. Also, attitudes are complex human body mechanism
which tends to make individuals to behave in a certain manner. e.g. “I LIKE MY JOB”.

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Attitudes employees hold about their work, how they purchase goods or use services
depends on the attitudes the hold towards the target aspect.
Fundamental properties/components of attitudes
There are three (3) major components of attitudes among human beings;
(a) Cognitive component: This is the aspect of belief or thinking depending on the
way things are
(b) Affective component: This is the emotional or feeling segment of attitudes e.g.
“I hate employers who pay less.”
(c) Behavioural component: These are action towards someone or something. These
reflect the true behaviours of an employee. “I am going to look for a better paying
job.”

Source of the message

The major sources of attitudes should be;
(a) Credibility (reliable)
(b) Trustworthy (valid)
(c) Consistent (does not change)
(d) Justifiable in the right amount
(e) Known to the listeners
(f) Should be able to distinct

Learning attitudes
Attitudes that influence employees might be learned in the following ways;
(a) Conditioning (pairing a person with a given attitude with that who does not have
that particular attitude)
(b) Reinforcement (Rewarding people in order to attain a particular attitude e.g.
paying an allowance for people to work extra time)
(c) Vicarious learning (The are behaviours or attitudes that are acquired
spontaneously e.g using face-book and whatsapp)

Attitudes formation.
These are some of the ways in which individuals from attitudes among themselves.
The ways include;
(a) Direct experience (interacting with the source of the attitude).
(b) Parental influence (attitudes might be transferred from parents/ guardian to
children).
(c) Peer group influence (attitudes might be formed when members interact with
their peers at work).
(d) Education influence (the education people attain helps them change their
attitudes: the higher the education the more people work attitudes are
influenced).
(e) Mass media (Mass media such radios, news papaers, televisions, magazines,
etc influence people’s attitudes).

Learning of attitudes
i. Conditioning (this is through paring of employees for the to acquires attitudes
from their peers)
ii. Social learning (attitudes are learnt through social interactions).

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Structure of attitudes
Our attitude toward an object or event tends to help us behave in a certain way
towards them. Attitudes have three major components which include;

Affective component: Comprises of our like/dislikes

Behavioural component: Actions towards persons/objects/events
Cognitive component: Comprises of beliefs, thoughts, regarding particular persons,
objectives events.

Cognitive dissonance: This refer to any incompatibility an individual might perceive

between two or more attitudes, or between behaviour and attitudes. Dissonance might
arise inconsistency and uncomfortable situation to an individual.

Smoking Smoking
Attitude
Behaviour
Resolve
(a) Attitude distant behaviour
(b) Rationalize
(c) Projection

Note: If the divergence in an attitude and behavior is not solved, then it results into
a cognitive dissonance.

Ways of attitude change

a) Introduction of attitude discrepant behaviours
b) Persuasive communication; changing attitudes using persuasion might depend on
(i) Importance of the parent intention of the communication
(ii) Level of attraction of the communicator
(iii) Parent level of expertise of the communicator
(iv) Distraction created
(v) How one communicates

PERSONALITY AND EMOTIONS

Personality is psychological system that help individuals to determine their unique

adjustment to the environment. Or personality is a sum of ways in which an individual
reacts to and interacts with others. Personality is a total sum of ways in which an
individual reacts and interacts with others. Personality can be acquired from the
environment or heredity.

Heredity: There are factors determined at conception that include physical ability,
beauty, gender, energy, biological, inherent psychological makeup. Our personality is
highly governed with traits.

Personality attributes might influence organizational behaviour (predictors). These

include;

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(i) Locus of control: Individuals believe that they control what happens to them i.e.
masters of their own fate and way of life. Individuals believe that luck and chance
are determinants of the way they do things. Locus of control might be internal or
external. Human beings tend to believe that they are controlled by outside forces not
from within.
(ii) Machiavellianism: This was discovered by Machiavelli. This is a degree to which
an individual is pragmatic maintains emotional distance and believes that end justifies
the means. Such kinds of individuals are frugal and work to obtain their goals by hook
or crook.

Personality determinant
Personality among human beings might be acquired or determined in the following
ways;
(a) Hereditary: personality might be transferred from parent to off springs.
Heredity includes; biological, physiological, and psychological make determined at
conception, also facial, temperaments, energy, reflexes.
(b) Environment: personality can be acquired from the environment where
people live.
(c) Freedom or will: one ability to decide with which factors to take on or keep
constant might determine their personality. A person has the ability to decide
whether to become a good employee or a bad employee.

Models of personality
A. Myers-Briggs indicators: It is classified into four categories;
(a) Extroversion Vs Introversion: Extroverts are outgoing, sociable and assertive.
Introverts are the reverse; shy and quiet.
(b) Sensing Vs Intuitive: People with sensing personality are practical and prefer
routine and order. Intuitive rely on unconscious process and look at a bigger
picture (talk a lot)
(c) Thinking Vs feeling: People with thinking use reason and logic to handle
problems. Feeling rely on personal value and emotions to solve problems.
(d) Judgments perceiving: Judgment prefer control, order and structures in their
environment. Perceiving would like flexibility and spontaneous.

B. Big Five: This was developed because the MBTI lacked supporting evidence.

Big five personality model

The “big five model” of personality explains five factors which might be used to explain
personality.
(a) Extraversion: determine one’s level of relationship. Extroverts are – assertive and
sociable; Introverts are the reserve, timid and quiet.
(b) Agreeableness: It reflects that an individual’s prosperity might differ with others.
Highly cooperative, warm and trustworthy.
(c) Conscientiousness: It measures reliability. A conscientious person is reliable,
responsible, organized, dependable, persistent etc., who score low on the scale –
disorganized unreliable, distracted etc.

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(d) Emotional/stability: this is a person who is calm, self-confident, secure

(positive). Those with the negative scores are nervous, anxious, insecure,
depressed.
(e) Openness experience: these are people who are characterized with imagination,
sensitivity and curiosity. These on the negative side are the opposite.

Individual’s personality and value to the work place

In past organization personality was of great concern in employing workers. But
today, it is not only the personality but also values are considered. (Personality +
value). Because managers are less interested in workers ability to perform a specific
job, but the flexibility to meet the changing situation and commitment to the
organization.

Person-job fit
The effort to match job requirement with personality characteristics (john Holland’s
personality job fit theory). Holland presented six types of personalities of the
personality-job fit theory.

The personality job fit

There is a relationship between possession of personality characteristics and job
performance which is highlighted in the personality job fit theory. Personality job fit
theory is based on the notion between an individual personality characteristic and the
occupational environment. Personality has a role in making them realize a job.
Personality job fit theory identifies six (6) personality types that fit between personality
types and occupational environment which determines satisfaction and turn over.
These are;

Personality Characteristic Congruent occupation

Realistic; physical Shy, genuine, persistent Mechanic, drill, operators

activities that require conforming
skills

Investigate; prefer Analytic, original, curious, Biologists, economists’

activities that involve independent mathematicians
thinking, organizing
and understanding

Social; prefer activities Sociable, friendly, Social worker, teacher,

of helping others cooperative, understanding bank tellers,

Conventional; prefer Conforming, efficient, Accountants, corporate

regulated ordered and practical, inflexible, managers
unambiguous activities unimaginative

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Enterprising; prefer Self-confident ambitious Lawyer, real estate

verbal activities which energetic managers, business
influence others to managers, public relation
attain power officers

Artistic; prefer Imaginative, disorderly, Paints, musician,

ambitious and emotional, idealistic decorators
unsystematic activities
that allow creativity

Person - organization fit reveals that people are attracted to, and selected by
organization that match their values, and leave organizations that are not compatible
with their personalities e.g. extroverts may fit well with organizations that are
aggressive and have team-oriented cultures. Open people; fit for organizations that
call for innovation rather than standardization.

Perceptions and individual decision making

Perception is a process through which individual’s organization and interpret the
sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.

Factors influencing perception

Two people might look at the same thing but perceive it differently.
These include
(a) Factors within the perceiver (state-drunk, sober etc)
(b) In the object or target to be perceived (beautiful, good, bad)
(c) The situation/context in which the perception is made (poverty, at might etc)
• Perceiver (personal characteristics): attitudes, personality, motives, interests,
past experiences, and expectations.
• Factors in the situation: time, work setting, social selling
• Context or environment: light, heat, background, proximity, similarity (Retreat
– Speke Resort Munyonyo).

ATTRIBUTIONS

Perception involves attributions in order to make judgments. Attributions; this explains

the way we judge people differently; we attribute to people’s behaviour to attempt.

Observation Interpretation Attribution of the cause

• Attribution depends on majorly three (3) factors

i) Distinctiveness: Individuals display different behaviours in different situations.

This determines whether behaviour is usual or unusual.
Usual Internally generated
Unusual Externally generated
ii) Consensus: This is when one’s behaviours meets the limit/ standards of
behaviours of others. If the employees behaviour matches with the others, we

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may attribute it to external factors (coming early) but if it is unique, and match it
to external factors.
iii) Consistency: Does the person respond to the stimulus in the same way overtime?
Coming late for one day might not be interpreted in the same way as a person
who does it as a routine.

Internally caused: This believes that one’s behaviour is under personal control of
an individual to determine whether it is internally or externally generated.
Externally caused; one’s behaviour is due to a given situation, not from him/herself.

Attribution theory
This explains the ways in which we judge people differently, depending on the
meaning we attach on behaviour. When we observe people’s behaviour we tend to
determine whether it is internally or externally generated.

Attribution errors
There are some errors/biases which occur during the line of attribution which distort
attributions, the main attribution errors include, there are two major biases;
(i) Fundamental attribution error: This is the tendency to underestimate the
influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal or personal
factors. E.g. sale managers are likely to attribute their poor performance to sales
team rather than to innovative products sold by their competitors.
(ii) Self-serving bias: Individuals and organizations tend to attribute their own
success to internal factors such as ability or effort, while putting blame to external
factors e.g. lack of unproductive co-workers.

Others might include;

a) Selective perceptions: The tendency to selectively interpret what one sees on
the basis of one’s interest, background, experience and attitude.
A tendency a boss may reprimand some people and not others. If we cannot
observe everything we engage in selective perceptions.
b) Hallo effect: We might make judgment or draw conclusions depending on single
characteristics e.g. intelligence, sociability, appearance (marriage).
c) Contrast effects: Evaluation of person/employees that affected by comparisons
with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on same
characteristics.
Contrast effect might distort perceptions if other factors are not considered or left
constant.
d) Stereotypes: Judging a person/employee depending on the group of people to
which he/she belongs e.g.
- All Muslim are terrorists
- All whites are bright
- Black women are not beautiful
e) Profiling: This is like stereotypes in which an individual or a group of individuals
is singled out. Profiling is discriminatory, deeming and ineffective.
This might on the basis of race or ethnicity
- They think at 45 years

Note: Attribution errors in organizations could be evidenced at

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(a) Employment interviews

(b) Performance expectation (appraisals) – Self-fulfilling prophecy
(c) Self-fulfilling prophecy is determining an individual by people expectation
(d) Performance evaluation; an individual might be evaluated subjectively during
an appraisal leading to occurrence of errors

Decision making is organizations

Individuals in organization make decisions. Decisions; a choice made from among two
or more alternatives.

Why make decision;

i. To determine organizational goals
ii. In situations of scarce resources
iii. What product or service to offer?
iv. How best to finance operations?
v. Select employees
vi. How to improve services to clients etc.

Decision making usually results in situations of problems or imbalances.

Problems: a discrepancy between the current state of affairs and the ideal state.
BUT: One person’s problems might be another person’s advantage or, state of affairs
satisfactory e.g. company’s loss of 2% of its sales might be a problem, while another
a 2% loss might be acceptable. Most times we believe that best decisions are made
when people are rational to make consistent and valuable choice on specified problem
or constraints.

Models of decision making

There are three (3) models of decision making

1) Rational decision making: By rational we mean that the decision maker is

consistent, value maximising choice within specified constraints, (there should be
maximizing outcome (logic and thinking supersede all activities)

Rational decision has five steps;

i. Define a problem
ii. Identify the decision criteria
iii. Allocate weight to the criteria
iv. Develop alternatives
v. Evaluate alternatives
vi. Select the best alternatives
2) Bounded rationality: This is a process of making decisions by constructing
simplified models that extract the essential features from a problem without
capturing all the complexities. Once the problem has been identified, we begin to
search for the criteria or an alternative.
3) Intuition (intuitive decision making): This is unconscious process created out
of distilled experience in making decisions.
• It is not rational but does not mean that it is wrong
• Intuition does not oppose rationality, rather, the two complement each other.

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Common biases or errors in decision making

Using shortcuts in decision making is likely to cause errors or biases. These might be
relying on experience, impulse, gut feet ups etc.

These include;
1. Over confidence bias: This is tending to be gas too optimistic on what you are
making your decision or judgment e.g. this can arise when decision makers are
making decision on problem outside their expertise.
2. Anchoring bias: Tendency to fixate on the initial information and fail to
adequately adjust on the subsequent information. For example, failing to adopt to
the changing demands of the time e.g. technology, policy etc.
3. Confirmation bias: Rational decision-making process assume that we are
objective in gathering information. But we don’t. We selectively gather it.
Confirmation of the selective perception, we seek to understand information that
re-affirms our choice and we discontinue information that contradicts it.
4. Availability bias: Tending to base our judgments on the information readily
available for us. We do not do research.
People tend to refer to businesses we know as benchmarks to our decision, and
we are likely to reject those we do not know (bias is brought by lack of information)
5. Escalation of commitment: This is increased commitment to a previous decision
in spite of the negative information (or whether it is clearly wrong) e.g. what was
our decision last time?
6. Randomness error: Most managers have difficulty with dealing with chance. In
rational decision making we believe that we are in control of our destiny and
leaving no room for chance (loss). It might be due to superstitions
7. Winner’s curse bias: This is over estimating a situation, when it would have been
less in making decision. This usually leads to a loss. E.g. in an auction people
might take on goods at high prices when they would have been actually low.
Usually occurs when there are many bidders.
8. Hindsight bias: This is a tendency to reduce our abilities from learning from the
past. Permits us to think that we are better in making predictions than we really
are. It is a tendency to believe falsely, after outcomes of an event is actually
known that we had actually predicted the outcome.

Organization constraints to decision making

Organizations can constraint decision makers, creating deviations from the rational
model. Four decisions by manager to reflect organization performance, reward
systems, regular turns etc.
(a) Performance evaluation: Tending to make decision by the criteria on which
they are evaluated. If manager know that their organizations are performing well,
they might not like to listen to criticisms.
(b) Reward system: If the organization has a good reward system, they are most
likely not to spare their employee with divergent behaviour.
(c) Formal regulations: Taking rules and regulations in making decision.
Sometimes, rules and regulation need to be bent to have proper organization
performance e.g. a worker gets an accident and the manager is not around to sign
a form to release money from the accountant.

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(d) System imposed time constraints: This is the imposing deadlines to decisions
e.g. a report should be submitted one week to members before the report.
(e) Historical precedents (organization practices): How have decision been made
on such issues before. If wrong decision were taken earlier, they would be taken
again.

JOB SATISFACTION, ORGANISATIONAL COMMITMENT, AND JOB

INVOLVEMENT
Job satisfaction
This describes positive feelings employees hold about a given job that are resulting
from evaluative characteristics. Job satisfaction is a pleasurable emotional state
resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences. It represents how you
feel about your job and what you think about your job. High job satisfaction reflects
positive feeling about a job while dissatisfaction hold negative attitudes. A person with
high job satisfaction holds a positive attitude towards a job, while a person who is
dissatisfied with his/her holds a negative attitude about a job. Generally, when people
talk of employee attitudes, they may mean in most cases job satisfaction.

Factor influencing Job satisfaction

(a) Job security: A person who feels secure with his job is likely to develop feeling
of job satisfaction.
(b) Organization’s financial stability: How much does the organization have to
sustain itself and its employees? Organizations that have a large resource
envelop to accomplish their tasks and also pay their workers are likely to make
their employees feel satisfied.
(c) The work itself: How is the work and working environment interesting or
challenging to the employees? Employees tend to prefer jobs that give them
opportunities to use their own skills and abilities and offer a variety of tasks,
freedom and feedback. It is difficult for employees to remain motivated,
satisfied and engaged with their jobs if their work is not stimulating. Stimulating
and engaging work to the employees is likely to make them satisfied than that
which is not stimulating. Job that have little challenge created might lead
employees develop a sense of under employment or feelings of failure.
According to research, conditions of moderate challenges on task undertaken
by employees will lead to an experience of pleasure and job satisfaction among
employees.
(d) Feeling safe in the work environment: All employees would like to work in
an environment that is safe; physically, psychologically, emotionally, etc.
Physical violence that occurs in work places is likely to affect the employees’
performance and job satisfaction. So, it is important that employers make sure
that employees in organizations are safe at their work places.
(e) Organization corporate culture: Corporate culture varies from one
organization to another. Employees are likely to target to work in organizations
that have good corporate culture. Organization corporate culture might consist
of collective attitudes and behaviors of individuals within the organization.
Organization corporate culture might consist of explicit and implicit
expectations, norms of behavior and standards of performance, the

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organization’s reputation, work ethics, values and working conditions, among

other.
(f) Relationships with co-workers: Employees’ relationships with co-workers
are important to their success at work. Building allies across the organization
helps employees accomplish their work goals and their organization’s goals.
This in the end might lead to employees’ job satisfaction and hope to stay
longer at their places of work. Research has found out that employees forming
positive relationships at work may make the workplace and work more
enjoyable and increase job satisfaction and engagement.
(g) Meaningfulness of the job: Is the job I am undertaking the quality of the
job I want? Usually this depends on the qualifications the employees hold visa
vie the jobs they are undertaking. Employees are likely to be dissatisfied with
their jobs they are undertaking if they feel that the jobs, they are doing are not
meaningful to them. This is incumbent to employers to employee workers in
various positions in line with the qualifications they possess.
(h) Contribution of work to the organization or business goals:
Contributing to the organization’s overall goals can give employees a clearer
sense of their role, significance and relevance of their work to the organization.
This in turn can make an employee be satisfied with his or her work. Employees
who might sense that their contribution to the organization does not add any
value to the institution, they are likely to be dissatisfied with their work.
(i) Equitable rewards: At work places, employees want pay systems and
promotion policies they perceive as being just, clear and in line with their
expectations. When pay is seen as fair based on job demands, individuals’ skill
level and committed pay standards, then satisfaction is likely to result. The key
factor in linking pay satisfaction is not the absolute amount of money paid but
it is the perception of fairness, similarly employees like fair promotion policies
and practices. Promotion provides opportunities for personal growth and
increased social status. Individuals who perceive that promotion decisions are
made in a fair and just manner are likely to experience satisfaction from their
jobs.
(j) Supportive working conditions: Employees in organizations are concerned
with their work environment for both personal comfort and the facilitation of
doing a good job. Studies have demonstrated that employees prefer physical
surrounding that are not dangerous or uncomfortable e.g. temperature, light,
noise and other environmental factors should not be at either extreme e.g.
having too much heat or too little light. In addition, most employees prefer
working closely to home, in clean and relatively modern facilities and with
adequate tools and equipment. This would support their working to be more
productive during their working tenure.
(k) Corporate Social Responsibility: An organization’s commitment to CSR
involves balancing financial performance with contributions to the quality of life
of its employees, the local community and society at large. Employees are likely
to be committed to their work and also be satisfied with if the organization has
a clear corporate social responsibility strategy. An organization might have
broad range of practices and activities fall under the umbrella of CSR, such as
charitable donations, cause marketing/ branding, caring for the environment,
build social centres likes schools and hospital, among others. An organization

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having an appropriate corporate social responsibility strategy is likely to make

employees proud and also to be satisfied with their job.
(l) Supportive colleagues: Employees get more out of work than mere money
or tangible achievements. Work also fills the need for social interaction and
having friendly and supportive workers leads to increased job satisfaction. The
behaviour of one’s supervisor or the immediate boss may also be a major
determinant of an employee’s job satisfaction. Studies have indicated that
employees’ job satisfaction is increased when their immediate supervisor are
friendly, understanding, offers praise for good performance and listens to the
employees’ opinions and shows a personal interest in their employees. In this
case, any support given to employees by their fellow workers or supervisors in
terms of tangible or intangible materials is likely to affect their satisfaction to
their jobs either positively or negatively.
(m)Personality job fit: People with personality types that are congruent with
their chosen vocations have the right talents and abilities to meet the demands
of the job and are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs. For some jobs
they might require certain personalities in order for those performing to be
successful. A person with a personality that fits his job is likely to be satisfied
with his/ her job. A manager should be interested in knowing which personality
is fit for each placement in an organization. For example, the personality of a
front desk officer in an organization might totally be different from that of a
security guard.
(n) Variety of Work: Research has shown that employees will be more satisfied
with their jobs and find their work more meaningful when there is variety in
activities and the types of skills they use at work. Similar to the work itself
aspect. This includes providing employees with opportunities to work on new
kinds of assignments that call upon or develop a range of skills and abilities.
(o) Individual factors; qualification, intelligence, abilities, age, marital status.

Other factors include,

(p) Social factors; relationship with other workers groups, norms etc
(q) Cultural factors; attitudes, beliefs, values
(r) Organizational factors; nature and size, formal structure, HR policies,
employee relations, technology, supervision and leadership, management
systems

Measure of determining job satisfaction among employees

There are several aspects which would be looked at to understand that an employee
is satisfied with his job. These include;
(a) Interaction of an employee with fellow employees, co-workers and managers
(b) Following organization rules and regulations
(c) Meeting performance standards at work places in time and rightly (in line with
your job description)
(d) Living within working conditions that might be less than the ideal, or what is
expected.
(e) Liking of the job an employee is assigned (at personal or departmental levels)
(f) Executing duties without query

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(g) Undertaking duties without asking who is the supervisor, or what is the
supervision process?
(h) An employee not putting much emphasis on remuneration or rewards at work.
Payment not being the first priority at work.
(i) An employee does not much consider promotion as an issue at work.
(j) Being able to work in distant places far from home.
(k) Having a good working relationship with co-workers
(l) Does the employee allow to work during their own time when then they are
supposed to be off with or without pay?
(m) How does the employee respond to opportunities that give advantage to the
organization?
(n) Does the employee like the overall corporate culture of the organization?

Variables to employee satisfaction

There are mainly 2 broad categories namely of variables of employee satisfaction with
their work. These include;
A. Organizational Variables
B. Personal Variables

A. Organizational Variables:
The organization determinants of employee satisfaction play a very important role.
The employees spend major part of their time in organization so there are number of
organizational variables that determine employee satisfaction of the employees. The
employee satisfaction in the organization can be increased by organizing and
managing the organizational variables or organizational factors. Organizational
variables include;
(a) Organization Development: Organizational development is an ongoing,
systematic process to implement effective change in an organization. Its
objective is to enable the organization in adopting-better to the fast-changing
external environment of new markets, regulations, and technologies. It starts
with a careful organization-wide analysis of the current situation and of the
future requirements. In other words, we can say that organization development
is the process through which an organization develops the internal capacity to
most efficiently and effectively provide its mission work and to sustain itself
over the long term. This definition highlights the explicit connection between
organizational development work and the achievement of organizational
mission.
(b) Policies of compensation and benefit: This is the most important variable
for employee satisfaction. Compensation can be described as the amount of
reward that a worker expects from the job during and at retirement. Employees
should be satisfied with competitive salary packages and they should be
satisfied with it when they compare their pay packets with those of the
outsiders who are working in the same industry.
(a) Promotion and career development: Promotion can be reciprocated as a
significant achievement in the life. It promises and delivers more pay,
responsibility, authority, independence and status. So, the opportunity for
promotion determines the degree of satisfaction to the employee. For example;

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equal opportunity for promotion, equal opportunity to grow despite being male
or female
(b) Job Security: Job security is an employee's assurance or confidence that they
will keep their current job. Employees with a high level of job security have a
low probability of losing their job in the near future. Certain professions or
employment opportunities inherently have better job security than others. Job
security is also affected by a workers’ performance, success of the business
and the current economic environment.
(c) Working environment and condition: Employees are highly motivated with
good working conditions as they provide a feeling of safety, comfort and
motivation. On contrary, poor working condition brings out a fear of bad health
in employees. The more comfortable the working environment is more
productive will be the employees. For example, feeling safe and comfort in
working environment, having tools and equipment, good working methods,
having security guards and parking facility, having offices with well-ventilated,
good lights, fans and air-conditioning, neat and clean office place, rest area
and washrooms might be determinants of how employees will be satisfied with
their jobs.
(d) Relationship with supervisor: A good working relationship with your
supervisor is essential since, at every stage, you need his or her professional
input, constructive criticism, and general understanding.
(e) Work group: There is a natural desire of human beings to interact with others
and so existence of group in organization is a common observable fact. This
characteristic result into the formation of work group at the work place. It has
been noted that isolated workers dislike their job. The work groups make use
of a remarkable influence on the satisfaction of the employees with their job.
Such include their relationship with the group members, group dynamics, group
cohesiveness and need for affiliation.
(f) Leadership styles: The satisfaction level on the job can be determined by the
leadership style. Employees’ job satisfaction is greatly enhanced by democratic
style of leadership than other leadership styles. It is because democratic leaders
promote friendship, respect and warmth relationship among the employees. On
contrary, employees working under authoritarian and dictatorial leaders
express low level of employee job satisfaction.
(g) Other Factors: There are some other important variables which affect the
level of employee job satisfaction in their organizations include;
• External support that the organization might offer to the employee out of the
normal or contractual terms. For example, salary loans and advances,
mortgages, etc.
• Counseling services the organization offers to employees.
• Technological advancement of the organization.
• Link of the organization to the employees’ families.
• Concern of the organization to the challenges of the employees.

B. Personal Variables:
The personal determinants also help a lot in maintaining the motivation and personal
factors of the employees to work effectively and efficiently. Employee satisfaction can

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be related to internal factors that are within the employee him/ herself. The personal
factors might include the following;
(a) Personality: The personality of an individual can be determined by observing
his individual psychological condition. The factors that determine the satisfaction
of individual and his psychological conditions is perception, attitude and learning.
(b) Expectation: The expectation level of employees affects their job satisfaction
levels. If one receives more outcome than expected then he will be highly satisfied
with his/her job, or vice-versa. Employees expectations are much connected with
what they get as tangible benefits from the organization they are working for.
(c) Age: Age can be described as noteworthy determinants of employee job
satisfaction. It is because the younger the age of the employees the lesser the
demand of life. So, even a lesser pay can be able to satisfy the younger employee
compared to older persons/ employees who have higher demands.
(d) Education: Education plays a significant determinant of employee satisfaction as
it provides an opportunity for developing one’s personality. Education develops
and improvises individual wisdom and evaluation process. The highly educated
employees can understand the situation and assess it positively as they possess
persistence, rationality and thinking power. Highly educated employees possess
rationality and thinking power and education develops individual wisdom and
evaluation process compared to those with no or low education levels.
(e) Gender Differences: The gender of the employees plays important determinant
as regards employee job satisfaction. In studies that have been conducted as
regards gender and employee job satisfaction women are a fairer sex, are more
likely to be satisfied with their job than their counterparts (males).

Advantages and disadvantages of job satisfaction

Advantages of job satisfaction

(a) Job satisfaction and productivity: Job satisfaction in organizations leads to
increased productivity of employees and also increased production of the
organization. When employees become more productive due to being satisfied
with their job, also the organization increases its productivity and thus more
profits or benefits to the organization.
(b) Job satisfaction and employee turnover: Motivated employees are likely
to be committed to their jobs. So, highly satisfied employees are likely not to
leave their jobs. Thus, high job satisfaction lead to reduced or no turnover of
employees in organizations.
(c) Job satisfaction and absenteeism: It has been conclusively proved that
there is an inverse relationship between job satisfaction and absenteeism.
When satisfaction is high among employees, absenteeism is low and when
satisfaction is low, absenteeism is high. Less satisfied employees are more
likely to be absent from work due to avoidable reasons. This is known as
voluntary absenteeism as against unavoidable absenteeism which is due to
illness or other emergency reasons.
(d) Job satisfaction and union activities: It has been proved that satisfied
employees are generally not interested in unions and they do not perceive them
as necessary. Job satisfaction has proved to be major cause of unionization.
The employees join the unions because they feel that individually they are

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unable to influence changes which would eliminate the causes of job

satisfaction. The level of union activities is related to the level of job
dissatisfaction. Low level of dissatisfaction results is only grievances while
higher levels of dissatisfaction will result in employee strikes.
(e) Job satisfaction and safety: When employees are dissatisfied with their jobs,
they are more prone to experience accidents. An underlying reason for this is
that dissatisfaction takes one’s attention away from the task at hand and leads
directly to accidents. A satisfied worker will always be careful and attentive
towards his job, and the chances of accidents will be less. Here, we are
discussing about the avoidable accidents and not the unavoidable ones.
Other advantages:
(f) Highly satisfied employees tend to have better physical and mental health, learn
the new job-related tasks easily, and have less job stress and unrest. Such
employees will become more co-operative such as helping customers etc. Such
behaviour will improve unit performance and organizational effectiveness.
(g) Job performance: Job satisfaction leads to job performance i.e. happy
workers are likely to perform better at their work than those who are not
satisfied with their job.
(h) Reduce recruiting and training costs: Satisfied employees do not leave the
organization, or reduced turn over. This in turn might reduce recruitment and
training costs.
(i) Increased organization citizenship behaviour (OCB). Employees high at
OCB talk positively about their work environment. Satisfied employees are likely
to talk good about the organization, help others and work beyond their
descriptions. OCB are behaviours that employees portray to sell out their
organizations.
(j) Customers satisfaction: A satisfied employee is likely to please the
customers, and the vice versa. A frontline employee (reception) is likely to
determine whether a client is to come back to the organization or not. Satisfied
employees are likely to talk well to the clients, tell them more about the
company, and invite them to come back next time when they need the same
services or those that the organization offers.
(k) Avoid deviant behaviours: Satisfied employees do not get involved in
deviant behaviours at work places. For example, satisfied employees do not
steal, don’t undue socialization, don’t participate in strikes, aggression, etc.

Disadvantages of job satisfaction

For your reading

Dissatisfaction
As much employees can be satisfied at work, they can also be dissatisfied.
Dissatisfaction in organizations might be seen through the following ways;
(a) Negative behaviour directed toward the organization.
(b) Behaviours leading one to leave the organization.
(c) Voices that are raised to actively and constructively improve the working
conditions.
(d) Reduced loyalty leading to passive behaviours.

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(e) Neglecting duty and allowing condition worsen e.g. absenteeism, lateness.
(f) Employees distancing themselves from work
(g) Working for a few hours and pretense dominates the rest of the working time.
(h) Poor working relationship between the employer and the employee even when
the employer offers a good ground for working.
(i) Not meeting demands of the employer to attain the education goal.
(j) Display of bad attitudes towards work.

Consequences of job dissatisfaction

If employees are not satisfied with their jobs, they are likely to do the following;
(a) Exit/ Turnover: Dissatisfied employees are likely to perform behaviours that
would make them quit the organization. Dissatisfaction employees are likely to
quit.
(b) Voice: Dissatisfied employees might raise their voices in an attempt to improve
the working conditions.
(c) Loyalty: Dissatisfied employees perform acts of passiveness, but optimistically
waiting for conditions to change. These talk ill about the organization and
might speak bad about all situation in the organization through a criticizing
manner.
(d) Neglect: Dissatisfied employees might decide to act passively allowing
conditions to worsen. Aspects of neglect might include absenteeism, reduced
efforts, increased error rates, etc.
(e) Absenteeism: dissatisfaction might lead workers not coming regularly for
duty. This is likely to affect the optimal performance of the organization.
(f) Workplace deviance: Dissatisfied workers are more likely to unionize, abuse
substances, steal, be tardy, and withdraw.
(g) Aggression and counterproductive work behavior (CWB): Employees
who are not satisfied with their job they are likely to be aggressive to their co-
workers and employers.

Ways to increase employee job satisfaction

There are various was in which employers can increase employee satisfaction at places
of work. These include;

(a) Clear, Concise and Consistent Communication: In many organizations,

employees do not know the mission, vision, objects of the organization. Building
a corporate culture that requires employees to be an integral part of the
organization can be an effective way of getting the most from the talents or
competencies brought to the organization. We should keep employees informed
on the organizations’ position, progress made, issues/challenges, and how they
directly contribute to the success of the business in clear and understandable
communications.
(b) Recruiting the right team: It can be done by the hiring right employee for
right job, and communicate to employees their expectations.
(c) Training and improvement programs: there should be clearly necessary
education, training and coaching that increases employees skills and shows the
employee that you are interested in their success and readiness for new
responsibility.

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(d) Empower Employees: Provide necessary responsibilities to employees across

the organization. Make sure that employees are empowered to take decisions
and also manage their own affairs once they are given responsibilities.
(e) Work its self: We can increase employee job satisfaction by making job
rotation, job enrichment as well as job enlargement.
(f) Fair compensation and benefit policies: Policies of compensation and
benefits are important in any organization. Good organizations should build
policies that are “suitability” not “the best”. Suitable policies would serve what
they are supposed to serve in that particular context.
(g) Promotion and career development: organizations should develop
programs to promote that promote career development for each particular title.
Organization should give opportunity to every employee to develop and also
have career growth.
(h) Monitor performance and rewards: A good package for reward should be
given to employees in order make them satisfied with their jobs. Employees
given a good package of rewards are likely to perform to their best.
(i) Honest feedback: Don’t wait for a crisis situation to give feedback. Instead,
give regular constructive input into the employee’s performance across a wide
variety of issues, build loyalty, challenge to new levels of performance and keep
it real. Regular feed back is needed for proper performance of employees in
their organizations.
(j) Build corporate culture: In organizations there should be focus on making
proper communications through appropriate communication channels, good
and supportive relationship with coworkers and with supervisor as part of the
corporate culture of the organization. Employee satisfaction can be increased
by demonstrating respect for everyone in the organization as part of the
managers’ corporate performance indicators.
(k) Equipment and safe working condition: Invest in employees by making
sure their tools and equipment don’t keep them from being successful. Give
them the very best tools to deliver the very best performance to the
organization, customers and the marketplace. Organizations should build
occupational health and safety program.
(l) Information technology: Creating a work environment in which employees
are productive is essential to increased employee productivity, their satisfaction
as well as profits for any organization, corporation or small business. There is
no shortage of information on ways to motivate employees, but more and more
companies are realizing that there is a strong correlation between flexibility in
the workplace and employee satisfaction and productivity. The concept of
telecommuting is certainly not new. With an internet connected computer,
employees can securely access centralized data, collaborate with remote team
members and host interactive web meetings and presentations.
(m) Remain positive: Organizations should lead the team forward through
positive outlook and contribution and showing their faith in their employees.

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