Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is an attitude, the attitude people have about their work. The term job satisfaction refers to the feelings people have about their jobs. These feelings exist among both nursing staff and physicians, the two groups of hospital employees most involved in the delivery of patient care. It has become an important concept in health care management for the past forty years. The assumed link between job satisfaction and job behavior led to the “happy worker” hypothesis—a happy worker was a productive worker. As a result, hospital management became interested in improving the job satisfaction of employees. However, forty years of accumulated research findings have indicated that the “happy worker” hypothesis was overly simplistic. While the relationship between job satisfaction, job performance, and productivity had been found to be generally positive and often statistically significant, the strength of this relationship has been shown to be modest. Satisfaction with some aspects of organizational policy such as fringe benefits are so far removed from one' job behaviors that it will not be related directly or strongly to performance.

Job satisfaction is a reflection of the perceived characteristics of a job in relation to the person' frame of reference (alternatives, expectations, experiences).

An individual' feeling of job satisfaction is influenced by his or her frame of reference; the latter in turn, is affected by all the situations and experiences the person has had and the possible alternatives available to the individual (best and worst jobs one can imagine).

One can consider the concept of job satisfaction in terms of time perspective (long term versus short term), absolute versus relative standards, and descriptive versus evaluative dimensions. A short-term perspective considers one' day-to-day experiences and reactions; a long-term perspective considers the job in the context of one' lifetime aspirations. The term absolute evaluation refers to an internal standard; relative evaluations are made in reference to an external standard in a given situation. Descriptive measures tap concrete, specific aspects of the job; evaluative measures address the issue of how “good,” or satisfied the individual is, with a particular aspect of the work.

Unless a particular job is one that the employee has a reasonable chance of holding, it is unlikely that this person will use this job as a standard. A janitor in a hospital will not use the job of the director of nursing services, though he or she knows about it, as a basis for comparing and evaluating his or her present job.

In addition, employees can have different feelings corresponding to different aspects of their jobs (pay, supervision, and so on). Studies have shown there are many distinguishable areas of job satisfaction. These areas have been found to be more clearly differentiated by using descriptive instead of evaluative measures.

Job satisfaction has been found to comprise at least five factors. These factors are also likely to be positively correlated. Commonly found factors include the work itself, pay, promotions, supervision, and coworkers. Various aspects of job satisfaction should be considered separately. Different areas of satisfaction have been found to relate to different situational characteristics. A global measure, although perhaps adding additional information, does not simply substitute for specific job factors. In addition, the behavioral correlates of the various satisfaction factors are also likely to be different.

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