JOB SATISFACTION:

A METHOD OF ANALYSIS
Enid Mumford

ENID MUMFORD
Enid Mumford is Senior Lecturer in Industrial
Sociology at the Manchester Business School and an ex
Vice-President (Publications) of the Institute of Personnel
Management. She has held academic posts in the research
and teaching of personnel management, and is currently Job Satisfaction as A Concept
engaged in research into socio-technical systems design.
Job satisfaction is a nebulous concept. Managers talk about
it a great deal, but, if pressed to explain exactly what they
mean are hard pushed to provide a precise definition.
Vroom had described it as:
'the positive orientation of an individual towards the work role
which he is presently occupying.

This rather cumbersome phrase can be freely trans-

lated as:
'an individual liking more aspects of his work than he dislikes'.

This is a definition which most people would accept as

substantially correct but again it is vague and tells us not-
hing about the components of job satisfaction. The litera-
ture on job satisfaction is of equally"small help in providing
us with an understanding of the totality of the concept.
There appear to be no all-embracing theories of job satis-
faction and much of the work on the subject has been
focused on single or small clusters of factors thought to be
related to feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction in work.
Few studies take a wide scan of a large number of related
variables at one and the same time.

Examination of the literature on job satisfaction shows

that it is split into a number of different schools of thought,
each with its own particular focus. There is what can be
called the psychological needs school. Those psychologists
such as Maslow, Herzberg, Likert etc. who see the develop-
ment of motivation as the central factor in job satis-
faction and concentrate their attention on stimuli which

The analytical model of job satisfaction set out in this article has
been used by the author as the basis of a study of computer per-
sonnel. This>book entitled 'Job Satisfaction: a study of computer
specialists' will be published by Longmans in September 1972.

48
are believed to lead to motivation - the needs of individuals
for achievement, recognition, responsibility, status.2 A
second school devotes its attention to leadership as a factor
in job satisfaction. Psychologists like Blake and Mouton and
Fiedler see the behaviour of supervision as an important
influence on employee attitudes and they therefore direct
their observations at leadership style and the response of
subordinates to this.3
A third school, strongly represented at the Manchester
Business School by Lupton, Gowler, Bowey and Legge,
approach job satisfaction from a quite different angle and
examine the effort-reward bargain as an important variable.4
This leads to a consideration of how the wages and salaries
of particular groups are constructed, and the influence on
earnings and attitudes to these of factors such as over-time
pay and the state of the labour market. Some psychologists
maintain that people have a subjective perception of what
is a fair days work. They believe that if this is not obtained
then job satisfaction will not be high.
Yet another school of thought approaches job satisfaction
from an entirely different angle and sees management
ideology and values as an important influence. Writers such
as Crozier and Couldner identify differing value systems in
organisations.5 For example, Gouldner categorises certain
forms of management behaviour as 'punishment centred',
'representative' and 'mock' bureaucracy.
Punishment centred bureaucracy is the type of management
behaviour which responds to deviations from rules and pro-
cedures with punishments. Representative bureaucracy is
the kind of management practice which today would be
called 'democratic'. Here rules and procedures are jointly
developed by management and workers to meet a group of
shared and mutually agreed objectives. Mock bureaucracy
is when an organisation has rules and procedures but neither
management nor workers identify with these or accept them
as legitimate. Consequently they are generally ignored.
Although a discussion of values as such does not appear
often in the job satisfaction literature, it is clear that the
ethics and moral philosophy of a company, together with
the- kind of legislation that management formulates and
employee perceptions of the legitimacy of this, must have
an influence on job satisfaction.
Lastly, there are behavioural scientists who say that the
factors described above arc extrinsic to the tasks an employee
is required to carry out, and therefore a less important
factor in job satisfaction than the work itself and the way
it is structured. This group concentrates on the content of
work and on job design factors. In Europe they are repres-
ented by Cooper at Liverpool, Herbst, Thorsrud and
Gulowson in Norway and the Tavistock Institute in London.6
All the writers referred to above have made important con-
tributions to the theory of job satisfaction although they
may not have consciously set out to do so. For example,
Lupton, Gowler, Bowey and Legge would regard their work
as a contribution to control theory with earnings as a key
factor, and not just as a contribution to job satisfaction.
Similarly the Crozier, Gouldner school are examining diff-
erent manifestations of bureaucracy and only indirectly
relate these to concepts of job satisfaction. Nevertheless a
coherent theory of job satisfaction must embrace all these
ideas.
Some contributors to thinking on job satisfaction, and this
would include the Herzberg school, seem to suggest that it
is only necessary to identify the needs of an employee. The
organisation for which he works must then ensure that these
needs are met if it wishes to secure the advantages of a
labour force performing at a high level of satisfaction.
This approach appears to ignore the very real constraints
under which most firms operate and which may severely
limit the satisfaction which they can provide.Wewould see
the most important of these constraints as arising from the
pressure of the firm's product market, but other constraints
will be imposed by the firm's culture, technology and admin-
istrative structure.
A more realistic approach to job satisfaction may be to
look at the individual's needs in work and the extent to
which these are being met but also to examine the
pressures and constraints, internal and external to the
firm, which influence the demands it makes of its
employees and hinder its ability to provide maximum job
satisfaction. The company, as well as the employee, has
needs and these needs must be met if it is to survive and
flourish. This approach leads us to consider job satisfaction
in two ways. First, in terms of the fit between what an
organisation requires of its employees and what the
employees are seeking from the firm, and second, in terms
of the fit between what the employee is seeking from the
firm and what he is receiving. A good fit on the first leads
to what we shall call 'mutually beneficial' relationships.
A good fit on the second to employee 'job satisfaction'.
It is hoped that the ideas set out in this paper will
contribute to an integrated theory of job satisfaction
which is meaningful from both the firm and the employee
points of view. The framework for this theory is derived
from the ideas of Talcott Parsons, in particular his
analysis of pattern variables.7 A summary of this analysis is
set out below.
Parsons sees an individual's behaviour as influenced by a
number of personal conceptions. The first is what an
individual wants from a particular situation in which he finds
himself. The second is how he sees the situation and the
third, how he intends to use the situation in order to get
what he wants from it. In other words how he develops
his plan of action. Parsons believes that we evaluate all
situations in terms of two things.
(1) what we expect to happen
(2) what we can influence in the situation in order to give
ourselves a choice of outcome.
Parsons sees an individual in a situation as being presented
with a series of choices which must be made before the
situation becomes clear and meaningful and he can take
49
JOB SATISFACTION :
A METHOD OF ANALYSIS continued
specific action. These choices can be categorised into five
dichotomies, which Parsons calls 'pattern variables'. Pattern
variables are the Parsonian term for a tendency to choose
one tiling rather than another in a particular type of
situation. This choice will be made in terms of personal
expectations, needs and objectives.
These pattern variables cover the following choices:
1 between seeking immediate gratification or deferring
this until a future date;
2 between seeking to further interests private to oneself
or interests shared with others;
3 between deciding to accept generalised standards in the
interests of conformity and control or to seek for an
acceptance of individual differences and a unique ap-
proach which may be a response to emotion rather than
intellect;
4 between evaluating people and things because of what
they are - their attributes, or because of what they do —
their achievements;
5 between choosing to react to a person or a situation in
a widely differing manner according to the perceived
requirements of the situation or reacting to a situation
in a limited and specific way. For example, an individual
may seek a variety of satisfactions from work or require
satisfaction only on the earnings variable — a fair days
wage for a fair days work.
Parsons names his pattern variables:
Affectivity - affective neutrality
Self orientation — collectivity orientation
Universalism — particularism
Ascription — achievement
Specificity - diffuseness
These pattern variables of Talcott Parsons are helpful
when considering job satisfaction for two reasons. First,
Parsons uses them at three levels; that of personality,
social system and cultural system. This means that they
can be used to describe the orientation of an organisation,
a group, or an individual and thus translated without too
much difficulty into the concept of a 'fit' between
organisational demands and employee needs and hence into
the idea of mutually beneficial relationships. Second, as
Parsons claims, they are very comprehensive categories which
appear to cover all the factors that researchers have con-
sidered to be incorporated in job satisfaction. Unfortunately,
as currently phrased and defined they are intellectually
cumbersome and need some redefinition and simplification
before they can be used operationally to study job
satisfaction.
50
A first attempt at this simplification led to the following
set of definitions.8 These were related to an organisation's
role expectations - the behaviour which it expects from its
staff in the roles to which they have been allotted. And to
an individual's need dispositions — what he himself wants
from his work situation.
1 Company Job Requirements — Personal Job Requirements
What the Company wants from the individual and what the
individual wants from the company in terms of attitudes and
behaviour. Some of these needs will be urgent and immediate,
others will be deferred. That is, the company and the indi-
vidual will hope to achieve a number in the short term and
others in the long term.
2 Company Interest - Self Interest
The extent to which the firm expects its employees to
Identify with its interests and to forego their own. The
extent to which an employee wishes to pursue his own
interests in the work situation.
3 Uniformity - Individuality
The extent to which a Firm's objectives cause it to introduce
uniform policies, methods and standards to which its em-
ployees must conform. The extent to which an individual
wishes to behave in a unique and individual way (to express
his own individuality, 'do his own thing') and seeks a work
situation which allows him to do this.
4 Performance - Personal Quality
The degree of emphasis the firm places on performance as
opposed to social and character qualities. The extent to
which a man wishes to be recognised for what he is, as opp-
osed to what he does.
5 Work Specificity — Work Flexibility
The degree of work specifity which arises from the firms
technology and organisation. The degree of work flexibility
which an individual requires to match his skills, knowledge
and personality.
It can be seen that we arc now starting to approach a
coherent framework for examining job satisfaction, although
even these new definitions are somewhat vague, especially
number one which appears to subsume all the rest. A more
workable approach follows Parsons by viewing work
relationships as a scries of contracts between management
and employees. These contracts are implicit rather than
explicit and indicate that if the employer will meet the
employee's needs then the employee will help further the
employer's interests. Contractual areas are set out below
and all except the first hold closely to the Parsonian model.
 The firm The employee Product Market, Technology. Administrative functions and
The KNOWLEDGE Needs a certain level of Wishes the skills and structure, and Culture as Factors Affecting the fit between
contract skill and knowledge in knowledge he brings Organisational and Employee Needs
its employees if it is to with him to be used
function efficiently. and developed.
The PSYCHOLOG- Needs employees Seeks to further in- Product Market
ICAL contract who are motivated terests private to Product market is likely to exert the strongest influence on
to look after its himself. e.g. to organisational needs. The product market in which a firm
interests. secure: operates is made up of those external groups which seek its
Achievement goods or services. The pressures of this market influence all
Recognition the firm's activities; the product which it makes and how
Responsibility often this changes; its marketing and production activities,
Status
and the social climate which it creates for its employees,
The EFFICIENCY/ Needs to implement Seeks a personal, Non-commercial organisations also have a product market.
REWARDS contract generalised output and equitable effort- With hospitals this is the community which they have been
quality standards and reward bargain, and
reward systems. controls, including
set up to serve and the sick people who form part of this
supervisory ones, community. In the case of a national or local government
which he perceives body the product market is the section of the community
as acceptable. for which it is providing facilities and services.
The ETHICAL(social Needs employees Seeks to work for an
value) contract who will accept the employer whose val- Factors in a product market which exert most influence on
firm's ethos and ues do not contra- an organisation are first, demand. How much of the product
and values. vene his own. docs the firm have to produce in order to meet its customers'
The TASK STRUCT- Needs employees Seeks a set of tasks needs? Second, the stability of this demand. Do customers
who will accept which meets his require the same product all the time or docs the nature of
URE contract
technical and other requirements the demand vary so that the product has to be altered at
constraints which for task different- intervals to meet any new requirements? Third, the stability
produce task speci- iation, e.g. which of the market. Does demand fluctuate so that the organisation
ficity or task dif- incorporate variety, has to vary the amount of goods and services which it
ferentiation. interests, targets, produces? Fourth, competitor behaviour. Docs the firm have
feedback, task iden- to be continually reviewing its production and marketing
tity and automomy.
policies, in order to maintain its profits and share of the
market and prevent encroachments from competitors?

The pressures the product market exerts on particular groups

If an employee's needs in these five areas are met then we
of staff in an organisation will depend on their closeness to
can hypothesise that he has high job satisfaction. If an em-
it. Marketing and production departments will always require
ploying organisation's needs in these five areas are also met
a capacity for fast response, but this may be less important
then that firm should be satisfied with the performance and
in other areas such as personnel or sections of R & D.
attitudes of its employees. A mutually beneficial work en-
vironment for both sets of interested parties will have been
achieved. The 'fit' between company and employee needs
may be good on all five variables or it may be good on some
and poor on others. If the latter is the case then the question
'why is this' must be asked and answered.

On the employee's side, he may see his needs as not being
satisfactorily catered for because he has unrealistic expecta-
tions of what he may reasonably require of his employer. On
the employer's side, the environment in which the firm is
operating at a particular moment in time may prevent it
meeting some of its employee's needs. For example, the
economic climate may prevent it providing what its em-
ployees regard as an equitable effort-reward bargain; the
technology it uses may make it impossible for it to. meet
employee needs for a task structure which permits interesting
and varied work, or increased competition in its product
market may make it essential to tighten quality standards and
controls and increase output. All of these things can inhibit
the ability of the firm to satisfy its employees and can result
n a bad 'fit' between what the company wants and what its
employees want.
Technology
Technology is the second major influence on the demands
an organisation makes of its staff. This is itself related to the
product market and what will sell there, for the nature of
the product must affect the technology that is used to pro-
duce it. Technology can be defined as 'any tool or technique,
any product or process, any physical equipment or method
of doing or making, by which human capability is
extended'.9 Using this definition technology is seen to
stretch from rudimentary aides such as simple filing systems,
to complex automated processes for operating and control-
ling production plants. An organisation's technology will
affect the demands it makes of its staff in a number of ways,
but particularly in the nature of the tasks it allocates them,
and the degree of freedom in the way in which these tasks
can be performed.

51
JOB SATISFACTION :
A METHOD O F ANALYSIS continued
Administrative Functions and Structure
The way an organisation defines its product market assists it
in answering the critical question 'what business am I in?'
The manner in which it organises its technology helps it to
answer the question 'how shall this business be carried out?'
Both of these answers lead to the organisation recognising
that it has certain functions which relate both to its external
environment, and its ability to cope with this and to the
conduct of its internal affairs. In turn, the way these func-
tions are defined and arranged produces an administrative
structure which affects the demands it makes of its staff. In
organisations which make a product, the role and functions,
of staff will be influenced by how the firm interacts with its
product market and how it arranges its internal affairs in
order to supply this market in the best way. Similarly, in
service organisations the role and functions of staff will be
related to the needs of those external groups the organi-
sation has been set up to serve, and to internal administrative
decisions on how best to meet client needs.
Organisational Culture
Organisational culture is the fourth factor seen as influencing
employer-employee relationships, although this influence is
likely to be much less direct than that of product market and
technology. An organisation's culture emerges as a result of
a variety of historical factors. It stems from the origins of
the firm and from its early business interests. It is greatly
affected by powerful men at senior level who inculcate their
personal values into the rest of the company. It is shaped by
the perceptions of employees at every level of what the
firm's business is and how it shall be carried out, and these
perceptions exert a particularly strong influence on skill
and knowledge demands. A firm which defines its objectives
purely in economic terms and maintains 'we are in business
only to make a profit' will be interested in acquiring staff
whose knowledge and values will assist in the maximisation
of profits. A company which sees itself in a professional
service and problem solving role and which has clearly
defined codes of conduct, will look for staff with an apprec-
iation of professional ethics and with a good all round prob-
lem solving ability.
A significant part of organisational culture is expressed as
norms and attitudes. Norms are the way a group expects its
members to behave and may take the form of patterns of
work behaviour which arc seen by management as counter-
productive. Participating in such work patterns will not nec-
essarily affect an individual's job satisfaction but relation-
ships will no longer be seen by management and workers as
mutually beneficial. Management attitudes and ideology are
also influenced by organisational culture. A firm with pater-
nalistic traditions will tend to influence its managers to
adopt paternalistic attitudes to their subordinates, while a
market orientated company will generate attitudes associated
with major efforts to sell the product.
When considering the fit between organisational and em-
ployee needs; it is difficult to understand constraints and
requirements unless the factors set out above arc examined.
This involves careful scanning of the environment in which
the company is operating and it is not an easy task for a re-
searcher as much of the necessary information will be located
at senior management level. Ascertaining employee needs i:
likely to be easier as these can be established through the
usual interviewing processes.
The Five Contractual Areas by which the fit between
Organisational and Employee Needs is Examined
The Knowledge Fit
Once afirmhas decided whats it skill and knowledge require
ments arc, it has either to recruit at this level or to train t
this level. If it cannot do either of these then it is likely t
have difficulty in surviving in its business environment, fc
it will be operating with low quality personnel. Whether
can recruit or train to meet its requirements will be a pro
duct first of the state of the labour market and the availability
of skills there and second, of its own training specialists an
procedures and their capacity for developing staff to the
required skill and knowledge level.
Looking at the individual employee there appears to t
considerable differences in the extent to which people
recognise their own skill and knowledge potential ar
once recognised, wish this to be fully utilised. For example
research into the attitudes of clerks has shown that mar
older women clerks are looking for an easy life in work ar
do not want to be mentally stretched. In contrast, another
clerical group, bank clerks, who entered employment wi
good educational qualifications, complained that their jo
were too easy and that they were not able to utilise ful
the skills and knowledge which they possessed.
Studies of highly qualified groups such as engineers ar
scientists show that their group norms and expectations a
such that they actively seek challenging work. They pri
themselves on their problem solving and creative ability.
From a firm's point of view the desire of staff to have the
skills and knowledge fully utilised can have both advantage
and disadvantages. If the firm can meet this desire then it has
a group of effective problem solvers who feel than an i
portant part of their job satisfaction needs arc being cater
for. If it cannot do this then it is likely to have a frustrate
group with a high labour turnover. One that is easily lur
away by the opportunity of a more intellectually challeging
job in another firm. As the number of specialists in indust
increases it seems certain that firms will have to pay more
attention than they do at present to ensuring that there i
good 'fit' on the knowledge variable. All the manpower p
dictions suggest that in the forseeable future there will b
world wide shortage of high talent personnel. Specialists w
are lost to a firm because they believe themselves to
underutilised will be very difficult to replace.
 The Psychological Fit
Mutually beneficial relationships imply that the firm has
motivated staff for positive and not negative reasons a great
deal of attention is now being paid by behavioural scientists
to those aspects of work which motivate individuals to
identify with their employers interests. The theory behind
this research is that we all have powerful psychological
needs, many of which we seek to gratify within the work
situation. If the employing organisation can ascertain and
meet these needs then it will develop motivated employees.
Psychological needs are influenced by a variety of personal
factors including sex, family background, education and
class. They tend to vary over an individual's life cycle so
that the needs of a person starting his career are likely to be
different from those of a person nearing retirement age.
The studies of motivation undertaken by Herzberg suggest
that certain psychological needs are common to a majority
of people.11 Herzberg and his fellow psychologist Maslow
also believe that there is a heirarchy of needs and that as
certain basic needs become satisfied so they become less
urgent and are replaced by others which are seen as having
greater urgency. Most investigators of job satisfaction
would agree that needs within a work situation must not be
viewed as being the same for all people. As an individual
succeeds in meeting his lower level needs for food, safety
and social relationships, so he proceeds onto higher level
needs such as a desire for status, respect and self actual-
isation. The theories of both Maslow and Herzberg stress
achievement as a motivating factor — although Maslow calls
this the need for esteem and self actualisation. This need
appears to be very much a quality of western culture,
particularly middle-class western culture. Evidence suggests
that scientists and professional men are above average in
their desire for achievement and that as an individual
progresses up an organisation so this need becomes greater
rather than less.
The Efficiency Fit
Here we have a contractual relationship based on the
organisation's need for quality and output standards and
the individual's willingness to meet these providing:
a the effort-reward bargain is seen as fair and his economic
needs arc met;
b work controls are seen as reasonable — neither too rigid
nor too loose;
c supervisory controls are acceptable.
groups with which an individual compares himself. These
may be internal or external to his own work situation. For
example, a university lecturer may compare his pay with that
of other lecturers or he may compare it with that of senior
civil servants, architects or doctors.
Work controls is our second factor and we find that firms
vary greatly in the controls which they use. Some favour
tightly structured rules and procedures which they believe
reduce the margin of misunderstanding and error. Others
leave their staff wide limits within which to set their own
targets and monitor their own performance. McGregor, in
his analysis of Theory X and Theory Y management styles
suggests that Theory Y, with its emphasis on automony and
self control is more effective than Theory X, but other
evidence suggests that people adjust to the kinds of controls
which are in operation and it is possible that this is not an
important factor in job satisfaction. 13 The critical factor
may be the relevance of selected controls to the needs of a
particular work group or work situation.
Supervision as a form of control also appears to evoke
different kinds of reactions in different kinds of groups.
For example, girl clerks working for a large mail order
company stressed their need for close but helpful supervision.
Specialist groups, in contrast, are usually seen as responding
best to a form of supervision in which the supervisor becomes
a facilitator and a resourse person rather than a mechanism
for tight control.

The effort-reward bargain is the amount that a firm is

prepared to pay to get the skill and competence it requires,
set against the evaluation of individuals on how much their
skills arc worth, and their expectations of what they are
likely to receive. This contractual area has traditionally been
seen by management as the most important and the one
with greatest influence on employer-employee relationships.
Yet studies of many white and some blue collar groups have
shown that in certain circumstances employees will place
financial rewards low down on their list of needs. This is not
because they arc uninterested in money but because they
perceive their financial rewards as adequate and therefore
give higher priority to needs which they believe are less well
catered for and therefore more important. A critical factor
in this evaluation of fairness of pay is the earnings of those

53
JOB SATISFACTION :
A METHOD OF ANALYSIS continued
The Ethical (or social value) Fit
In work most people wish to be evaluated not only for
their performance but also for their qualities as people. For
example their success in making friends, winning respect and
inspiring confidence. Some organisations place a great deal of
importance on what might be called 'civilised' behaviour in
work. Others are more interested in efficiency as an end
in itself and want 'efficiency' orientated men. Clearly an
individual who believes very strongly in the importance of
social relationships will not be very happy in a firm which
cares only for its production figures and views its employees
solely as a means to this end. If he works for such a company
his job satisfaction is likely to be low. Similarly, a tough,
efficiency orientated man may become irritated in a situation
where he is expected to pay great attention to the feelings
and interests of his colleagues and subordinates.
The contractual relationship between an employer and em-
ployee on the ethical/social value variable is an interesting
one about which a considerable amount has been written
but little related to the subject of job satisfaction. Yet it is
likely to be an increasingly important factor in job satis-
faction as employees demand better communications and
consultation and more involvement in. decision taking.
Many of us have strong personal values which have developed
throughout our lives and which exert a powerful influence
over the way we behave. We believe that there is a 'right' and
'wrong' way of relating with others. Organisations also have
values and firms are perceived by the communities in which
they operate as 'welfare minded', 'paternalistic', 'ruthless'
etc. Values are not easy to change and men and women who
have a strong sense of right and wrong may find it difficult
to achieve job satisfaction if they have an employer whose
values do not coincide with their own on matters which they
regard as important. Similarly, from the firm's point of view,
drastic differences between management and employee
values can lead to internal strife, disruption and what the firm
sees as undesirable work 'attitudes'.
The Task Fit
The task structure contract is the agreement by the individual
that he will perform the work activities required of him if,
in return, the employer does not require him to undertake
anything that he regards as too onerous, too demanding
too dull, or too simple. The 'fit' on this variable will be a
good one if the level and kind of work provided by the
employer meets the employee needs for stimulus and variety.
This contractual area is strongly influenced by technology,
for many of the jobs a firm requires its employees to perform
will be directly related to the processes it uses to make its
product. Technology has received a great deal of attention
in the literature on job satisfaction and organisational
structure.14 It appears to exert a powerful effect on
behaviour at shop floor level but its influence on the jobs of
specialists and managers may be less potent. Many of
these white collar groups arc located at some distance from
production processes and their work may be more affected
54
by the constraints and opportunities arising from pressures
in the product market and from the administrative structure
of the firm. Nevertheless when a person is allocated a
particular work role he is instructed by his supervisor that
certain tasks and responsibilities accompany it. Some of these
are prescribed - that is, they must be done, but others will
be discretionary and the individual has a degree of choice
over whether and how he carries them out. 1 5 The nature
of these tasks and responsibilities is clearly an important
element in job satisfaction although one that until recently
has only received limited attention. Some psychologists who
have studied job content and design suggest that work can
be analysed in terms of:
a the number of skills that need to be used;
b the number and nature of targets that have to be met
and the feedback mechanisms that tell the individual
when these targets have been achieved;
c the identity of the task as shown by its separation
from other tasks by some form of discontinuity or
work boundary, and its visibility as an important and
meaningful piece of work;
d the degree of autonomy and control that an individual
has in the performance of work activities.
Jobs differ greatly in the blend of these four characteristics
that they provide. If a particular job mix docs not meet an
employee's expectations of the kind of work he should be
doing then there will be a bad fit between company and
individual needs on this task structure variable and job
satisfaction will be reduced.
Practical Applications
These five variables - KNOWLEDGE, PSYCHOLOGICAL
NEEDS, EFFICIENCY and its associated components of
rewards and controls, VALUES and TASK STRUCTURE can
be used to examine the job satisfaction of any occupational
group or the 'fit' between organisational and employee needs
in any kind of organisation. Our new approach to job
satisfaction can be of use to employers in the following ways:
1 Job Definition
Asking managers what their needs arc on the five variables
and thus making them specify their 'role requirements' of
staff assists job definition. Managers do not always think as
clearly as they might about what they require of staff and
why they require some things and not others. The exercise
of defining jobs in terms of our five variables can assist a firm
in working out its present needs. The assessment of likely
changes in product and labour markets and in the tech-
nological environment can assist it in establishing how needs
are likely to change in the future. Better job definition
assists training and selection processes.
2 Staff Selection
Our approach can be used as a selection tool to identify
the kinds of staff the organisation is requiring and to
establish if these role requirements fit the personal needs
of particular candidates. The selection interviewer will cover
first the 'fit' between what the employer is requiring and what
the candidate can provide in terms of skills and knowledge,
the required kind of motivation etc. He will then ascertain
the candidate's needs on the five variables and discuss with
the candidate those areas where his needs can be met and
those where there may be difficulties. Thus during the
selection process both employer and prospective employee
arc able to establish the liklihood or otherwise of mutually
beneficial relationships arising from the employment contract.
3 Morale Assessment
The examination of employee needs on the five variables
can provide useful information on those areas where job
satisfaction is not as good as it might be and help identify
factors which can be changed to secure improvement. Regular
attitude surveys using this approach can show how the morale
of a group is changing over time and can provide useful
feedback information which will help management to ensure
that a serious deterioration in morale does not take place. It
must of course be recognised that the possession of such
information does not always make a remedy possible. What
is good for the organization is not necessarily good for the
employees and management may have to make difficult
decisions on which set of interests are to be given priority.
4 The Monitoring of Change
The approach can also be used as a monitoring tool when in-
troducing change and the author already has some experience
in using it in this way. Job satisfaction on the five variables is
ascertained before the change takes place and the fact that
change is taking place can be made a vehicle for improving
areas where the fit between organisational and individual
needs is known to be poor. Once the change is implemented
then a further survey can be made to check that the fit bet-
ween organisational and employee needs has improved and
that job satisfaction has increased.
It must be stressed that with all these practical applications
information obtained at one moment in time will not be valid
indefinitely. Job satisfaction is not something that remains
constant; it alters during an individual's lifetime as his needs,
expectations and aspirations alter. Similarly, the needs of an
organisation change as the environment in which it operates.
exerts new pressures. No organisation can afford to have
high job satisfaction if employees' attitudes and performance
have fallen of line with organisational needs. Hence the
importance of the 'fit' concept and of looking at mutually
beneficial relationships as well as employee satisfaction.
55
SATISFACTION :
ETHOD OF ANALYSIS continued
 Summary and Conclusions
This article presents a new approach to the study of job satis-
faction in that it attempts to integrate existing theory and to
provide a method of analysis that considers employee needs
in conjunction with the needs of the employing organisation.
We have identified two kinds of 'fit' and these are set out
below:
Fit 1 Between organisational needs (translated into role
requirements of Staff) and employee needs on the
five contractual variables
= MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL
RELATIONSHIPS
Fit 2 Between individual needs, expectations and aspir-
ations in work and the individual's work experience
= JOB SATISFACTION
Organisational needs are shaped by the external environment
in which the firm operates and by its internal processes and
procedures. When identifying these needs and, in particular,
when forecasting needs, it is important to note the demands
and constraints imposed by the product market in which
the firm operates, together with the influence exerted by
the firm's technology, administrative functions and struc-
ture and company culture. These external and internal
factors affect both company and individual needs and
expectations and are reflected in the kind of job situation
experienced by the employee and in his job behaviour.
Additional pressures and constraints may come from the
labour market and its ability to supply required labour.
Individual needs are a product of the employee's personal
environment and his work expectations and aspiration. If
job experience does not meet job needs and expectations
then there will be an absence of job satisfaction.
The integration of ideas on job satisfaction requires the deve-
lopment of a theoretical framework so that factors which
affect organisational and employee needs can be systemati-
cally examined. This theoretical framework has been derived
from the writings of Talcott Parsons, although in the inter-
ests of clarity and simplicity Parson's analytical categories
have been renamed and redefined. Parson's theoretical ap-
proach has proved valuable because it can be applied to both
organisational and individual needs and because it embraces
those factors traditionally seen as influencing job satis-
faction. Management and employee relationships have been
viewed as a series of contracts covering five broad areas of
employee need. These are Knowledge needs, Psychological
needs, Efficiency needs, Ethical needs and Task Structure
needs. A good fit on all these variables should produce
mutually beneficial relationships and job satisfaction.
References
1 VH Vroom, Work and motivation, Wiley, New York, 1964.
2 See, for example, F Herzberg, Work and the nature of man,
Staples Press, London, 1966; R Likert, The Human Organisationm
McGraw Hill, New York, 1967; and A H Maslow, Motivation and
Personality, Harper, New York, 1954.
3 R N Blake, and J Mouton, The managerialgrid,Gulf, Houston,
1964 and F E Fiedler, A theory of leadership effectiveness, McGraw
Hill, New York, 1967.
4 There have now been many excellent publications from this
group. Two examples are D Gowler and K Legge, "The wage
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5 M Crozier, The bureaucratic phenomenon, Tavistock, London,
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6 Some examples of writing on job design are R Cooper,
Memorandum on motivation, Unpublished Paper, Liverpool
University School of Business Studies, 1970; J Gulowsen, U Haug
and T Tysland, 'Norwegian firm taps total human resources',
Industrial Engineering, August 1969; P G Herbst, Socio-technical
design, Tavistock, London: 1971, and E Thorsrud 'Socio-technical
approach to job design and organisational development', Work
Research Institutes, Oslo, 1967
7 T Parsons and E Shils (Eds) Towards a general theory of action,
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1951.
8 Enid Mumford, 'A new approach using an old theory',
Sociological Review, Vol 18, No 1, 1970.
9 D Schon, Technology and change, Pergamon, Oxford, 1967.
10 G Steiner, The creative organisation, University of Chicago
Press, Chicago, 1965.
11 F Herzberg op cit.
12 F Herzberg, and A H Maslow, op cit.
13 D McGregor, The human side of enterprise, McGraw-Hill, New
York, 1960.
14 Some examples of writers on organisation and technology are
Joan Woodward, Industrial organisation: theory and practice,
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1965; C R Walker and R H Guest,
The man on the assembly line, Harvard University Press, 1952,
Cambridge, Mass., and II Simon, The shape of automation, Harper
and Row, New York, 1965.
15 F Herzberg, op cit.
57