Job satisfaction

"Job satisfaction refers to the degree of pleasure or positive affect that an employee has toward his or her job" (Locke, 1976). Job characteristics, social comparison, and disposition are factors that contribute to job satisfaction. According to research, performance, absenteeism, and turnover are three variables that correlate with job satisfaction. "Job satisfaction has been highly studied and seems related to almost every aspect of a persons job" (The Pennsylvania State University, 2001). Helping people attain satisfaction with what they do at their jobs, is not only an important aspect of I/O psychology, it is important to all those who work; a 1/3 of our days are spent working and we will work an average of 20 to 30 years in our lifetime (The Pennsylvania State University, 2011).

Overview
Causes of Job Satisfaction & Dissatisfaction
Job Characteristics: Looks at core characteristics and job factors when dealing with job satisfaction. The most popular measure of job satisfaction assesses how employees feel about their jobs along five dimensions: the type of work itself, pay, promotional opportunities, supervision, and co-workers (Smith, Kendall, & Hulin, 1969). Social Comparison: The social-information processing approach to job satisfaction assumes that attitudes are determined, in part, by the attitudes of those around us (Jex & Spector, 1989). This looks at how individuals compare themselves with others in the work place. Individuals can bring others down by whining, or motivate them as well based on attitudes. Disposition: The most recent explanation for job satisfaction is that some employees are more prone to be satisfied or dissatisfied, in spite of the nature of the job or the social environment (The Pennsylvania State University, 2011). Disposition is the mood and temperament of individuals and let us know if they are satisfied or dissatisfied with their jobs.

Correlates of Job Satisfaction

Performance: Looks at how individuals perform in their jobs. Under job satisfaction performance has been studied for over 40 years. The idea of understanding employee performance is so companies can find ways to keep employee performance meeting or exceeding company standards, rather than falling below. Absenteeism: Looks at individuals and why they may be absent from their jobs. Companies give employees a certain amount of days for time off work. Under job satisfaction its important to know why employees are taking off work. Is it for vacation or might it be the working conditions at work? Turnover: Looks at rate in which employees come and go from their jobs. This is an important part of wanting to see other options for employees. If they are dissatisfied they will likely seek similar or other jobs that make them satisfied.

Job satisfaction plays a key role for the subjective well-being and is a crucial factor for labor market outcomes. Greater employee well-being is associated with better job performance, lower absenteeism, and reduced job turnover, and is therefore of particular interest to firms and other organizations (Frey and Stutzer 2002: 29). In addition to the focus on the pecuniary perspective, the aspect of job satisfaction contains potentials for an important variable to analyze the inequality in the

overall returns to work (Hamermesh 2001: 1). Furthermore, job satisfaction is releva nt for the economic performance, albeit (e)conomic performance is not intrinsically interesting. (...) The relevance of economic performance is that it may be a means to an end. That end is not the consumption of beefburgers, nor the accumulation of television sets, nor the vanquishing of some high level of interest rates, but rather the enrichment of mankinds feeling of well-being (Oswald 1997: 1815). Conclusively, (t)he consideration of objective and subjective indicators is nowadays the prevailing research strategy (Noll 2002: 51). For instance, job sa tisfaction is also relevant to social policy, which is never limited to exclusively material matters. Even a pecuniary redistribution is likely to have an impact on immaterial aspects like the stability of relationships between parents (Walker and Zhu 2005). Hence, social policy requires subjective indicators (Veenhoven 2002). Overall, job satisfaction is an important indicator for the economy and society as a whole.

Job satisfaction in Europe

In Europe many determinants influence satisfaction of employees, but several EU-surveys show the same result: A comparison of job satisfaction (measured on a scale from 1 not at all satisfied to 4 very satisfied) in Europe shows that the average level of satisfaction in most countries is high. But it can be recognized that the level of job satisfaction varies at national level. Denmark is the country with the most satisfied employees in average. Second is the United Kingdom, followed by Norway, Switzerland and Austria. At the other end, there are many Eastern European countries with a low level of job satisfaction in average. The countries with the lowest job contentment are Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and finally Turkey, which is very striking, because it has by far the worst result.

Job satisfaction is influenced by the following numerous parameters (in brackets the correlation to satisfaction). The most important factors are (there are even more):

wage (there is a positive correlation between wage and satisfaction, which means that people who think that they are well paid, are more satisfied) health(healthier employees enjoy their work much more than less healthier. And workers who think that their work has a negative impact on their own health are less satisfied) secure workplace (employees who know that their workplace is secure and that they do not have to be afraid to get unemployed soon are more satisfied) working time flexibility (the more flexibility workers have to decide when to start or leave their work to match their own needs with their private life, the more satisfied they are with their job) type of employment contract (employees with an unlimited contract are more pleased than employees with a temporary contract) education(the higher the education level, the higher the degree of job satisfaction in average) job match (workers who consider that they are over- or under-qualified with their job declare lower job satisfaction than those who have a good job-match)

So how can the results in the differences of Europe`s job satisfaction be explained with respect to the determinants? Of course it depends on the different working conditions. The average gross-income is in the United Kingdom (3135) and in the Scandinavian states (highest in Denmark 4217) significantly higher than in the rest of Europe. The lowest average gross-income are in the Eastern European countries (e.g. Slovakia 783, Romania 498, Bulgaria 306) and Turkey (350-400). Furthermore, the studies show that in Turkey, most Eastern and South European countries not only the level of physical stress is significantly higher than in the Northern countries, but there is also a higher number of temporary employment contracts and they have the highest working hours per week (e.g. UK 35.42h, Denmark 36.77h, Norway 34.62 vs. Greece 45.19h, Romania 46.24h, Turkey 54.35h). Moreover the countries in the north of Europe have a higher level of flexible working time and employees can manage private and business life better according to their needs. The surveys reveal in a short conclusion, that the higher the welfare of a country is, the higher the gross domestic product is and the more developed it is, the higher is the job satisfaction in average. But there are also very interesting results and key developments for whole Europe since the last years, which will continue in the future:

there is a continuous shift from primary and secondary sector to the third sector the percentage of women in leading positions is increasing the number of temporary employment contracts is rising the working hours per week are declining in average 20% of all Europeans have problems to coordinate private- and business life the intensity of work is high and has increased in the last 20 years

Sources: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/pubdocs/2010/04/en/1/EF1004EN.pdf http://www.leuphana.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Forschungseinrichtungen/ffb/files/publikatione n/diskussion/DP_86_-_Arbeitszufriedenheit_im_internationalen_Vergleich.pdf http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/pubdocs/2010/74/de/1/EF1074DE.pdf http://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/183571/umfrage/bruttomonatsverdienst-in-der-eu/

https://wikispaces.psu.edu/display/PSYCH484/Job+Satisfaction+Case+Study http://ftp.iza.org/dp1876.pdf http://laboureconomics.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/job-satisfaction-in-europe-an-internationalcomparison/