Measuring satisfaction: An investigation regarding age, tenure and job satisfaction of white collar employees

Muhammad Ali Tirmizi PH.D Research Scholar m5alitahir@gmail.com Foundation University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Muhammad Imran Malik PH.D Research Scholar im4imranmaliik@gmail.com Foundation University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Mahmood-ul-Hasan mehmood_ul_hassan@aiou.edu.pk Foundation University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract This study encompasses an in-depth investigation of the relationship of job satisfaction with age and tenure by considering and tapping the responses of white collar employees working in the organizations operating in the area of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan. Total of 175 respondents responded to the adopted questionnaire of job satisfaction retrieved from the web site of a publishing company for which Cronbachs Alpha was calculated to confirm its reliability, which resulted into a score of 0.856. The major findings of the study based on the analysis and evaluation done with the help of Statistical Package for social sciences confirmed the negative association of the independent variables with the dependent variable. The study assumptions were supported and reasserted by the findings of the previous researches.

Key words: Job satisfaction, Age, Tenure, White collar employees, Rawalpindi, Islamabad.

Introduction The debate over job satisfaction by considering the relationship of age and tenure had and has been in constant discussion in different cultures around the world. Researchers of social sciences have elaborated these associated terminologies with job satisfaction in detail and concluded their findings and remarks according to their judgments based on empirical evidences extracted from the target samples. In general/particular terms Job Satisfaction is defined as a positive attitude of an employee towards his or her job (Smith, Kendall and Hulin, 1969). There are many other variables like, salary, education, work values of employees, organizational size, absenteeism, etc., which have strong impact on job satisfaction and had been studied by researchers over a period of four decades. In this study, we have tried to find out the true association of age, tenure and job satisfaction in the local environment of Pakistan, by special focus on cities like Rawalpindi and Islamabad, which have a population of 1.4 million and 0.52 million respectively (census, 1998). Empirical evidence supports the fact that Pakistan is in the second phase of demographic transition as more resources are available for investment, economic growth is accelerating and per capita income is rising at a fastest pace with the real GDP growth rate of 7.0, envisaged for the fiscal year (2006-07) (Economic survey, 2006-07). This evidence shows that the overall economy of Pakistan is on the rise which will certainly create more jobs in the country. This will invite more researchers to evaluate and analyze the phenomenon of job satisfaction in the country. This increased concern regarding evaluation and analysis of job satisfaction encouraged us to start a study from two independent variables that are age and tenure.

Rationale of the study Job satisfaction is defined as a collection of feelings that an individual holds towards his or her job (Robbins, 2005). Job satisfaction represents attitude rather than a behavior. Job satisfaction is taken as dependent variable because of two reasons. First, is its demonstrated relationship to performance factors and, second is the value preferences held by organizational behavior researchers. Researchers with strong humanistic values argue that satisfaction is the legitimate objective of an organization (Robbins, 2005). The five facets of job satisfaction measured by the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) are: The work itself which is related to responsibility, interest and growth, Quality of supervision related to technical help and social support, Relationships with coworkers related to social harmony and respect, promotion opportunities related to chance for further advancement and Pay which is related to adequacy of pay and perceived equity (Schermerhorn. Jr, et al., 2005). It is evident that experience as an outcome of tenure and age is considered for the promotion as well as benefits and rewards in the organization. In Pakistan mostly the promotion, benefits, rewards and higher income is directly linked with seniority and this phenomenon can be translated into job satisfaction by tapping this behavior in the practical field. This study will certainly add value to the existing knowledge base and simultaneously give us courage to indulge in further advanced researches in the field of management sciences. Purpose of the study The purpose of the research study is to test the research question based on the relationship between age, tenure and job satisfaction which is given as under:

What is the association existing between age, tenure and job satisfaction of white collar employees working in the organizations in the area of Rawalpindi and Islamabad? Literature review Job satisfaction can be defined as the degree to which individuals feel positively or negatively about their jobs (Schermerhorn. Jr,et al.,2005). It is an attitude or emotional response to ones tasks as well as to the physical and social conditions of the workplace. From the perspective of Herzbergs two-factor theory some aspects of job satisfaction should be motivational and lead to positive employment relationships and high level of individual job performance. The association of age and tenure with job satisfaction as discussed by (Herzberg, et al., 1957) was a U shape relationship. Herzberg explained his findings that individuals at their early stages of employment usually experienced low job satisfaction due to unfulfilled work expectations. He further added that these individuals or employees when advanced in their careers gain maturity and work experience which led them to a more realistic level of work expectations. In another study (Hulin & Smith, 1965) reported a positive monotonic relationship of age, tenure and job satisfaction under all conditions for all individuals. But, when (Gibson & Klein, 1970) studied the relationship of age, tenure and job satisfaction after considering a sample of 2,067 blue collar workers they found a linear relationship between age and job satisfaction. Where as, for the negative linear relationship between tenure and job satisfaction, they developed disconfirmed original expectations to support their arguments. In a study conducted by (Saleh and Otis, 1964) it was reported that general satisfaction of an employee increased up to age 60 and declined until retirement. The study of (Carrell and Elberth, 1974) found that the general satisfaction is observed at the age of 50. Where as a study conducted by (Arvey and Dewhirst, 1979), reported a positive 4

relationship between age and job satisfaction for extrinsic satisfaction components only. The basic and more consistent findings in research on age differences in job satisfaction are that older workers are more satisfied with their jobs than are younger workers (e.g., Vollmer and Kinney, 1955; Hulin and Smith, 1965; Sheppard and Herrick, 1972; Quinn et al., 1974; Kalleberg, 1977; Wright and Hamilton, 1978; Janson and Martin, 1982). A study conducted by (Kalleberg and Loscocco, 1983) reported that work role and family life cycle of individual employee have a strong impact on the level of job satisfaction. They have empirically proved that work values and rewards are the key concepts that basically strengthen the relationship of age and job satisfaction. They further added that older workers are more satisfied than their younger counterparts because they actually have better or more highly rewarded jobs (Quinn et al., 1974; Wright and Hamilton, 1978). In another study conducted by (Hunt and saul, 1975) based on the evaluation of job satisfaction regarding age and tenure in two groups that are male and female reported U-shaped, significant, positive and linear relationships between age-tenure-job satisfaction. They found a high level of correlation among overall job satisfaction with the age of employees under 25 and tenure of less than 12 months. Method Sample The population for this research study was the white collar employees working in the area of Rawalpindi and Islamabad ranging from workers who have just started their job to those who are experienced players of their field. A convenient sample (non-probability sampling method) of 175 white collar employees was pooled up for the current study involving bankers, professionals like (engineers, doctors, accountants, architects), managers of private organizations, teachers of universities and officers of some public sector organizations. Participants of the study were 5

selected on voluntary basis and non-respondents were not followed in-order to include their response. Among the respondents 16.6% were under the age of 25 years, 8% over the age of 50 years, 14.9% having less than 12 months of experience/tenure in the organization and 19.4% having more than 10 years of tenure in the organization. Instrumentation The instrument used to collect data from the respondents was Questionnaire. The questionnaire was basically adopted from index of job satisfaction as a sample questionnaire available at WALMYR publishing companys web site, developed by Cathy King Pike and Walter W. Hudson (1993). After collecting 80 responses the reliability of the instrument was checked by the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The value of Cronbachs Alpha was 0.856, which confirmed the reliability of the instrument and than further responses up to 175 were collected. This instrument basically comprised of 30 questions in which respondents were asked to register their response regarding interesting work, supervision, rewards, job security, management support, job involvement, etc. Procedure The data collected for the current study was by means of well developed adopted questionnaire of job satisfaction. This questionnaire was further modified according to the needs of the current study. Some of the questionnaires were distributed among respondents by the researchers personally and some were handed over to friends working in the organizations operating in the area of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. All the distributed questionnaires were collected back and the recovery rate was 100 percent. The data was collected in the time frame of 20 days and than responses were fed into the SPSS for analysis and evaluation. Multiple regression analysis was used as a statistical test to determine the degree of relationship between age, tenure and job 6

satisfaction (Hulin & Smith, 1965). Under multiple regression tests, linear regression is applied to test the association of the variables under study.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results and discussion part is basically the interpretation and elaboration of the output of the data entered into the SPSS program, which is discussed below. Results Table 1 Results of Measure of association after the application of Multiple Regression Statistics (Beta Coefficients, Standard error in parenthesis, t-Value in Brackets and P-Values in italics)
Constant 4.464 (0.148) [30.248] IV-1 -0.029 (0.047) [-0.631] IV-2 .059 (0.063) [0.935] R Square .005 F-Statistics .438

.000

.529

.351

.646

Legend: IV-1: Measure of frequency of respondents with respect to their age. IV-2: Measure of frequency of respondents with respect to their tenure.

Table 1 explains that the probability of F statistics 0.438 for the overall regression relationship is greater than 0.001 and also greater than the level of significance which is 0.05. Now, if we look at the unstandardized coefficients, we can decide about the relationships of two independent variables with the one dependent variable, which shows that the beta for IV-1 is negative 0.29 which indicates inverse relationship or association of age and tenure, where as the significance value of 0.529 is also greater than significance level of 0.05 so, here we reject alternate hypothesis and select null hypothesis which states that there is no significant relationship between age and job satisfaction in the white collar employees working in the area of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Similar is the case with the IV-2, where the significance level under unstandardized coefficients is 0.351 which is greater than significance value of 0.05 where are beta is positive 0.059 which indicates direct relationship of tenure towards age. Now, in this case we again reject alternate hypothesis and select null hypothesis which states that there is no significant relationship between tenure and job satisfaction in the white collar employees working in the area of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The value of R also shows that there is a very weak relationship between the sets of independent variables and the dependent variable. Discussion When (Gibson & Klein, 1970) studied the relationship of age, tenure and job satisfaction, they found a linear relationship between age and job satisfaction where as a negative linear relationship exists between tenure and job satisfaction. In our study the case for tenure and job satisfaction is similar to the study of Gibson & Klein where as the linear relationship of age and job satisfaction also turned negative. This argument can be supported by the assumption developed by (Gibson & Klein, 1970), which is disconfirmed original expectations to support the negative relationship. Here, in Pakistan the age factor is basically suppressed by the urge to

earn more money due to the uncertainty regarding job security, government policies, retirement and some other economic factors which actually make people unsatisfied regarding their job. Where as a study conducted by (Arvey and Dewhirst, 1979), reported a negative relationship between age and job satisfaction for intrinsic satisfaction components only. These findings can also become the basis for the negative relation between the age and job satisfaction particularly in the area of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The Table 1 clearly shows that the independent variables are holding very weak relationship with the dependent variable. These finding are basically in accordance with the two studies quoted above in the support of the current study. It can also be argued that the results reported in this study are extracted from the sample which indicates discrepancies in their findings when compared with the results of the previous studies. The major reason for such discrepancies in results can be referred to the attitudes of the respondents of this study. The results also predict that white collar employees are under constant economic pressure, which have made them dissatisfied regarding their jobs. There can also be other hidden factors which directly or indirectly affect the relationship of the variables selected for this study, for which further research is essential. As (Friedlander, 1966) in his study suggested that employee performance may be the moderating variable that affects the relationship between age, tenure and job satisfaction. He found evidence of an inverted U-shape relationship between age and the importance of three different job factors for the job satisfaction of performing subjects (Hunt & Saul, 1975). Conclusion In this research we have attempted to find out the true relationship between the criteria of job satisfaction and age and tenure of white collar employees working in organizations operating in

the area of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. It is evident from previous researches that the study sample and satisfaction criteria have an impregnable affect on the study relationship of variables involved. It is also evident from previous researches that situational as well as personality variables mold the nature of relationship between the age, tenure and job satisfaction. The results of this research study clearly indicate that there exits a negative relationship between age, tenure and job satisfaction when white collar workers are selected as unit of analysis from the organizations operating in the area of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Further researches There is a need to conduct research regarding intrinsic and extrinsic factors which hinder or modify the relationship of job satisfaction with other independent variables. There is also a need to conduct research regarding job satisfaction on particular sectorial organizations like, pharmaceutical, electronics, engineering, etc, operating across Pakistan. A research regarding relationship of job satisfaction with age and tenure can also be conducted for blue collar employees working in large well establish multinational organizations operating across Pakistan. References Arvey, R. D., and Dewhirst, H. D. (1979). Relationships between diversity of interest, age, job satisfaction and job performance, Journal of Occupational Psychology. 52, 17-23. Carrell, M. R., and Elbert, N. (1974). Some personal and organizational determinants of job satisfaction of postal clerks, Academy of Management Journal. 17, 368-373. Census of Pakistan, (1998). Population size and growth of major cities. Retrieved, June 15, 2007, from http://www.satpak.gov.pk

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Economic Survey of Pakistan, (2006-07). Population Labour Force and Employment, Chapter no 13, (pp. 189-219). Retrived, June 15, 2007, from http://www.finance.gov.pk Friedlander, F. (1966). Motivations to work and organizational performance, Journal of Applied Psychology. Vol. 50, 143-152. Gibson, J. L., And S. M. Klein. Employee Attitude as a Function of Age and Length of Service: A Reconceptualization, Acadamy of Management Journal, Vol. 13, 411-425. Herzberg, F., B. Mausner, R. O. Peterson, and D. F. Capwell, 1957. Job Attitude, Review of research and opinion, Pittsburg, Psychological Service of Pittsburgh. Hulin, C. L., and Smith, P. C. (1965). A linear model of job satisfaction, Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 49, 209-216. Hunt, J. W., and Saul, P. N. (1975). The relationship of age, tenure and job satisfaction, the Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 18, no. 4, 690-702. retrieved, May 4, 2007, from http://www.jstor.com Janson, Philip and Jack K. Martin., (1982) "Job satisfaction and age: a test of two views." Social Forces 60, 1089-1102. Kalleberg, Arne L., (1977), "Work values and job rewards: a theory of job satisfaction." American Sociological Review 42, 124-43. Kalleberg, A. L., and K. A. Loscocco., (1983), Aging, Values and Rewards: Explaining Age Differences in Job Satisfaction. American Sociological Review, Vol. 48, no. 1, 7890. Retrieved, May 4, 2007, from http://www.jstor.org Pike, C. K., and Hudson, W. W. (1993). The instrument of job satisfaction. Retrieved, May 16, 2007, from http://www.walmyr.com/IJSSAMPL.pdf 11

Quinn, Robert P., Graham L. Staines and Margaret R. McCullough., (1974), Job Satisfaction: Is There a Trend? Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor. Robbins, s. p., (2005). Organizational Behavior. In S. P. Robbins (11th ed.), Values. Attitudes and Job Satisfaction: The individual, (pp. 68-97). Saleh, S. D., and Otis, J. L. (1964). Age and level of job satisfaction. Personnel psychology, 17, 425-431. Schermerhorn, J. R. Jr., (2005). Organizational Behavior. In J. R. Schermerhorn, J. G. Hunt and R. N. Osborn (9th ed.), Motivation, Job Design and Performance: What are job design approaches, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, (pp. 140-161). Sheppard, Harold L. and Neil Q. Herrick., (1972), Where Have All the Robots Gone? Worker Dissatisfaction in the 70's. New York: Free Press. Smith, P. C., Kendall, L. M. and Hulin, C. L. (1969). The Measurement of Satisfaction in Work and Retirement, Rand McNally, Chicago. Vollmer, M. H. and J. A. Kinney., (1955), "Age, education, and job satisfaction." Personnel 32, 38-43. Wright, James D, and Richard F. Hamilton., (1978), "Work satisfaction and age: some evidence for the 'job change' hypothesis." Social Forces 56, 1140-58.

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