What Factors Create Job Satisfaction?

By Author: Edmund Brunetti
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Dr Dave Spicer reports from his ongoing projects and from a number of discussions held on the Doctorate in Business Administration.

Interesting jobs, security and being appreciated are top of employees’ lists for creating job satisfaction in today’s workplace. And it’s that second one – feeling your job is safe – that really speaks to today’s job climate.

I wrote a piece in HR Director where I reported data from an ongoing project of mine. I had for about a year been collecting data on the relative importance of 10 longstanding factors that research identifies as significant in influencing people’s motivation. These factors are listed in the table below, which contrasts the ranking of these factors in 2008 (from a sample of 268 managers across UK and Europe) with those achieved with a new sample of 146 managers collected over the course of the last 12 months. Today’s top 3 job motivators

1. Interesting work

In 2008, one compelling outcome of the research was that interesting work had, unlike in previous studies, such as one by Carolyn Wiley in 1997, beaten pay off the top spot for ...
... the first time. In the new data it is still there, so people still want to be doing something that compels and engages them.

2. Job security

The most significant mover in the table is probably job security – up to 2 from 6. In 2008 I argued that the lower importance of job security, compared with earlier research, was an indicator of people’s willingness to engage in a portfolio career and expectations they had that as their career develops they might move organizations on a regular basis. This now seems to have been a short-lived phenomenon.

As to why, the answer seems to lie in the current economic uncertainty. When we discussed this on the Doctorate in Business Administration, the view was that it is easy to discount the significance of having a job when the economy is buoyant and there seem to be lots of opportunities out there, but over the last year, with higher unemployment – currently standing at 7.8% – and regular news of redundancies and business closures people would inevitably be much keener to hang onto the jobs they have.

3. Full appreciation of work done

Recognition (full appreciation of work done) now ranks more highly than financial rewards (good wages). I suspect the realities of the availability of rewards and pay raises in the current climate is having an impact here. Nonetheless they both remain powerful tools for motivation. Research by Nitin Nohria, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard, and colleagues identifies both recognition and rewards are important motivators. But we also know that it is the recognition that matters most. In an experiment where students were rewarded differently for a simple computer based task, Professor Dan Ariely from Duke University, and his co-worker James Heyman, clearly showed that the greatest performance came not with the highest reward but where students were working solely as a favour and for the thanks of the researcher. So remember to say thank you for a job well done!

4. What is less important today?

The big mover going down the chart was good working conditions, down to 9 from 5. We might interpret this as the flip side of lower job security, with people being seemingly more willing to put up with poor conditions in the current environment rather than go and seek better conditions elsewhere.

5. Top tip for managers

So what does this mean for managers? It certainly does not suggest we should lower the standard of working conditions. It does suggest that some of the fundamentals stay the same. People still want compelling work and rewards and recognition for doing the same.

Show your appreciation in meaningful ways.

Acknowledge the efforts of others – this is even more important given the pressures that the current economic environment places on employees.

Spend time with employees explaining the organisation’s current position thereby helping to keep them informed about the safety of their job.

Be bold. Promise no redundancies, even if revenues or profits are hit – sending a clear signal on the job security front.

Move people round the organization to meet short-term needs – this will help meet challenges now and put your business in an even stronger position when the up-turn does come.

Students on the Doctorate in Business Administration felt that doing all this is likely to more than pay back its dividend in the loyalty and commitment it creates. Surely developing employees’ skills, giving them compelling work and making them feel appreciated is the way ahead?

For gathering more info about which Doctorate in Business Administration to select, please check out Bradford School of Management.