Factors Associated with Job Satisfaction and Job Performance
Job satisfaction is the sense favorableness and accomplishment that a person has regarding their job. Employers consider job satisfaction essential because it motivates employees to remain loyal to their company which then results in increased profits and high productivity. Many researchers have analyzed the link between job satisfaction and job performance. However, not much research has explored important factors associated with job satisfaction and job performance. It is necessary to investigate factors, such as psychological well-being and job satisfaction attitudes, so that we can better help our workers deliver their best work.
Previous Studies
Wright and Cropanzano (2000) conducted two field studies to explore the impact of job satisfaction and well-being on performance. In the first study, 47 human services workers were asked to participate. The participants were mostly male, around 39 years old, and they all worked within the same department. The Index of Psychological Well-Being was used to determine psychological well-being. Job performance was measured by having the manager of the department rate each employee’s performance. Lastly, participants were asked questions in the widely recognized dimensions: degree of satisfaction with the work itself, degree of satisfaction with coworkers, and degree of satisfaction with supervision to assess job satisfaction. The results showed that psychological well-being was positively related to job performance. The limitations of this study include relying on a single-item measure of performance as the dependent variable.
In the second study, the participants consisted of 37 juvenile probation officers. The majority of the participants were male, 39 years old, and worked within the same department. Psychological well-being and job satisfaction were measured using the same scales as in Study 1. To measure job performance, four dimensions were taken into consideration: support, work facilitation, goal emphasis, and team building. Employees were evaluated in these dimensions by the departmental manager. The finding of Study 2 were similar to Study 1 in that there was a significant relationship between psychological well-being and job performance. Overall, these findings support the concept that "happy" workers often have higher performance compared to “satisfied” workers. This implies that the well-being of an employee has a greater impact on their behavior.
Similarly, a later study administered by Wright et al (2002) examined the “happy/productive worker thesis.” According to this thesis, “happy employees exhibit higher levels of job-related performance behaviors than do unhappy employees” (Wright et al, 2002). The independent variables in this study include job satisfaction, positive and negative affectivity, and psychological well-being (PWB) while the dependent variable is job performance. Participants in this study were 49 public-sector management professionals. The eight-item Index of Psychological Well-Being (Berkman, 1971) was utilized to assess PWB. Next, positive and negative affectivity was measured with the PANAS scale developed by Watson, Clark and Tellegen (1988). The three dimensions of job satisfaction were combined to asses a composite measure of job satisfaction. Work facilitation, goal emphasis, and team building were measured using a 5 point scale for job performance.
The results indicated that out of all the independent variables, PWB contributes the most to composite performance. However, it should be noted that the performance measure may be potentially biased. According to Wright et al (2002), it is possible that “happy people are simply more pleasant to be around. As such, they receive performance ratings that are biased in a positive direction” (p. 149). Additionally, it would it inapt to agree on the insignificant associations between positive and negative affectivity, job satisfaction, and job performance because of the small sample size.
Another important factor that should be taken in consideration is job attitude. There are affective and cognitive components of attitudes. Whereas the affective component of an attitude refers to the individual’s general level of positive or negative feeling concerning the target, the cognitive component consists of the individual’s beliefs or thoughts concerning the target. Students showing high affective-cognitive consistency (ACC) were more likely to act in accord with their attitudes than those low in ACC (Schleicher, Watt, & Gregura, 2004). In this study, Schleicher, Watt, & Gregura explore the role of ACC in job satisfaction attitudes. The participants contains sixty-five employees selected from different industries in California. Both females and males from different ethnicities. The Overall Job Satisfaction Scale (OJS) and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) were utilized to measure how the participants felt about their jobs. To measure participants’s level of ACC in their job satisfaction attitude, they were rank-ordered independently regarding scores on the MSQ snd OJS. Job performance was assessed with ratings from the behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS). Results proposed ACC is a noteworthy mediator of the job satisfaction– job performance relationship, with those employees higher in ACC demonstrating a fundamentally bigger connection than those lower in ACC. This shows the value of “assessing both the affective and the cognitive components of attitudes in identifying those whose verbal attitude reports have consequences for their behavior” (Schleicher, Watt, & Gregura, 2004, as noted in Norman, 1975, p. 83).
The Present Study
This study seeks to comprehend how different factors influence the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. We hypothesize that both psychological well-being and high ACC will be strong predictors for high performance. We also hypothesize that these factors will have a great impact on job satisfaction which will ultimately lead to a high productivity.
Methods
Participants
Participants in this study will consist of 150 Google employees that will be randomly selected. The participants will included both female and males between the ages of 18 and 40. Ideally, participants will come from different cultural backgrounds.
Measures
For this study, both questionnaires and surveys will be used. We will utilize the eight-item Index of Psychological Well-Being, Overall Job Satisfaction Scale (OJS), the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), and behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS).
Procedure
Participants will be given informed consent forms that they will need to sign. We will then pass out the survey packet and explain the instructions. We will remind them that participation is voluntary and they can choose to withdraw from the experiment at any moment. We will encourage them to answer the survey to the best of their ability and give them ample time to finish. After all the surveys are turned in, we will pass out a debriefing statement and thank them for their participation.