Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 20, 1995 TAG: 9508180026
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CAMILLE WRIGHT MILLER SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
STUDIES on job satisfaction usually find that more than 70 percent of American workers are satisfied with their jobs. These are studies with titles such as "Job Satisfaction High in America" and "The Joy of Working."
It's a curious finding, considering there's so much evidence to the contrary. From popular culture - music and movies about the world of work - to seminars about dealing with difficult people, the news media are rife with stories about the workplace as an alienating and unhappy environment, especially at times of downsizing and corporate shuffling.
A few weeks ago, The Roanoke Times asked readers of its Working It Out column to tell why they liked their jobs and what made going to work a source of satisfaction rather than a daily grind. Comparing their responses revealed a few surprises, especially when compared to the formal studies of the American workplace.
Three primary reasons emerged to explain why Western Virginia readers love their jobs: co-workers, bosses and the belief that workers are helping others by doing their jobs. The last one - service to others - doesn't even appear in many formal studies of work. And job-related tasks most often included in the formal studies figured little in the reader responses.
Consider Brenda C. Randolph of Roanoke. Her workday at Roanoke Memorial Hospital's Cancer Center of Southwest Virginia starts before 7 a.m. Here's how she described her duties: "Opening the office first thing in the morning. Making coffee ready for patients coming in for radiation treatment, putting out the newspaper for them to read, picking up mail and lab results, unlocking all locked doors, answering the phone, helping to transport inpatients to and from rehab to radiation department to get their treatments, transport as a relief person for outpatients from their house to radiation department for their treatment, directing out-of-town patients how to get to different areas in Roanoke."
And, in summary, she wrote, "I have the best job anyone could ever have. For nearly six years now, I have had the privilege to work" at the cancer center.
"I have the best co-workers anyone could ever ask for; they are caring, giving, compassionate and fun to be with. My boss is a very special woman, and without her fairness and wisdom, we as a department would not flourish."
As patients go through treatment, Randolph wrote, "we keep in touch, or they even do with us. But most of all, we love each and every one of them as if they were our mother, father, sister, brother, grandparent or child. That's what makes us the best. ... With changes going on in the medical field, our dedication stands firm and will never change."
Randolph's letter is evidence of the sociological theory of attachments. University of Washington sociologist Rodney Stark has found that within groups with strong attachments, bonds develop that make individual workers strong parts of the group and also give them great personal satisfaction.
Abraham Maslow, a psychologist whose work focuses on human needs and is studied in both psychology programs and business schools, wrote about social belonging. People have a need, Maslow taught, to feel that they belong. Strong co-worker relationships and service to others allow the fundamental need of belonging to be met.
Stark's and Maslow's approaches suggest why individuals whose jobs seem unrewarding and relatively low paid, nonetheless, can have a strong sense of satisfaction.
Here's another example: Roberta H. "Bobbie" Brogan is a supervisor of health services for the Head Start program at Roanoke-based Total Action Against Poverty. "Just knowing that I am helping someone to attain basic health needs is very rewarding," she wrote. "A healthy child can learn the skills one needs in society to become a successful adult."
Her job is to see that 700 children in the Head Start program receive health and dental care that they otherwise wouldn't get.
Creators of personality job-fit theories, such as psychologist John Holland, have identified a short list of work-related variables that determine job satisfaction. The work must be mentally challenging, take place in supportive working conditions, provide fair pay, and offer a supportive personal environment.
Jobs that allow workers to use their skills and abilities on a regular basis provide worker satisfaction. As E.A. Locke, a professor at the University of Maryland, found that jobs that are too challenging create frustration and failure; those with too little challenge create boredom.
Supportive working conditions add to job satisfaction. This list includes what many workers would consider the basics - a workplace that is clean, well-lighted and with adequate temperature and noise control. Employees, in these same studies, note they want to work in safe environments and be given adequate tools to perform their jobs. By providing these basics, an employer generally is regarded as supportive.
Far down on the list is pay. Pay, in the studies reviewed, is linked to satisfaction only so far as it is perceived as fair for the job demands, a reward for the skills that the job requires and equal to what similar jobs in the community pay.
Employees, according to author Robbins, often are willing to work for less as a trade-off for flexible hours, an opportunity to use certain skills or to have greater autonomy. Few of the replies to The Roanoke Times survey mentioned pay; the respondents who did generally said they weren't paid significant salaries, but felt they earned enough.
The most important factor in job satisfaction, for most who responded, is their co-workers. Just as our readers reported, surveys find that high job satisfaction is likely when workers like their colleagues.
Work fills a large part of one's need for social interaction. From these interactions, individuals gain a sense of belonging. They form attachments, and the interactions help solidify their identity. If co-workers and supervisors provide a warm environment, job satisfaction almost always results.
Freda D. Barton's experience at Packaging Corporation of America's Roanoke office may be an ideal example.
The "office staff is friendly, courteous, and everyone gets along together really well," she wrote. "In the evening when we start to leave, it sounds like the Walton family saying goodbye." And that's at a company where there has been a change of ownership, some positions were eliminated and other changes have occurred in the three years Barton has been there, she said. Remaining workers have had to take on more responsibility, she wrote.
"We offer to help each other whenever we can and do what we can to get the job completed on a timely basis," she said.
As suggested by organizational psychologist Barry M. Shaw, liking one's co-workers also reduces individual stress and promotes cooperation. Shaw teaches at the University of California-Berkeley.
Rounding out the human factor in the workplace are supervisors.
Workers generally say they want bosses who are understanding and friendly, give praise for good performance, listen to opinions and ideas, and show personal interest in the employees.
Barton called her boss terrific and professional. Randolph credited her boss with fairness and wisdom, and Brogan said she performs at the best of her ability because she has the support of her director and staff.
And Donald W. Linzey, a biology professor at Wytheville Community College, wrote that the college president, dean of instruction and his division chair were supportive of his research and "concerned about maintaining the quality of both the school and the faculty."
There are several reasons why companies should strive for worker satisfaction. Beyond the belief that satisfied workers are somewhat more productive, there's compelling evidence that dissatisfied workers cost employers considerably.
Those who have studied and written about the consequences of having dissatisfied employees cite the high cost of recruiting and training replacements for workers who leave.
Dissatisfied employees who remain on the job also create costs for the organization. Bad-mouthing the organization, demoralizing others and creating conflict are active forms of expressing dissatisfaction.
These behaviors, noted by the same psychologists and sociologists, lead to diminished effort and lowered work standards. Passive neglect, which underlies chronic absenteeism and tardiness, add substantially to the cost of doing business.
While the work world is being reinvented - whether it is called re-engineering, downsizing, restructuring or team-building - more attention is being given to job satisfaction. For the employer, increased satisfaction brings higher productivity and lowered costs. It's also one measure of the quality of life of the organization.
For employees, job satisfaction extends beyond 9 to 5. Satisfied employees report a higher general quality of life, overall, than those experiencing dissatisfaction.
"What happens to people during the work day has profound effects both on the individual employee's life and on the society as a whole," wrote University of California professor Edward E. Lawler III, "and thus, these events cannot be ignored if the quality of life in a society is to be high."
For organizations seeking to improve job satisfaction, there's a glut of research; however, for all the complicated studies, it comes down to one simple factor: People still make the difference.
by CNB