Theoretical Frameworks of Job Satisfaction/Motivation

There were many different authors who studied in detail about this topic of “job satisfaction”. They came up with numerous theories and models which can be useful in increase the level of satisfaction of the employees.

According to the research studies and experiments conducted by Tripathi and Reddy (2008), it was able to recognize 3 key theoretical frameworks which can be used as a guide book to apply in their respective organizations.

Therefore,

·       Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

·       Herzberg’s two factor theory, and job characteristic model,

 were selected as the best theoretical models to explain the concept of job satisfaction.

Figure 1.0 : Maslow’s Hierarchical Needs

(Source: Nain, 2013)

As per the above Figure 1.0 Maslow had identified 5 key factors which lead to the human satisfaction in general. These were identified as physical needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization. This can be applied to an organizational context as follows. Employees need to have essential financial compensations and health care facilities at their workplaces. They are more or less the basic physical needs (Nain, 2013). Thereafter, they need to have the job security at the organization. They tend to work hard only if they can believe that they belong to this organization. At the same time, the organization needs to have safety tools and equipment to ensure that the lives of the employees are not in danger (Sandhya and Kumar, 2011).

The team culture is one of the important aspects of any organization. Employees are working smarter if they belong to a team where they can be recognized, and promoted. The productivity is much higher when working as groups compared against working as individually (Maertz and Griffeth, 2004). The rest of the team members value their ideas and opinions. Finally, will reach to the level of self-actualization where they are continuously developed their skills and competencies to perform allocated tasks. (David, 2008)

However, as per the Maslow’s hierarchical needs by applying the concept of social connection and collaboration.

According to Maslow (Laurie, 2010) the human needs are hierarchical. But, in real life, it is difficult to find systems which are hierarchical and can be grouped by levels. Furthermore, in most of the organizational systems are complex, and evolve dynamically It requires social connections and collaborations with the external environment to keep going. In other words, the success of an employee is determined by the ability of the person to create multiple social interactions within and outside the company premises (Samuel and  Chipunza, 2009)

On the other side of the spectrum, the hierarchical needs theory is useful in identifying the lags of the traditional management. But, it provides an unrealistic path to meet these hierarchical needs (Armstrong, 2006). For an example, all the employees are not willing to come to a status called self-actualization. Instead, they want to be a part of the self-organization teams of the organization. (Maslow, 1970).

Recent development of quality of work life is further improved by Needs theory - hierarchy of needs. These theories have suggested that the fundamental needs of person surface from time to time and there are some spillover effect to their family and personal life (Kaliski, 2007).). However current social and demographics changes have shown that an individual will function effectively only when the work and personal life are balanced. As a result, study on quality of work life has been risen up. Quality of work life mediates the relationship between institutionalization of ethics in firms with job related outcome (Sweney and McFarlin,  2005). Meanwhile, job security refers to perceived level of stability and continuance of that job It has been experienced that once a person perceives job security, he has been more willing to become an active participant in an organisation which leads to a higher satisfaction (Bellott, 1990)

References

Armstrong, M. (2006).  A Handbook of Human resource Management Practice, Tenth Edition, Kogan Page Publishing, London, , p. 264

Bellott, F. K., & Tutor, F. D. (1990). "A Challenge to the Conventional Wisdom of Herzberg and Maslow Theories." Paper presented at the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the Mid-South Educational Research Association.

David, B. (2008) Management: An Introduction. 4^th ed. England, Pearson Education Limited.

Kaliski, B.S. (2007). Encyclopedia of Business and Finance, Second edition, Thompson Gale, Detroit, p. 446

Laurie, J. M. (2010) Management & Organisational Behavior. 9^th ed. England, Pearson Education Limited.

Maertz, C.P. and Griffeth, R.W. (2004). Eight motivational forces and voluntary: A theoretical synthesis with implications for research. Journal of Management, Vol. 30(5),  pp. 667-683.

Maslow, A. H. (1970). Motivation and Personality (2nd ed.). New York: Harper and Row.

Nain, B. (2013). Nain's Porous Hierarchy of Needs: An Alternative to Maslow's Hierarchy/Theory of Needs. SSRN Electronic Journal.

Samuel, M.O. and Chipunza, C. (2009). Employee retention and turnover: Using motivational variables as a panacea. African Journal of Business Management, Vol.3 (8), pp. 410-415.

Sandhya, K. and Kumar, P.D. (2011). Employee retention by motivation. Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol. 4, No. 12, pp. 1778-1782.

Sweney, P.D. and McFarlin, D.B. (2005). Organizational Behavior, Solutions for Management, McGrawHill/Irwin, New York,p. 57

Tripathi, P.C., and Reddy, P.N., (2008). Principles of Management, New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Ltd