Management Focus Toward Enhancing Employee Job Satisfaction - Essay Example

Here Your Here School Here December 19, 2007 Management Focus Toward Enhancing Employee Job Satisfaction In today’s complicated and diverse business climate, employees are often exposed to rush project deadlines, stressful working environments, and interaction with colleagues in very difficult organizational climates. There is considerable evidence which highlights the difficulties in the contemporary business environment, from a managerial perspective, including the necessity to use both traditional and innovative techniques to assist employees in finding increased satisfaction with their career positions. In an organization where morale is low, job requirements are exceedingly difficult, and employees are considering making an exit to a different firm to escape business-related stresses, the role of the manager is to take considerable measures to ensure that his or her subordinate employees find contentment in their particular roles. Employees are often cited as being one of the primary assets in today’s business, thus their needs for satisfactory work environments must be considered in managerial activities and planning (Keral.com). This paper describes these activities and serves to justify the notion that management must do everything they possibly can to ensure this objective is met. From a perspective of securing the needs of the business, in relation to productivity and profitability, it is often recognized that a happy and stable workforce contributes greatly to increased momentum within the company (Mathis & Jackson, 4; Nickels, McHugh & McHugh, 67). Hence, an organization which is experiencing diminished staff morale and dissatisfaction (due to any number of internal reasons) forces managers to alter the characteristics of the employees’ specific job functions or enhance the organizational culture of the firm to better suit the diverse and psychological needs of their subordinates. For instance, if conflicts occur within the business, in relation to the quality of coworker relationships, management must take an active and visible role in promoting teamwork so as to alleviate non-productive animosities against other employees. In most instances, such conflict resolution involves addressing the concerns of both parties involved, calling a formal meeting (if necessary) to discuss to the problem in an open forum environment, and reinforcing that each employee maintains a responsibility to securing the needs of the business as a primary objective. Such actions reinforce that management is concerned and interested in the needs of his or her employees, which appeals to their psychological need for support and resolution of difficult coworker relationships (Landy & Conte, 332). The end result of managerial intervention when social dysfunction occurs is a more stable organizational culture where employees’ needs are recognized and they perceive ample cooperation from their leadership. In similar respect, it is important to identify the needs of today’s employees by referring to a concept proposed by a renowned theorist, Abraham Maslow, in the field of psychology known as the Hierarchy of Needs. This theory represents a pyramidal structure in which human desires are listed in a sequence of tiers, with the lowest tier representing physiological needs (such as food and shelter). As the lowest needs in the hierarchy are met and satisfied, new and more complex needs surface which require sustainment, including security needs, belonging needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization which represents the pinnacle of human success (Morris & Maisto, 349). In today’s organization, as steps to boost satisfaction of employees, security, belonging and esteem needs are some of the most primary motivations for what drives employee productivity, hence managers must actively seek methods to create an environment where these needs are met. For instance, positive feedback is often cited as a managerial function which gives employees recognition for their outstanding efforts in contributing to corporate success, which in turn makes the employees feel appreciated and willing to work harder to sustain the business (Grossman & Klein, 97). This can serve to satisfy employee needs for esteem-building and even promote a sense of belonging as a worthwhile contributor to the organization. While discussing the psychological needs of employees, it is important to identify that most employees maintain very diverse values and beliefs, which dictate the culture of the organization. For example, some employees are more committed to productive work output as a primary goal in day-to-day work, thus this type of employee would likely become frustrated when their own work efforts (either individually or in teams) are hindered by the lack of motivation stemming from a colleague. This individual would experience high levels of personal frustration, diminished motivation to perform, and probable future resistance to producing outstanding work output. Thus, from a disciplinary standpoint, managers have a responsibility to identify members of the organization who are not producing quality work so as to reinforce to those employees who do contribute successfully (and are hindered by colleague inaction) that the business understands their frustrations and is making steps to improve their work environment. Other employees may strongly value ethical behavior as a reasoning for remaining with a particular company, thus when they view situations such as coworkers or managers routinely falsifying documents or in other ways acting deceitful, this type of employee would be highly dissatisfied with their work environment. An ethical culture “requires an environment in which employees at every level are confident the firm is fully committed to honorable conduct” (Longenecker, Moore, Petty & Palich, 40). This suggests that in order to boost the satisfaction levels of employees who believe in a strong ethical culture, managers must set the tone for integrity and honesty in all matters of business; and publicly promote that such behavior will be rewarded. This represents a significant investment on behalf of the manager to appeal to the ethical needs of the employee, thus boosting morale and satisfaction, and avoiding high turnover rates which often cost businesses a great deal of money (Davison, 62-63). One of the more primary motivations behind why employees come to work is for the receipt of compensation, in the form of benefits or the generic paycheck (Marken). Since most companies do not have unlimited budgets to routinely increase pay, many organizations turn toward the use of yearly performance appraisals to boost satisfaction in relation to pay. The performance appraisal appeals to the esteem needs of the employee, in relation to the feedback received for their contributory efforts in the business, as well as their more basic physiological and security needs. With this in mind, it is the responsibility of managers to ensure that their employees will receive some sort of structured, compensatory reward as a yearly gratuity for enhanced performance, which serves to increase employee contentment to remain long-term. Managers must take an active role in the day-to-day business activities of their employees, which requires a strong presence and quite a personal commitment, if they are to issue employees a fair and just performance appraisal based on their individual productivity. Failure to implement such a policy will likely lead to frustrated employees who search for a replacement position at a different company which will be willing to address the financial reward needs of the staff member. Touching on a similar concept, employees require an organizational environment where they experience fair treatment in relation to that of their colleagues, suggesting that managers must remain non-biased when making decisions such as promotions or job reassignment. This concept is known as procedural justice which deals with the perceived fairness of the distribution of diverse work-related outcomes to various subordinates in the company (Landy & Conte, 467). For example, in an organization where promotions are available, employees require the perception that such advancements are occurring based on tangible merit and not due to their interpersonal relationship with leadership. Thus, those who put in the most effort should receive the greatest level of reward for these contributions. Failure to do so diminishes the motivation to perform and creates conflict between the disgruntled worker and his or her relationship with management or the unjustly-rewarded colleague who received the promotion. All of the aforementioned managerial scenarios point toward the necessity for managers to consistently work toward satisfying employees by appealing directly to their needs using a variety of tactics. Whether any specific employee requires high levels of business integrity, better quality relationships with coworkers, or even better compensation to remain satisfied, managers must be actively aware that these needs exist and work toward creating an environment where these values become part of daily leadership activities. Maintaining a visible presence so as to show a supportive management style, in addition, appears to be one of the primary elements to sustaining employee satisfaction. Keeping employees satisfied is probably not an easy task for the contemporary manager, as the business environment (from the external customer to the internal organizational structure) likely makes 100 percent employee satisfaction nearly difficult to achieve. However, when businesses require higher levels of profitability or productivity in order to remain competitive, they must be able to rely on their staff members to make the company’s goals become reality. Hence, an unsatisfied employee is an unproductive employee and management failure to provide a rewarding work environment will witness the outcome in diminished revenue and poor growth. The most logical conclusion which can be drawn from the evidence is that failure to satisfy employees will greatly impact the company in a negative fashion, leading to conflict and internal organizational chaos. Bibliography Davison, Andrea C. Contemporary Business Issues. Houghton-Mifflin, 2003. Grossman, J., and R. Klein. An Introduction to Human Resource Management. 2nd ed. United States: Thomson South-Western, 2001. Keral.com, "Should performance appraisals be more efficient and transparent?." 2006. Kerala. 17 Dec 2007. Landy, Frank, and Jeffrey Conte. Work in the 21st Century: An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology. 2nd ed. Blackwell Publishing, 2006. Longenecker, J., and C. Moore, J. Petty, and L. Palich. Small Business Management: An Entrepreneurial Emphasis. 13th ed. United States: Thomson South-Western, 2006. Marken, Andy. “Ten Low-Cost Steps to Keep Employees from Job-Hunting.” 2007. Roads & Bridges. 17 Dec 2007. < http://www.roadsbridges.com/Ten-Low-Cost-Steps-to-Keep-Employees-from-Job-Hunting-article3032> Mathis, Robert, and John H. Jackson. Human Resource Management. 10th ed. United States: Thomson South-Western, 2005. Morris, Charles, and Albert Maisto. Psychology: An Introduction. 12th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005. Nickels, W., J. McHugh & S. McHugh. Understanding Business. 7th ed. United States: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2005. Read More