Impact of Job Satisfaction on Staff Turnover - Literature review Example

Impact of Job Satisfaction on Staff Turnover –literature review In the present generation, the organizations faces significant problem dealing with the rate of employee turnover. As employee turnover incurs high amount of cost for the organizations, so it has been an important matter of study. Studies reveal that one of the key factors which force the employees to leave the organizations is the job satisfaction. The paper tries to establish a link between the Job satisfaction and the employee turnover. In order to establish the link between the job satisfaction and the employee turnover, a thorough analysis of job satisfaction and the factors affecting it are first studied. Job Satisfaction: Job satisfaction describes how much the employees are satisfied with their current level of job. Job satisfaction also guides the attitudes of the people towards the job. In order to measure the amount of satisfaction which an employee has towards his job, employers often try to gauge the performance of the employees, and studies how well the employees are delivering in meeting with the target assigned. Some of the crucial factors which helps in the buildup of job satisfaction among the employees, are the nature of work, pay package, promotional opportunity , supervision, the behavior of the co worker and the culture prevalent with the organization(Brown & Lent, 2005, p.180). . The factors involving job satisfaction are discussed in detail in the underlying section Nature of Work: Nature of work is one of the primary factors which help in the development of job satisfaction among the employees. The interest level of the employees in the nature of job which is imposed by the employer guides the job satisfaction. If the employees face person role conflict, then the job satisfaction of the employees will never be high. Person role conflict deals with the fact that employees have to undertake tasks which does not suit them and they are either under qualified or overqualified for the job. The role play of an employee in the job should also provide opportunity for them to utilize their skills which they have learned over the years. The employees should be provided with autonomy in carrying out their jobs. Another important job related factor which helps in the building of the satisfaction is the clarity in the role to be played by the employees. If the employees are made clear regarding the roles which the organization expects from them in carrying out, then a significant amount of satisfaction is generated within them. Proper training regarding the jobs also helps in the development of job satisfaction among the employees as they generate confidence within them through the training process. The employee participation has been one of the crucial aspect in modern times and effective participation of employees in the decision making process of the organization generates a feeling within the employees that they belong to the organization and are an important part of it. This feeling within them in turn imbibes satisfaction regarding their job (Lee, 1991, p.9). The work pressure which an employee has to experience generates the satisfaction level within them. Often employees are dissatisfied with their job owing to the excessive job pressure which they have to face (Spector, 1997, p.24). The above study does not incorporate the factor of place of work and the ambience of the workplace which also often can raise dissatisfaction among the employees in the workplace. Pay package: Pay package is the most important criteria which dominates the level of job satisfaction among the employees. Employees always look for a better pay package and the pay package often helps in balancing the other limitation which an employee may face in an organization. The inclusion of additional facilities in the pay package helps to raise the satisfaction level of the employees and the fulfillment of the demand for increment in the salary structure makes them satisfied in their job. Other than the salary which the employees receive, often employees also try to investigate whether any kind of biasness creeps in the pay structure of the employees. Organizations maintaining fairness in their salary structure increases the job satisfaction among the employees (Coleman, 1989, pp.6-7). However, the factor of pay package as an element of job satisfaction, does not involve the factor of timely payment of salary, especially for the part time workers which can emerge to be crucial in building up job satisfaction among the employees. Promotion and recognition: Promotion and recognition are the two important factors which employees look from the management. Rewarding the employees based on their performance helps instigate confidence among the employees and the opportunity for promotion helps them to secure their career. The option of providing a growth in the career of the employees helps them to develop confidence among the organization and the job satisfaction develops within them. On the contrary when the work and the dedication of the employees in meeting their tasks do not gets recognized; the employee losses confidence on the employers and his satisfaction from the jobs takes a dip (Campbell & Converse, 1972, p.191). However the study does not consider the case of undesired promotion of the employees which can make the employee feel more stressed about the job and can create dissatisfaction among them. Supervision: The supervision or the overall style of management of the organization is also crucial for the development of the job satisfaction. The presence of an efficient management team in the organization, which takes care of the needs and demand of the employees and are accessible by the employees generates a feeling of trust and helps to develop confidence among the employees (Beach, 1996, p.63). Coworkers and the organizational culture: Nature of the Co workers and the organizational culture are very crucial for the development of job satisfaction particularly on the employees who are new to the organization. The presence of friendly co workers who provides help and guide in the initial days is also very important for the development of job satisfaction among the employees in the long run. The organizational culture prevalent also helps in generating confidence among the employees and the presence of a flexible work culture drives the overall satisfaction of the employees (Furnham, 2005, p.330). Staff turnover: Staff turnover in an organization signifies the ratio of total number of workers which had been replaced in a given time period to the average number of workers in the organization. (Agnes, 1999). The process of turnover involves a series of actions which takes place as an employee leaves an organization and is replaced by others. The employee turnover is a natural outcome of the business but the management of the organization should dedicate them in keeping the employee attrition rate as low as possible. One of the prime causes for the employee turnover in an organization has been the absence of job satisfaction among the employees. The absence of the factors which helps in the buildup of job satisfaction creates significant impact on the employees and they search for better alternatives. The decision of an employee to quit his current job does not occur instantaneously. The employees first undertake an evaluation of the current job. The evaluation process involves consideration of various attributes like the nature of engagement which the employee has in the current organization and the compensation received by him. It also involves the analysis of the job satisfaction in the current organization. If the evaluation process provides negative results, thoughts of quitting the job arises in the mind of the employee. The thought for quitting is followed by measuring the consequence of quitting along with the determination of the cost associated with the quitting process. The search for the new job is undertaken by the employee and then a comparison of the benefits of the new job is done to the current job. If the process of comparison yields positive results, it initiates the employee to quit the current organization. The decision making process of an employee in matters of quitting the job is illustrated with the help of a diagram (Berry, 2010, p.203) The aspect of financial position of the employee has not been considered in the decision making process of an employee regarding quitting the job. If the financial position of the employee is strong may be the employee will think to quit about the job in less amount of time if the other factors contributing to the development of job satisfaction are not met;. The various reasons relating to the un -attainment of job satisfaction among the employees has been discussed below. The employees opt to leave the organization when job satisfaction regarding the quality of the job in the workplace does not meet their standard. When the employees are not provided with the right jobs in the organization, then an ego problem arises within them and they feel the urge to leave the organization and join somewhere else where they could exhibit their skills and expertise (Force, 2008, p.46). The employees often tend to leave the organizations considering the fact that the job does not provide enough scope for them to learn to new things. This is specially observed among the employees who have just completed their education and enters in the corporate world. Another common cause for the employee turnover is the dissatisfaction among the employees regarding the scope for the growth of the career. Employees all round the world aim to have a secure career, and when the organization fails to provide them with an opportunity to soar high in their career they search for better options. The employees of an organization experiencing mammoth pressure on the jobs also feels dissatisfied and chose to leave, and as a result the turnover rate in an organization increases considerably. Other than the career growth, the pay package received by an employee is also a crucial factor for an employee leaving the organization. If the employees finds that the other organization are providing better pay package and the employee is not satisfied within the organization, the employee chose to quit. The absence of job satisfaction in the context of the style of the management also creates an intention among the employees to quit their job. If the employees find that the management of the organization is not responsive towards their needs and they are unable to participate in the various tasks of the organization, the employees grows a sense of insecurity among them and this leads to the turnover of employees. This nature from the management also signifies the fact that the commitment of the employers towards the employees are not in ideal structure and the identification of these factors de motivates the employees and they search for other alternative job options. Studies reflect the fact that the job satisfaction has been the most crucial element which retains the employees in the organization and the in ability of the organizations to make their employees satisfied in their job leads to the employee turnover which causes considerable loss to them (Griffeth & Hom, 2004, p.232). The absence of monitoring of the performance of the organization also makes the employees feel neglected and the dissatisfaction within them again arises to be the factor behind leaving the job. The factors of job satisfaction which are crucial in retaining the employees in the organization are all controllable factors and can be taken care of by the management in order to reduce the turnover rate. However in matters of turnover, the aspect of un-attainment of job satisfaction is not only the sole cause and there are variety of uncontrollable factors which the organization has to face. The factors affecting turnover in an organization are mentioned in a tabulated form below. A limitation which has been noticed in the study of factors affecting turnover in an organization is that the personal factors of the employees have not been considered over here, which forces an employee to have a different perspective towards the job. Demographic factors Uncontrollable factors Controllable factors Age, Gender, Education, level of Income , Work experience Employment opportunities , Job hopping nature of employees Pay structure, nature of work, Career growth, nature of management. (Khatri, et al, n. d) The rise in dissatisfaction of the employees in an organization can be threatening as it is has been observed in America in the year 2010. A large number of unsatisfied workers based in the country have threatened to leave the organization and the figures have increased in comparison to the numbers of unsatisfied workers willing to leave the organization in the year 2005. The graph is represented below. (Sunshine, 2011) The above graph shows that the rate of the employee turnover can rise considerably owing to the lack of job satisfaction in the employees and is a considerable threat to the organizations. Conclusion: The importance of job satisfaction lies in the fact that it is the most vital attribute which employees consider at the time of leaving their job. The various elements of job satisfaction like the nature of the work, the pay package and the support from the management becomes crucial parameters for the employees to evaluate before switching to other jobs. On the contrary the attainment of those factors retains the employees in the organization and the deliver their best which results in high productivity for the organization. However an important area which has not been much focused in trying to investigate the link between the job satisfaction and employee turnover is the extent to which the different factor of job satisfaction can help the employees to retain their position in the organization and which is the most important element of job satisfaction , the un-fulfillment of which guides the employee to quit the job. Another limitation which can be found is that no clear idea is generated whether the set of personal factors guides the employees to think differently towards matters of job satisfaction and forces him to leave the organization. The overall limitation of this literature review opens up further ground for conducting a research. References 1. Agnes, M. (1999). Webster’s New World College Dictionary. New York, Mc Milan 2. 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