Conclusion of this article (Job satisfaction) - Essay Example

Conclusion This paper first identifies some of the measures of job satisfaction from a review of the literature. Next, it defines workforce diversity as differences in employee and applicant characteristics. This is followed by a review of the literature. Jack Shafer's article presents the negative effects of diversity on job satisfaction, while Lee Gardenswarta and Anita Rowe discuss the positive effects of diversity on job satisfaction. Carol Kleiman examines how deep has the practice of diversity penetrated into companies in the United States.

Our study finds that apart from race, job satisfaction arising from diversity in other dimensions such as age and gender is low. This might account for the 65% borderline "yes" to the statements that employees and customers are treated equally regardless of their race, gender, age, religion, or sexual orientation. Furthermore, only 60% of the respondents believe that their organization's policies and procedures make sense. Many are unsure as to whether diversity increases productivity, innovation, and job satisfaction.

Our study reveals alarmingly that other than for race, other dimensions of diversity are not well managed in the organizations that we administer the questionnaires. This has a number of implications for management. Management's efforts in implementing race diversity are confirmed in this study. However, they cannot rest on their laurels just yet, as there is still much to do on gender, age, religion, and sexual orientation. Perhaps, companies can follow the best practices of companies such as International Business Machines Corporations and Hewlett Packard, who have ranked top in numerous employee satisfaction surveys.

They can implement women friendly policies, such as setting up in-house child-care centers, telecommunication, or job sharing, where two persons work on the same position. To embrace diversity in age and religion, companies must interweave good practices into their selection, hiring, promotion, and communication processes. Policies and procedures for selection, hiring, and promotion should be developed and implemented based on skills, abilities, and knowledge. For example, interview checklists based on skills, abilities, and knowledge can be developed and implemented for use in hiring.

When challenged on its diversity policies, the company can produce the documents that are the bases on which it hires employees and fends itself on accusations of discrimination. Lastly, communication from top management to employees is an important element in spreading the good words about diversity, be it in the form of newsletters, e-mail communications, or awards in recognition and commendation of exemplification of diversity. Though offering much insight into the topic of diversity and job satisfaction, this study has a number of limitations.

First, the sample size is too small to carry out more sophisticated analysis. For example, many respondents have answered "Not Sure" to a number of questions. Second, due to the small sample size, the study might not achieve content validity. This means that the sample of respondents is not representative of the population. Lastly, construct validity, the extent to which our questionnaire measures job satisfaction and diversity, has not been verified in this study. Future research can be performed on a larger scale.

A likert scale could be used to measure the dependent variables of job satisfaction and independent variables of measures of diversity. Bearing in mind that job satisfaction could also be affected by other factors such as the level of pay and physical environment, such interfering factors should be accounted for. A multivariate analysis, such as canonical correlation analysis, could be used to more scientifically and statistically compare job satisfaction in diverse and non-diverse workforce.