Chapter Six

1
Chapter Six

• Satisfaction And
• Stress

2
Chapter Overview

• This chapter examines the following topics
• Defining Satisfaction and Stress
• Satisfaction
• Stress
• Measuring Satisfaction and Stress
• Organizational Costs of Dissatisfaction and
  Stress
• Performance at the Individual and Organizational
  Level
• Health Care Costs
• Absenteeism and Turnover
• Low Organizational Commitment and Citizenship
• Workplace Violence and Sabotage
• Sources of Dissatisfaction and Stress
• Physical and Social Environment
• Personal Dispositions
• Organizational Tasks
• Organization Roles
• Eliminating and Coping with Dissatisfaction and
  Stress
• Identifying Symptoms of Dissatisfaction and
  Stress
• Eliminating Dissatisfying and Stressful
  Conditions

3
Introduction

• Most organizations are not in the job
  satisfaction business and for that reason,
  sometimes mangers find it difficult to see the
  importance of understanding and enhancing
  employees attitudes and feelings about their
  work
• These attitudes and feelings can have important
  effects on the organization
• State Farm Insurance example
• SAS Institute example
• Creating a stable and satisfied workforce serves
  as an opportunity to gain competitive advantage
  over others in the industry

4
Defining Satisfaction and Stress

• Job satisfaction a pleasurable feeling that
  results from the perception that ones job
  fulfills or allows for the fulfillment of ones
  important job values
• Edwin Locke reviewed the topic of job
  satisfaction
• Job satisfaction includes three key components
• Values what a person consciously or
  unconsciously desires to obtain
• Importance of values people differ in the
  weights they give to the values they hold and
  these differences critically influence the degree
  of job satisfaction
• Perception may not be an accurate reflection
  of objective reality

• Stress an unpleasant emotional state that
  results when someone is uncertain of his or her
  capacity to resolve a perceived challenge to an
  important value
• Hans Selye proposed that the general adaptation
  syndrome can explain the relationship between
  stress and physical-physiological symptoms
• According to Selye, the bodys reaction to
  chronic stress occurs in three stages
• Alarm stage
• Resistance stage
• Exhaustion stage
• If stress continues unabated, harmful burnout may
  occur

5
Measuring Satisfaction and Stress

• Most attempts to measure worker satisfaction rely
  on self-reports
• Established scales are an excellent starting
  point for organizations wishing to assess
  satisfaction levels of employees
• A systematic, ongoing program of employee survey
  research should be a prominent component to any
  retention strategy for several reasons
• Monitor trends over time
• Assess effects of changes in policy
• Costs are low

6
Organizational Costs of Dissatisfaction and Stress

• Even if the human costs are coldly ignored,
  important financial reasons exist for monitoring
  and managing the satisfaction and stress levels
  of employees

7
Performance at the Individual and Organizational
Level

• A recent comprehensive analysis of studies has
  revealed a significant, positive correlation
  between these two variables
• The satisfaction-performance link is especially
  strong in the services industry
• Southwest Airlines example
• Evidence clearly indicates that the relationship
  between attitudes of individual workers and their
  performance actually translates to higher levels
  of organizational performance as measured by
  financial indicators

8
Health Care CostsAbsenteeism and Turnover

• Work-related stress has great potential to effect
  a persons health and well-being
• Spiraling medical fees and hospital
  room-and-board charges have increased the cost of
  patient insurance by three times as much as wage
  increases over the same period
• Medical insurance and claims costs currently
  constitute a full 10 of payroll for U.S.
  companies
• Employers are increasingly finding themselves
  liable for specific incidents of stress-related
  illnesses

• Dissatisfaction and stress are also the sources
  of indirect costs, most notably in the form of
  absenteeism and turnover
• Dissatisfaction is a major reason for absenteeism
  and also triggers organizational turnover
• Replacing lost workers is a costly undertaking
• Loss of investment
• Gain to competitors

9
Low Organizational Commitment and Citizenship

• Dissatisfaction contributes to declining
  organizational commitment
• Organizational commitment degree to which
  people identify with the organization that
  employs them
• Effects of organizational downsizing
• Dissatisfaction negatively affects organizational
  citizenship behaviors (OCBs)
• OCBs are acts that promote the organizations
  interests, but are not a part of any persons
  documented job requirements
• OCBs tend to make the organization run more
  smoothly, but dissatisfied employees rarely
  engage in them

10
Workplace Violence and Sabotage

• In the last fifteen years, workplace violence has
  developed into a major organizational problem
• Workplace homicide is the fastest growing form of
  murder in the U.S.
• Workplace homicide is the leading cause of death
  for women in the workplace
• Most violence that involves organizational
  insiders is triggered by extreme levels of
  dissatisfaction and stress on the part of the
  attacker
• U.S. Postal Service example

• Dissatisfaction can also lead to organizational
  sabotage
• Organizational sabotage is violence directed at
  property rather than people
• Traditionally, this was seen as dealing with
  vandalism or theft, but is now increasingly
  directed at computer information systems
• Omega Engineering example

11
Sources of Dissatisfaction and Stress

• Certain inherent features of organizations can
  cause dissatisfaction and stress
• Physical environment
• Social environment
• Person
• Task
• Role

12
Physical and Social Environment

• A wealth of evidence shows that some physical
  features of the workplace can stimulate negative
  emotional reactions in workers
• Extremes in temperature
• Lighting requirements
• Sick-building syndrome
• In terms of the social environment, supervisors
  and coworkers serve as the two primary sources of
  satisfaction or frustration for the employee
• Social support the active provision of sympathy
  and caring
• Buffering presence of supportive people
• The physical and social aspects of work converge
  to create the behavior setting
• Social density a measure of crowding
• Privacy freedom to work without observation

13
Personal Dispositions

• Stress and dissatisfaction reside within a person
  and many researchers have studied outcomes on
  individual differences
• Negative affectivity describes a dispositional
  dimension of subjective distress
• People who are high in this tend to focus on the
  negative qualities of self and others
• It can turn into depression
• A second critical individual difference is the
  Type A behavior pattern versus Type B

14
Organizational Tasks

• Although we cannot entirely discount the
  influence of dispositional traits and nonwork
  experiences, nothing predicts a persons level of
  workplace satisfaction or stress better than the
  nature of the work itself
• Key factors that determine satisfaction and
  stress are task complexity, physical strain, and
  task meaningfulness

15
Task Complexity, Physical Strain, and Task
Meaningfulness

• Research generally shows a positive relationship
  between task complexity and satisfaction
• Boredom created by lack of task complexity can
  hinder performance on certain types of jobs
• Physical strain and exertion is sometimes
  overlooked in the present age of technology
• Advancing technology makes this universally
  considered an undesirable work characteristic
• It is important for the worker to believe that
  the work is meaningful and has value
• Empowerment

16
Organization Roles

• The person and the social environment converge in
  the form of an organization role
• Three of the most heavily researched aspects of
  roles are
• Role ambiguity
• Role conflict
• Role scope

17
Role Ambiguity, Role Conflict, and Role Scope

• Role ambiguity comprises the uncertainty or lack
  of clarity surrounding expectations about a
  persons role in the organization
• Role conflict is the recognition of incompatible
  or contradictory demands that face the person who
  occupies a role
• Intersender role conflict two or more people
  convey mutually exclusive expectations
• Intrasender conflict one person holds two
  competing expectations
• Interrole conflict one person torn between the
  demands of two roles
• Role scope refers to the absolute number of
  expectations that exist for the person occupying
  a role
• Role overload too many expectations or demands
  on the role occupant
• Role underload too few expectations or demands
  on the role occupant

18
Eliminating and Coping With Dissatisfaction and
Stress

• Because the costs associated with employee
  dissatisfaction and stress can be high,
  identifying causing factors should be a major
  part of the job description of every manger
• Interventions should target the source of the
  stress

19
Identifying Symptoms of Dissatisfaction and Stress

• In some cases, employees themselves report
  problems in these areas
• Many employees are afraid to admit they cannot
  overcome some problem associated with their work
• It is critical for managers to monitor the kinds
  of attitudes via a regular systematic employee
  survey program
• Organizations conducting such a survey must be
  ready to take action on the results
• Doctors Hospital example

20
Eliminating Dissatisfying and Stressful Conditions

• Some of the most effective means of reducing
  negative reactions to work focus on the task
• Job enrichment includes techniques to add
  complexity and meaning to a persons work
• Role problems rank immediately behind job
  problems in terms of creating distress
• Role analysis technique
• Skills training is a means of trying to help the
  employee change a dissatisfying or stressful
  condition
• Time management
• A persons ability to handle dissatisfying or
  stressful work experiences is enhanced when the
  worker has an opportunity at air problems or
  grievances
• Participation in decision making (PDM)

21
Managing Symptoms of Dissatisfaction and Stress

• In some situations, interventions must be aimed
  at the symptoms of stress
• Physical conditioning
• Aerobic exercise
• Relaxation techniques
• Biofeedback techniques and training
• Time away
• Job rotation moving workers from one job to
  another temporarily
• If negative aspects cannot be changed by any
  other means, be honest with prospective
  jobholders
• Realistic job previews