THEOERETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR JOB SATISFACTION.

Herzberg’s two factor theory: The two-factor theory is a concept that states the
factors that affect an individual's satisfaction and motivation level. These two
factors are:
Job satisfaction (affective/hygiene)
Job dissatisfaction (motivational)
When American psychologist Frederick Irving Herzberg developed this theory
in 1968, it quickly became the most requested article in the Harvard Business
Review. Herzberg believed that these two factors impacted employees'
performance in different ways. Both effective and motivational factors tend to
influence people differently. Even as an individual is satisfied with their role,
they may not be motivated enough to work towards their goals.
Hygiene factors: Hygiene factors are the elements of a job that satisfy basic
needs: security, pay, fairness, and working conditions. When these needs are
met, employees feel comfortable and satisfied with their roles. Here are some
examples of hygiene factors:
Salary and benefits
Job security
Work environment
Job policies
Company policies
Company reputation
Motivational factors are the key job elements that motivate people to stay and
grow in a role. When these needs are not fulfilled, the project team may become
dissatisfied with their jobs. They may want more challenging roles that allow
them to grow professionally, learn new skills, or manage greater responsibilities.
Here are a few examples of motivators as per Herzberg’s two-factor theory:
Achievement
Recognition for accomplishments
Advancement
Creativity
Personal development
Accomplishment

Locke’s Value theory:

Job satisfaction is the relationship between job outcomes realised as compared
to those desired.
Satisfaction is high when employees receive outcomes which they value as
high.
Key to satisfaction is the discrepancy between those aspects of the job one has
and those one wants..
Social information processing Theory:
A new hire in the organisation finds the job, surroundings peers and the boss
highly exciting and enjoyable.
These feelings tend to sink and give rise to dissatisfaction.
Not because the job is dissatisfying but the negative things about the
surroundings towards the peers.
This approach specifies that people adopt attitudes and behaviour in keeping
with the cues provided by others with whom they come into contact with .
The social information processing model is important as it suggests that the job
satisfaction can be affected by such subtle things as the offhand comments
others make.
Dispositional Approach:
Another well-known job satisfaction theory is the Dispositional Theory. It is a
very general theory that suggests that people have innate dispositions that cause
them to have tendencies toward a certain level of satisfaction, regardless of
one’s job.
This dispositional approach suggests that job satisfaction is closely related to
personality. The evidence for this approach can be divided into indirect studies
and direct studies.
Judge and colleagues have reviewed these areas in greater detail. The indirect
evidence comes from studies that do riot explicitly measure personality. This
even includes significant employment changes, such as changes in employer or
occupation.
The indirect studies, however, are vulnerable to several important criticisms,
namely that other unaccounted factors might be contributing to job satisfaction
levels.
Most prominently, there is research evidence that self-esteem, self-efficacy,
emotional stability, and locus of control comprise a broad personality construct,
which contributes to how an individual sees.
A review of 169 correlations between each of four affective constructs (i.e., self-
esteem, self-efficacy, emotional stability, and locus of control) and job
satisfaction found that as self-reported levels of self-esteem, self-efficacy,
emotion stability, and locus of control increased, so did job satisfaction.
Similarly, investigations into the link between the five-factor model of
personality and job satisfaction revealed neuroticism, conscientiousness, and
extraversion to have moderate relationships with job satisfaction.
People tend to evaluate their work experiences in terms of liking or disliking
their jobs and develop feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction regarding their
job, as well as the organization in which they work.

The Job Characteristics Model (JCM) is a work design theory that seeks to
identify the key factors that make a job motivating, satisfying, and engaging for
employees. The model was developed by Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham
in 1976 and has since become a widely used framework for job analysis and job
design research.
The JCM proposes that five core job characteristics contribute to an employee's
meaningful work experience and job satisfaction. These five core job
distinguishing features are:
Skill variety
Task identity
Task significance
Autonomy Feedback
The JCM suggests that high jobs with these characteristics tend to be more
motivating, satisfying, and engaging for employees, leading to higher
performance and lower turnover rates. Organizations have widely used the
model to design more meaningful and fulfilling employee jobs.
Similar scales:
Job in Geberal scale
This measure, (Job in General Scale) developed by Ironson, Smith, Brannick,
Gibson, and Paul (1989), uses 18 items to describe global job satisfaction. The
measure can be used alone or in conjunction with the Job Descriptive
Index (JDI), which assesses satisfaction with five job facets. Because
individuals may use different frames of reference when responding to questions
about facet and overall job satisfaction, this measure was developed to assess
global satisfaction independent from satisfaction with facets.
Responses are obtained as “yes” if the employee agrees that the item describes
his or her job in general, “no” if the item does not and “?” if the employee is
undecided
The job satisfactory survey:
It was developed by Spencer in 1997
It consists of 36 items which measure 9 different facets.
It is a 6 point likert scale with 1 representing ‘disagree very much’ to 6
representing ‘agree very much’
The nine facets are Pay, Promotion, Supervision, Fringe Benefits, Contingent
Rewards (performance based rewards), Operating Procedures (required rules
and procedures), Coworkers, Nature of Work, and Communication. Although
the JSS was originally developed for use in human service organizations, it is
applicable to all organizations.
The Minnesota satisfaction questionnaire:
The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) is designed to measure an
employee's satisfaction with his or her job. Three forms are available: two long
forms (1977 version and 1967 version) and a short form. The MSQ provides
more specific information on the aspects of a job that an individual finds
rewarding than do more general measures of job satisfaction. The MSQ is also
useful in exploring client vocational needs, in counseling follow-up studies, and
in generating information about the reinforcers in jobs.
The MSQ is paper pencil self inventory and can be administered to groups or to
individuals, and is appropriate for use with individuals who can read at the fifth
grade level or higher. All three forms are gender neutral. Instructions for the
administration of the MSQ are given in the booklet. The MSQ Long Form
requires 15 to 20 minutes to complete. The Short Form requires about 5
minutes. Unless the 15 to 20 minutes required for the Long Form is impractical,
it is strongly recommended that the Long Form be used, as it provides much
more information for the short additional administration time required.
All the versions of this test uses the following five response categories:

• Not Satisfied
• Somewhat Satisfied
• Satisfied
• Very Satisfied
• Extremely Satisfied

The limitation of the MSQ scale is its length as considerable time is required to
complete it.

The Job Satisfaction Index:

It was developed by Brayfield and Rothe (1951) to measure Global job

satisfaction.
It consists of 18 items to measure overall job satisfaction.

Five point likert scale is used for each statement ranging from a value of 1 for ‘
strongly disagree’ to 5 for ‘strongly agree’