Think interpersonal for job Satisfaction

A manager in a meeting with his juniors. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By SCOTT BELLOWS

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Summary

• Job satisfaction exists as an attitude that encompasses the collection of feelings and beliefs that workers hold about their employment.
• Many facets of one’s job go into opinions of job satisfaction including the job description duties, colleagues, managers, pay, working hours, etc.
• Organisational justice entails the degree to which employees feel fairly treated in their workplaces across outcomes, procedures and interactions.
• Human brains are naturally wired as highly sensitive to fairness.

Companies desire to maximise shareholder wealth. To achieve wealth maximisation, firms need to grow, innovate, retain more of their customers and enter new markets. A salient key to entities achieving their lofty goals entails their employees’ job satisfaction.

Job satisfaction exists as an attitude that encompasses the collection of feelings and beliefs that workers hold about their employment. Many facets of one’s job go into opinions of job satisfaction including the job description duties, colleagues, managers, pay, working hours, etc.

When many negative aspects converge and generate employment dissatisfaction, then organisations see markedly increased employee disloyalty, turnover, more accidents, more sick days taken, tardiness, and less cooperation. The cacophony of negative outputs from low collective job satisfaction causes lower profits and, in turn, reduced shareholder wealth as outcomes.

So managers should ask themselves what key drivers cause employee job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. A major cause for employee attitudes generates from a concept that researchers call organisational justice.

Organisational justice entails the degree to which employees feel fairly treated in their workplaces across outcomes, procedures and interactions. Human brains are naturally wired as highly sensitive to fairness.

If a parent gives one of their children three cookies and the other child only two cookies, the slighted child, even from a very early age, will raise immediate objection to the unfair allocation.

Inasmuch, the deep-rooted psychological concept of fairness underpins employee attitudes that in turn impact their behaviour that could harm or help the firm. Social scientists Russell Cropanzano, David Bowen, and Stephen Gilliland highlight three main areas of organisational justice as distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice.

Distributive justice involves the appropriateness of outcomes while procedural justice entails the appropriateness of the allocation process. The third area, interactional justice, receives less attention and involves the appropriateness of the interaction and treatment that employees receive from authority figures within the company.

Interactional justice comprises two sub-components of interpersonal justice in treating an employee with respect, dignity and courtesy while informational justice involves sharing relevant information with employees and not hiding it.

Researchers Sania Usmani and Siraj Jamal detail the following interpersonal justice scale. Please answer the following four (4) statements to ascertain the level of interpersonal justice that you feel in your current position. Upon reading each statement, rate your perception as you either 1) strongly disagree, 2) disagree, 3) neither agree nor disagree, 4) agree, or 5) strongly agree.

When decisions are made about your job, your manager is sensitive to your personal needs. When decisions are made about your job, your manager treats you with respect and dignity. When decisions are made about your job, your manager shows concern for your rights as an employee. When decisions are made about your job, your manager treats you with kindness and consideration.

Now, please total up your ratings for each of the statements and then divide by four (4). If your average score exceeds four, then you enjoy an excellent fair interpersonal relationship with your manager. If your average fell between three and four, then you subside in a mediocre work environment.

If, on the other hand, you scored your average as less than three, you work in an outright unfair workplace with regards to your manager and if your score fell under two, the unhealthy situation at your job warrants an internal job transfer or a new job entirely outside your present firm.

Managers must remember that “how” they accomplish a task with subordinates is as important as completing the task itself. A manager who takes Interpersonally fair actions across his or her work enhances job satisfaction that increases shareholder wealth.

Dr Scott may be reached on scott@ScottProfessor.com or on Twitter: @ScottProfessor