Job Saisfaction

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The Job Characteristics and Theories of Job Satisfaction
by Samantha Hanly, Demand Media
Various components are considered necessary to an employee's job satisfaction. These include pay, promotion, benefits, supervisor personality, co-workers and safety on the job. These job characteristics affect how an employee feels on the job. There are other, more subtle influences on employee job satisfaction, including personality types and elements of workplace culture.
Personality
According to the authors of Five Factor Model of Personality and Job Satisfaction, five personality characteristics have a major impact on job satisfaction. These traits are neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness and agreeableness. Neuroticism is the only one of the five directly related to lack of job satisfaction. The more neurotic an individual, the less likely he will be satisfied on his job. On the other hand, people who have a high degree of any of the other four traits have a better chance of being satisfied on the job.
Motivational Framework
One theory suggests that an employee's job satisfaction is directly related to what he thinks he deserves or what he thinks is important, rather than the fulfillment of his needs. For example, an employee may be able to make ends meet on a $25,000 salary. If the employee thinks he deserves $25,000, he will experience job satisfaction. If he thinks he deserves $32,000 per year, he will be unsatisfied in his employment.
Related Reading: What Are Ways to Improve Job Satisfaction as a Manager?
Social Influence
The hypothesis of social influence in job satisfaction suggests that employees want what they think their co-workers want. For example, if the workplace culture is one in which employees want authority over their projects, a new hire will feel satisfied when he is given responsibility for a project. However, a new hire who perceives that other...