Job Satisfaction of Knowledge Workers in Croatian Companies

Transcription

1 Job Satisfaction of Knowledge Workers in Croatian Companies Danica Bakotić, Ph. D., University of Split, Faculty of Economics, Croatia ABSTRACT This paper deals with two important topics for every organization: job satisfaction and knowledge workers. Job satisfaction is a work attitude which describes how happy an individual is with his or her job. Job satisfaction determines the behaviour of employees, it defines their individual performances, and by that it affects the functioning of the organization and determines the organizational performance. High level of job satisfaction is a product of competent and efficient management. Knowledge workers as second topic of this paper represents workers whose main capital is knowledge. They have ability to create innovations, new solutions and improvements. They are generators of companies growth and development. In literature, there is a lack of papers which are focused on job satisfaction of knowledge workers, so the results of the empirical research of this paper give a significant contribution to this very important theme. In general, these results show that knowledge workers have a higher level of job satisfaction comparing to other employees. Additionally, knowledge workers employed on managerial positions have a higher level of job satisfaction than knowledge workers who are not engaged on managerial positions. They are also more satisfied with all job satisfaction factors. The results also suggest that there are differences in factors which determinate job satisfaction of knowledge workers comparing to the factors which determinate job satisfaction of other employees. So, job satisfaction of knowledge workers can be enhanced by improving their status in the companies. They have to have the opportunities for taking some demanding and more responsible tasks and companies need to provide them the opportunities for promotion. Namely, the promotion is factor by which knowledge workers are at least satisfied but this factor has the strongest influence on their job satisfaction. Regarding other employees, in order to improve their job satisfaction companies need to improve training and development of these employees which should be basis for their promotion. Namely, these workers are also at least satisfied with their promotion opportunities. Also in the case of other employees, new compensation strategies should be introduced. Keywords: job satisfaction, company, knowledge workers INTRODUCTION The inspiration of this paper lies in interest for two important issues. The first one is job satisfaction which is as work attitude very often analyzed and investigated. Job satisfaction represents the important element of organizational behavior which determinates individual and organizational performance. The managers are very interested in job satisfaction because they perceive the high level of job satisfaction among their employees as their own success so they will use many organizational techniques in order to improve it. Enhanced job satisfaction will provide benefits to workers because their individual performance will be increased and consequently their variable pays; managers will be perceived as good leaders; and organization will experience enlarged performances and be more successful. All these reasons support the fact that job satisfaction need to be explored and analyzed. The second issue of this paper represents knowledge workers. Knowledge workers are very important group of employees because of their ability to create innovations, new solutions and improvements. They are generators of companies growth and development. Because of that, it is important that these workers are satisfied on their work. Namely, job satisfaction represents the condition of better knowledge workers performances. So the companies need to establish the instruments for job satisfaction improvements. But usually companies do not differentiate workers when they try to influence on their job satisfaction. With the same instruments they influence job satisfaction of all employees. Also in literature there is a lack of empirical researches about job satisfaction of knowledge workers. Because of that this paper is focused on investigation of job satisfaction of knowledge workers in order to clarify does the job satisfaction of these workers differentiate from job satisfaction of other employees, as well as to find out which factors of job satisfaction are dominant for job satisfaction of knowledge workers. The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 7 Number 2, October,

2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Job satisfaction is a pleasurable or positive emotional state related to the work that person performs (Locke, 1976, p. 1300). In basic it shows how much people love their job (Spector, 1997). Job satisfaction is related to the nature of job, rewards which employees get, social and organizational characteristics of work environment. So the factors which usually influence job satisfaction are nature of work, pay, co-workers, supervision, promotion, development, working conditions, etc. High level of job satisfaction in organization is a product of competent and efficient management. Managers want to have satisfied employees who feel good in their workplace; they prefer to work with people who have a positive view of the job. Workers who have a high level of job satisfaction generally love their job; they feel justice in their working environment, and feel that their job gives them some positive features such as variety, challenge, good pay and security, autonomy, pleasant co-workers. Workers who are happy at work will even devote private time to their work activities, they will be creative and committed, they will seek a way to cross any obstacle which might exists in the realization of their jobs, and they will assist their colleagues and superiors. From all of that, it can be concluded that management focuses on job satisfaction because job satisfaction determines the behaviour of employees, it defines their individual performances, and by that it affects the functioning of the organization and determines the organizational performance. Considering that, it is obvious that job satisfaction is a key factor of organizational behaviour, it should be understood and monitored, and the companies should continuously create the conditions for its improvement, in order to avoid the effects of dissatisfaction that can harm its functioning and success. So job satisfaction is certainly a theme of a broad interest for the workers and managers, but also for scientists and researchers. Thousands of articles can be found in the literature that deals with job satisfaction and it can be noted that this phenomenon has been studied by more researches than any other organizational issue (Spector, 1997). But the analysis of job satisfaction, both in practice and in literature, often does not distinguish different categories of employees. This is a lack of job satisfaction examination because different categories of workers have different job satisfaction. Also different factors of job satisfaction differently affect the overall job satisfaction in different categories of workers. Knowledge workers are one of these categories of workers. Knowledge workers are workers usually defined by the education which they posses. So, Bentley (1990) defines knowledge workers as those with high education, while Janz et al. (1997) identify knowledge workers as the ones who implement their theoretical and analytical knowledge gained during the educational process through which they have passed. Knowledge workers are also defined through different professions such as scientists, engineers, professors, psychologists, lawyers, bankers, accountants, etc. In basic, knowledge workers are workers whose work is based on the knowledge gained through their formal education or work experience; in their work they are looking for challenges and respond to them by creating new solutions or upgrades. In this way, they contribute to the development of their profession and the company in which they are employed. Because of this, they are the generators of company's growth and development. The value of knowledge workers in modern companies is significant and it is defined by the knowledge they acquire, by their competences and abilities to solve challengeable problems and to develop new advanced and better solutions. Today s environment is very dynamic and hostile and characterized by strong competition, so the role of knowledge workers becomes crucial. These workers by their extraordinary performances, new ideas and solutions could obtain the competitive advantage to their companies. But the companies need to give a significant attention to these workers. They have to provide them with resources and any kind of organizational support. Among other things companies need to be focused on job satisfaction of knowledge workers because only satisfied workers will be motivate and extra productive. According to above mentioned and the growing interest in understanding the importance of knowledge workers in today s companies, this term comes into the focus of scientists and managers. In literature, there are many papers which deal with knowledge workers (Horwitz et al., 2003; Arthur et al., 2008; Wang et al., 2009; Wu, 2009) but there is a lack of papers focuses on job satisfaction of knowledge workers. 54 The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 7, Number 2, October, 2012

3 METHODOLOGY The empirical research of this paper is conducted in order to test the following hypothesis: Hypothesis 1: Knowledge workers have a higher level job satisfaction comparing to other employees. Hypothesis 2: Knowledge workers employed on managerial positions have a higher level of job satisfaction than knowledge workers who are not engaged on managerial positions. Hypothesis 3: There are statistically significant differences in factors which determinate job satisfaction of knowledge workers comparing to the factors which determinate job satisfaction of other employees. The empirical research of this paper is conducted on 736 knowledge workers, and 4900 other employees. For the purpose of the research knowledge workers were defined as workers with high education. The research instrument was questionnaire with two groups of questions. The first group relates the individual characteristics of knowledge workers such as gender, age, education level, tenure, position in the company (managerial or non managerial position). The second group of questions contains the questions about job satisfaction where 11 factors of job satisfaction were tested based on Likert 5-item scale where 1 represents very dissatisfied and 5 represents very satisfied. These factors were: nature of work, top management, co-workers, supervision, promotion, pay, status, working conditions, training and development, job security, and working hours. The overall job satisfaction is determinate as an average value of the satisfaction of these factors. For data analysis, appropriate statistical methods have been used, supported by the SPSS program. RESEARCH RESULTS Research results of this paper will be presented according to the researched hypothesis. The first research hypothesis assumes that knowledge workers have higher level of job satisfaction comparing to other employees. In order to test this hypothesis, the data in table 1 is provided. So the table 1 presents the results of descriptive statistics about job satisfaction of knowledge workers, as well as job satisfaction of other employees. Table 1: Descriptive statistics about job satisfaction Knowledge workers Other employees N Mean Median Mod Standard deviation From table 1, it can be seen that job satisfaction of knowledge workers is higher than job satisfaction of other employees. Namely, the mean value of job satisfaction of knowledge workers is , while mean value of job satisfaction of other employees is Here, it is important to point out that job satisfaction was tested based on Likert 5-item scale, where 1 represents very dissatisfied, 2 represents dissatisfied, 3 represents neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, 4 correspond to satisfied and 5 represents very satisfied. So the mean value of job satisfaction of knowledge workers is closer to satisfied, while the mean value of other workers is closer to neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. The median is also higher in the case of knowledge workers, while the mod is the same in both cases. If we assume that this is a representative sample for Croatian workers, it can be stated that level of job satisfaction among workers in Croatian companies is on satisfactory level. The differences of job satisfaction between knowledge workers and other employees presented in table 1 will be tested in order to find out does these differences are statistically significant. So the table 2 presents the results of Independent Sample Test of differences between knowledge workers and other workers related to the level of their job satisfaction. The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 7 Number 2, October,

4 From table 2, it can be seen that there is a statistically significant difference between knowledge workers and other workers related to the level of their job satisfaction, because α Thus, the first research hypothesis is confirmed and it can be stated that knowledge workers have a higher level of job satisfaction comparing to other employees. Table 2: Independent Sample Test of differences between knowledge workers and other workers related to the level of their job satisfaction Levene s Test for t-test for Equality of Means Equality of variances Job satisfaction F Sig. t df 95% Confidence Interval Sig. Mean Std. Error of the Difference (2-tailed) Difference Difference Lower Upper Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed The second research hypothesis of this paper supposes that knowledge workers employed on managerial positions have a higher level of job satisfaction than knowledge workers who are not engaged on managerial positions. Table 3 presents the data about job satisfaction of knowledge workers who are managers, and knowledge workers who are regular employees. Table 3: Job satisfaction of knowledge workers managers and job satisfaction of knowledge workers non managers Managers Non managers N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Job satisfaction of knowledge Managers workers Non managers From table 2 it can be noticed that job satisfaction of knowledge workers managers is , while job satisfaction of knowledge workers non managers is These differences are statistically significant (α 0.05), which can be seen from table 4. Table 4: Independent Sample Test of differences between knowledge workers managers and knowledge workers non managers related to the level of their job satisfaction Levene s Test for t-test for Equality of Means Equality of variances Job satisfaction Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference Std. Error Difference 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper The analysis in table 3 and table 4 suggest that the second research hypothesis of this paper can also be accepted. Regarding this it can be declared that knowledge workers employed on managerial positions have a higher level of job satisfaction than knowledge workers who are not engaged on managerial positions. And finally, the third hypothesis of this research assumes that there are statistically significant differences in factors which determinate job satisfaction of knowledge workers comparing to the factors which determinate job satisfaction of other employees. As it is stated in the methodological part of this paper, this empirical research has examined 11 factors of job satisfaction which are nature of work, top management, co-workers, supervision, promotion, pay, status, working conditions, training and development, job security, and working hours. 56 The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 7, Number 2, October, 2012

5 The analysis of factors which influence job satisfaction will start with the data which shows the level of satisfaction with each factor of job satisfaction. The rank of these factors is presented in the table 5. Table 5:The rank of job satisfaction factors in the case of knowledge workers and other employees Rank Knowledge workers Other employees Mean Factor of job satisfaction Mean Factor of job satisfaction Job security 4.05 Job security Working hours 3.89 Nature of work Nature of work 3.88 Co-workers Co-workers 3.79 Working hours Supervision 3.71 Supervision Working conditions 3.40 Working conditions Top management 3.36 Top management Training and development 3.33 Status Status 3.28 Training and development Pay 3.11 Pay Promotion 2.86 Promotion From table 5 it could be seen that satisfaction with all factors, in the case of knowledge workers, is above 3. The level of satisfaction with the first eight factors is above 3.5. Job security and working conditions are factors with the highest level of satisfaction. The average values of satisfaction with these factors are above 4. Contrary, the factors with the lowest mean value of satisfaction, in case of knowledge workers, are status, pay and promotion. The satisfaction with these factors is below 3.5. Here it is important to point out that promotion is job satisfaction factor with the lowest mean value of satisfaction (2.86). Regarding the other employees, they are the most satisfied with job security. The mean value of satisfaction with this factor is above 4. Further, job satisfaction factors with the mean value above 3.5 are nature of work, co-workers, working hours and supervisors. The factor with the lowest mean value of satisfaction, in case of other employees is promotion, like in the case of knowledge workers. The other employees are much more dissatisfied with this factor than knowledge workers. This is expectable because the knowledge workers have more opportunities for promotion regarding their high education than other employees. In order to fulfill this analysis the table 6 presents the rank of job satisfaction factors in the case of knowledge workers managers and knowledge workers non managers. Table 6: The rank of job satisfaction factors in the case of knowledge workers managers and knowledge workers non managers Knowledge workers Rank Managers Non managers Mean Factor of job satisfaction Mean Factor of job satisfaction Job security 4.12 Working hours Working hours 4.11 Job security Nature of work 3.88 Nature of work Co-workers 3.88 Co-workers Supervision 3.67 Supervision Working conditions 3.61 Working conditions Status 3.36 Top management Training and development 3.33 Training and development Top management 3.18 Status Pay 3.18 Pay Promotion 2.75 Promotion From table 6 it can be seen that knowledge workers managers are more satisfied with all job satisfaction factors comparing to knowledge workers who are not on the managerial positions. Furthermore, in the case of knowledge The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 7 Number 2, October,

6 workers managers, the mean value of satisfaction with four factors is above 4. These factors are: job security, working hours, nature of work and co-workers. In the case of knowledge workers non managers, only two job satisfaction factors have mean value above 4. These factors are: working hours and job security. The factor with the lowest rank, in the case of knowledge workers managers as well as in the case of knowledge workers non managers, is a promotion. The application of more advanced statistical methods provides the information about correlations between each factor of job satisfaction and overall job satisfaction. These correlations show the contribution of each factor of job satisfaction to the overall job satisfaction. Table 7 presents the correlations between satisfaction of each job satisfaction factor and overall job satisfaction of knowledge workers. Table 7: Correlations between the satisfactions of each job satisfaction s factor and overall job satisfaction of knowledge workers Factors of job satisfaction Spearman's rho α N Status Promotion Top management Training and development Supervisors Pay Nature of job Co-workers Working conditions Job security Working hours Correlations presented in table 7 are positive and medium intensity (0.5 < r 0.8) which means that all factors on pretty much the same way influence overall job satisfaction. Comparing these correlations with mean values, which show the level of satisfaction for each job satisfaction factor, it can be observed that status, promotion and top management are factors with the strongest influence on job satisfaction of knowledge workers (table 7). But with these factors knowledge workers are at least satisfied which can be observed from table 5. At the other side, working hours, job security and co-workers are factors with lowest influence on overall job satisfaction in the case of knowledge workers (table 7). But, these are factors with the highest mean value of satisfaction which means that knowledge workers are the most satisfied with these factors. All of these suggest the conclusion that knowledge workers are the most satisfied with factors which are at least important for their overall job satisfaction, and opposite, that they are not so much satisfied with factors which are important for their overall job satisfaction. Table 8 presents the correlations between job satisfaction factors and overall job satisfaction of other employees. Table 8: Correlations between the satisfactions of each job satisfaction s factor and overall job satisfaction of other employees Factors of job satisfaction Spearman's rho α N Status Promotion Top management Training and development Supervisors Nature of job Pay Working conditions Co-workers Working hours Job security The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 7, Number 2, October, 2012

7 In the case of other employees the correlations between satisfaction of each job satisfaction factor and overall job satisfaction are positive and medium intensity. Status, promotion and top management are factors which have the strongest correlations with overall job satisfaction. Other workers are at least satisfied with promotion, pay and training and development (table 5). At the other side, job security, working hours and co-workers are factors with the lowest correlation intensity with overall job satisfaction in the case of these employees, but theirs satisfaction with these factors is very high. And finally in order to test the third research hypothesis Man Whitney Test is used. The results of this test are presented in table 9. Table 9: Man-Whitney Test Man-Whitney U Wilcoxon W Z Asymp. Sig (2-tailed) Nature of work Top management Co-workers Supervisors Promotion Pay Status Working conditions Training and development Job security Working hours From table 9 it could be perceived that there are statistically significant differences between job satisfaction factors which influence job satisfaction of knowledge workers and job satisfaction factors which influence job satisfaction of other employees. These differences have showed out in the case of 9 out of 11 observed job satisfaction factors (except nature of work and status). This confirms the third research hypothesis. CONCLUSION Research results of this paper indicate some very important conclusions about job satisfaction of knowledge workers. Firstly, job satisfaction of knowledge workers is a higher than job satisfaction of other employees. Reasons for this fact can be related to characteristics of knowledge workers jobs which are usually, comparing to other employees, more interesting and creative with promotion opportunities and higher salaries. But concerning their position in the company job satisfaction of knowledge workers differentiates. Namely, knowledge workers employed on managerial positions have a higher level of job satisfaction than knowledge workers who are not engaged on managerial positions. Furthermore, knowledge workers managers are more satisfied with all job satisfaction factors comparing to knowledge workers who are not on the managerial positions. This could be explained by many reasons such as: managerial position offers challenging tasks, autonomy, higher salaries, bonuses, benefices, perquisites etc. Analysis of satisfaction of each factor which influence on overall job satisfaction shows that there are statistically significant differences between job satisfaction factors which influence job satisfaction of knowledge workers and job satisfaction factors which influence job satisfaction of other employees. In the case of knowledge workers job security and working conditions are factors with the highest level of satisfaction, while the factors with the lowest level of satisfaction are status, pay and promotion. Status, promotion and top management are factors with the strongest influence on job satisfaction of knowledge workers. At the other side, working hours, job security and co-workers are factors with lowest influence on overall job satisfaction of knowledge workers. Regarding the other employees, they are the most satisfied with job security, nature of work, co-workers, working hours and supervisors, and they are at least satisfied with promotion. Status, promotion and top management are job satisfaction factors with the strongest influence on overall job satisfaction in the case of other employees, while job The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 7 Number 2, October,

8 security, working hours and co-workers are factors with the lowest correlation intensity with overall job satisfaction in the case of other employees, but their satisfaction with these factors is very high. So general conclusion of this paper could be that job satisfaction of knowledge workers can be enhanced by improving their status in the companies. They have to have the opportunities for taking some demanding and more responsible tasks and provide them the opportunities for promotion. Namely, the promotion is a factor with the lowest level of satisfaction but with the highest influence on job satisfaction in the case of knowledge workers as well as in the case of other employees. Therefore companies need to invest a significant effort in order to provide knowledge workers the opportunities for their confirmation, growth and development. Regarding other employees, in order to improve their job satisfaction, companies need to improve training and development of these employees which should be basis for their promotion. Also in the case of these employees a new compensation strategies should be introduced. REFERENCES Arthur, M. B., Defillippi, R. J., Lindsay, V. J. (2008). On Being a Knowledge Worker, Organizational Dynamics, 37(4), Drucker, P. (1959). Landmarks of Tomorrow: A Report on the New Post-Modern World, republished by Transaction Publishers, Drucker, P. (1999). Knowledge-worker productivity: The biggest challenge. Califronia Manangement Review, 41, Drucker, P. (2005). Upravljanje u novom društvu. Adižes, Novi Sad, 224. Henderson, R. I. (2003). Compensation Management in a Knowledge-Based World, Prentice Hall, Horwitz, F. M., Heng, C. T, Quazi, H. A. (2003). Finders, keepers? Attracting, motivating and retaining knowledge workers. Human Resource Management Journal, 13:4, Janz, B. D., Colquitt, J. A., Noe, R. A. (1997). Knowledge worker team effectiveness: The role of autonomy, interdependence, team development, and contextual support variables, Personnel Psychology, 50, Locke, E. A. (1976). The nature and causes of job satisfaction, In Dunnette, M. D., Editor. Handbook of Industrial/Organizational Psychology, McNally, Chicago, May, T. Y., Korczynski, M., Frenkel, S. J. (2002). Organizational and Occupational Commitment: Knowledge workers in large corporations. Journal of Management Studies, 39:6, Spector, P. E. (1997). Job Satisfaction, Application, Assessment, Causes, and Consequences. ATOB. Wang, Y., Zhu, Z., Cong, Q., (2009). An Analysis on the Knowledge Workers Turnover: A Psychological Contract Perspective, International Journal of Business and Management, 3 (3), Wu, J., (2009). On the Management Based on Characteristics of Knowledge Workers, Modern Applied Science, 2 (2), The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 7, Number 2, October, 2012