What influences on job satisfaction

Many times in business, companies look at what they are making instead of worrying about how their employees feel. When this happens an employee may not feel needed within the company and will not be satisfied with their job. Often times this will cause an employee to slack on their job until they feel a sense of satisfaction. Since this is the case this paper will focus on two areas that can improve job satisfaction in the work force. The research question for this study is “ Does the implementation of organizational behavior modification and ethics environment lead to improved job satisfaction?”

The data for this study were received from 144 surveys in which the Business Analytics class at Southern Arkansas University was responsible for providing. Responses to the survey were from managers, attorneys, bank tellers, cashiers, and instructors just to name a few. The surveys were only done once and there was no follow up surveys. The survey included many questions that would help determine our sample. The survey also included many measurement scales in which I am only going to look at organizational behavior modification (OBM), ethics environment (ETH), and job satisfaction (JS). Each question could be scored on a scale from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). The validity and reliability was checked for the scales. The variables, correlations, and statistics were all computed. A path analysis was also completed.

In the following section, a theoretical model will be presented and will be theoretically and empirically justified through a review of literature and the discussions of hypotheses incorporated in the model. Following the literature review there will be discussion of the methodology used in the study along with the defining the process used to analyze the data set. The next section will be the results section which provides the results from each test. The last section is the conclusion which will incorporate the findings of the study and provide recommendations for future studies.

Literature Review

Below there will be a brief discussion about the model, descriptions about each of the constructs within the model, and support for each of the hypotheses incorporated in the model. Figure 1 shows the path model used for this study; how OBM relates to ETH, how ETH relates to JS, and how OBM relates to JS.

Organizational Behavior Modification

Organizational behavior modification is “ a process where managers reinforce employee’ actions that lead to accomplishment of the organization’s objectives primarily by providing positive reinforcement.” (Medlin et al., 1046) Organizational behavior modification is best achieved after the employees know exactly what is expected of them. According to Scott et al. “ the basic principle of behavior modification is that a behavior that is followed by a favorable is likely to be repeated. Rewards do shape behavior, but how rewards are used can make the difference between success or failure.”

Ethics Environment

Ethics is defined as “ examining one’s moral life and contributes to an understanding of what ought to be done” and environment is defined as “ the social system…and organization in which [industry] takes place” (Hough et al., 46). This means that ethics environment can now mean an understanding of what ought to be done in the social system. A lot of times ethics changes from place to place. It is important for managers to set the ethics environment rather than assuming that all of the employees will know the ethics expected in the work place.

Job Satisfaction

“ Positive satisfaction is an overall feeling of well-being and acceptance concerning one’s cumulative attitudes or feelings about the job. Job satisfaction is a construct with multiple foci or contexts and includes both organizational and social aspects of the task” (Medlin et al., 1046). “ A worker that is satisfied enough by its job, enjoys life, displays positive actions, has a healthy psychology and is valued as an individual having a growing success in business and private life. On the other hand, a worker that does not get enough satisfaction by its job experiences negative feelings, tends to move away from its job, is indifferent towards its job and is valued as an individual that bears hopeless thoughts about the future” (Basol, 105). It is very important for an employee to be satisfied at the job in order for them to work harder for the company. Once an employee gets unsatisfied with their job they will start to slack and not really care about the company.

Hypotheses

The theoretical model incorporates three hypotheses. Each of the hypotheses is theorized to be positive and direct. OBM is hypothesized as positively impacting ETH and JS and ETH as positively impacting JS.

Organizational behavior modification is a process of positive reinforcement used in the workplace which will then lead to accomplishments of the organizations objectives. Ethics environment is what should be done within the organization. If a manager positively reinforces good ethics the employees within the organization will better understand the ethics environment.

OBM directly and positively affects ETH

Ethics environment is what should be done within the organization. Job satisfaction is how the employee feels while in the workplace. If there is a set ethics environment that all or most of the employees can agree on, then they will have job satisfaction.

ETH directly and positively affects JS

Organizational behavior modification is a process of positive reinforcement used in the workplace which will then lead to accomplishments of the organizations objectives. Job satisfaction is how the employee feels while in the workplace. If there is positive reinforcement within the work place employees are more likely to feel satisfied in the work place.

OBM directly and positively affects JS

Methodology

The scales that were used in this study have all been used in previous research. There are 14 total measured items that was collected for this study. The organizational behavior modification scale was taken from Medlin et al. (2016). The job satisfaction scale was revised from Smith et al., (1969). The ethics environment scale was taken from McDaniel (1977). The respondents could choose and answer ranging from 1 strongly disagree to 7 strongly agree. They also had the option to leave the question blank. The scales can be seen in Appendix A.

This paper will highlight the validity and reliability of the scales. The variables were computed and the statistics and correlations were computed. A path analysis was completed and direct and indirect effects were determined.

Results

The data for this study were received from 144 surveys in which the Business Analytics class at Southern Arkansas University was responsible for providing. Of the 144 full time employees 37. 5% of the employees got paid hourly, 61. 1% of the employees got paid salary, and 1. 4% were paid commission. The average number of years worked between the respondents is 7. 31 years. This sample represents a diverse group of full-time employees.

Validity and Reliability

Since the scales have been used in other studies we can assume that they have face validity. Figure 2 is the Rotated Factor Matrix. Each of the scales should have their own factor. In order each of the scales to have their own factor I have to take out JS1 and JS2. After taking those two out we can see that there is convergent and discriminative validity.

Figure 2 Rotated Factor Matrixa

Factor

1 2 3

. 329 . 750 . 227

. 286 . 746 . 263

. 223 . 922 . 188

. 236 . 915 . 222

. 207 . 255 . 799

. 253 . 185 . 844

. 318 . 265 . 703

. 774 . 307 . 277

. 751 . 260 . 226

. 769 . 187 . 296

. 753 . 207 . 186

. 876 . 260 . 158

Extraction Method: Maximum Likelihood.

Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.

a. Rotation converged in 5 iterations.

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach’s Alpha is used to check the reliability of the scales. If the Cronbach’s alpha is above . 70 then the scale is reliable. The Cronbach’s Alpha of OBM is . 950 so the scale is reliable. The Cronbach’s Alpha of JS is . 888 so the scale is reliable. The Cronbach’s Alpha of ETH is . 932 so the scale is reliable.

Figure 3 Reliabity Statistics

OBM JS ETH

Cronbach’s Alpha N of Items Cronbach’s Alpha N of Items Cronbach’s Alpha N of Items

. 950 4 . 888 3 . 932 5

Descriptive Statistics

Figure 4

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Skewness Kurtosis

Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Std. Error Statistic Std. Error

OBM 142 1. 00 7. 00 5. 0458 1. 53667 -. 718 . 203 -. 119 . 404

JS 144 1. 00 7. 00 4. 8681 1. 59555 -. 603 . 202 -. 391 . 401

ETH 144 1. 40 7. 00 5. 6757 1. 36373 -1. 228 . 202 1. 009 . 401

All of the items are between the minimum of 1. 00 and the maximum of 7. 00. The skewness and kurtosis should be between -2 and 2, Since all of the items are between -2 and 2 all of them are evenly distributed.

Correlation Matrix

In figure 5, we see the correlations between all three of the survey items. The correlation between OBM and ETH is . 569** it has a strong positive relationship and it is significant at the . 01 level. The correlation between OBM and JS is . 543** it has a strong positive relationship and is significant at the . 01 level. The correlation between JS and ETH is . 554** it has a strong positive relationship and is significant at the . 01 level.

Figure 5 – Correlations

OBM ETH JS

OBM Pearson Correlation 1 . 569** . 543**

Sig. (2-tailed) . 000 . 000

N 142 142 142

ETH Pearson Correlation . 569** 1 . 554**

Sig. (2-tailed) . 000 . 000

N 142 144 144

JS Pearson Correlation . 543** . 554** 1

Sig. (2-tailed) . 000 . 000

N 142 144 144

Regression

OBM directly and positively effects ETH with a beta of . 569 that is significant at the . 01 level. OBM explains 32. 4% of the variation of ETH. ETH directly and positively JS with a beta of . 358 that is significant at the . 01 level. OBM directly and positively impacts JS with a beta of . 340 that is significant at the . 01 level. OBM and ETH combine to explain 38. 2% of the variation in JS.

Path Analysis

All of the hypotheses are supported through the path analysis. H1 is OBM directly and positively affects ETH. This is supported by a beta of . 569 that is significant at the . 01 level. H2 is ETH directly and positively affects JS. This is supported by a beta of . 358 that is significant at the . 01 level. H3 is OBM directly and positively affects JS. This is supported by a beta of . 340 that is significant at the . 01 level. OBM also indirectly affects JS through ETH. The betas are . 569 and . 358 both of which are significant at the . 01 level. This is also proven to be true through the Sobel test with a P-value of . 00006721.

Conclusion

After all of the analyses I can support that JS is positively influenced by OBM and ETH. All of the study variables have a positive correlation. Since this is proven to be true it can be said that OBM and ETH does combine to positively influence JS. This is proven by the R2 shown in Figure 6. The R2 is . 382 so OBM and ETH combine to explain 38. 2% of JS. OBM and ETH directly impacts JS but OBM also indirectly impacts JS through ETH.

It is best for managers to implement OBM before implementing ETH because OBM reinforces employee actions that will lead to organization success through positive reinforcement. Employees like to hear that they did a good job. ETH is an understanding of what ought to be done. After the organization has good OBM, ETH should be understood because the employees will know more of what is to be expected of them. After these are both implemented JS will be positively affected because the employees will know what is expected of them rather than having to try and guess what is expected of them.