The Effect of Employee Job Satisfaction

The Effect of Employee Job Satisfaction Study Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of job stress on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The author studied some of the definitions and the sources of job stress and he mentioned some of the stress related illness; he also examined the types and factors of organizational commitment. The research question of the paper is what is the effect of job stress on employees job satisfaction and organizational commitment? Keywords: job stress, job satisfaction and organizational commitment Introduction The main purpose of the paper is to examine the job stress and its effect on job satisfaction of the employees and organizational commitment and thus on the organization as a whole. Stress, which have a huge effect on job fulfillment that subsequently affect the job performance, is considered a natural division of each and every occupation. Lately, researchers suggest that when the work nature alters the employees welfare is affected. These days, Job stress considers a very important issue because of its unavoidable outcome in any organization as a result of the current life difficulties (Singh, 2009: 255). Also Ziauddin et al (2010: 618) stated that in our society stress is being inevitable; and in order to avoid it, recognition and acceptance can ease its consequences and effects. As job stress will affect organizational commitment, and this will directly lead to the execution of employees and will also affect the firms performance. Thats why organizations have to reduce the stress on its employees. Another important topic in organizational research is organizational commitment. It can be used in the understanding of employees behaviour in the workplace. Organizational commitment imitates the degree to which employees identify with an organization and are loyal to its goals. Meta-analysis studies revealed a strong positive relationship between organizational commitment and job satisfaction (Tett and Meyer, 1993). On the other hand, some studies found that 38 percent only of employees experience a long-term commitment to their workplace. However organizations with highly committed employees will have a higher productivity than an organization with a non committed employees (YUSOB, 1999) The three variables, job stress, job satisfaction and commitment to the organization are grapping the attention of the organizational behavior research, these organizational behaviors directly and strongly affect the general performance of any institution. (Chen, Silverthorne, Hung, 2005:243). One of the most raising problems is job stress that consequences in significant costs to workers and the work association around the globe, and it is the main reason for employees job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Khatibi, Asadi and Hamidi, 2009:272). Some limitations and gaps have been found. Most of the studies on job stress focused only on the effect of job stress on job satisfaction or organizational commitment or even on the organization performance. For example; Sullivan Bahgat (1992) investigate the relation between the organizational stress with job satisfaction and performance .Fairbrother and Warn (2003) applied a research to examine the strong relation between stress, dimensions of workplace and job satisfaction. Chen, Silverthorne Hung (2006) studied the effect of commitment and organizational communication on job stress and job performance. Khatibi, Asadi Hamidi (2009) examined the connection between job stress and organizational commitment in National Olympic and Paralympic Academy (NOPA) employees. But they didnt specify any sectors, like the labor productivity in Egypt or in any other countries. So the Research Question of the Research Gap is what is the effect of job stress on job satisfaction and organizationa l commitment on Egyptian labor? The research question of the paper is What is the effect of job stress on job satisfaction and organizational commitment? since job stress these days is inevitable effect in any corporation because of the current life difficulties, and it might affect employees job satisfaction and organizational commitment, which may lead to the termination of employees and this will have a ruthless impact on the organization performance which will affect the organization as a whole. The paper is consisted of four main segments. The first segment is an overview on job stress; its definition, sources and levels. The second segment is an overview on job satisfaction; definition, variables and importance. The third segment is an overview on organizational commitment; definition, types and factors affecting it. The last segment will examine the impact of job stress on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Then finally the methodology will be discussed followed by the conclusion. Literature Review Overview on job stress The job stress is indirectly proportional with the organizational commitment and the job performance , whenever the employee is more committed to the organization , the job stress will decrease, thus the job performance will increase and vice versa. . (Chen, Silverthorne, Hung, 2005:243), a raising problem of handling stress at work is being faced by personals and their institutions however, they are vulnerable because they need to understand the nature of their job-related stress (Williams, Cooper, 1998:306). One risk that should grab the attention of managers and they should be responsive to negative factors such as job stress that have a negative effects on employees health and as a result it has a unconstructive effect on job satisfaction and job performance. (Hamidi and Eivazi, 2010:964). Definition of job stress According to Hamidi and Eivazi (2010: 964) work stress is defined as the condition where some features or a group of characteristics that disturb the employee on his/her physical, mental, or societal homeostasis. Furthermore, Williams, Cooper (1998: 307) acknowledged that job Stress, which can be measured by some various measures such as mental physical condition, nervousness, and job satisfaction, is a complicated, multivariate process. Also (Lee Shin: 2005, 100) agreed that job stress is the condition of sentimental fatigue and sarcasm that happens repeatedly between entities who do people work (Lee Shin: 2005, 100). Sources of job stress In the workplace there are many reasons for employees job stress; one of the main reasons is the work overload, employees stay at the organization for a lot of time working to handle their jobs on their deadlines. While executives pay no attention for the stress and moreover they inquire more work from employee to do (Shahu and Gole, 2008: 238) In our life there are many important parts; job life is one of those parts. It causes different types of stress. Competitive nature of the jobs leads employees to be more worried and spend more time in their work; this considered a reason for stress. Generally employees are more anxious about their results and outcomes in their work, this way influence their treatments with people and with their customers as well. As the paper showed before stress is concerned with environmental conditions which invented to present the demand that frightens to exceed the persons abilities. Stress leads a negative impact to the organization, so the employees and their boss should understand the causes or the sources of stress (Abdullah and ahsan 2009: 121-122). There are different variables that have major effect on job stress. Those variables are role ambiguity, role conflict, work overload, and job-induced anxiety. Role conflict and role ambiguity are related to organizational and individual consequences. Role ambiguity is a degree that obvious data is lacking concerning three steps. The first step is the probabilities related to a role. The second step is the techniques used to accomplish role expectations and probabilities. The third step is the role performance outcomes. Role ambiguity may be caused by unstable expectations and probabilities. Role conflict happened when a person meets the immediate incidence of role requirements where personal performance prevents the others performance. Work overload shows too much work and responsibilities that exceed persons ability. Job-induced anxiety is the degree that individuals know how the indication and signs of worry about their work position and circumstances (Li and Shani 1991: 108-109). Job stress is a result of organizational portions, working for long hours, lack of organizational support and organizational change. Lack of support from supervisors and colleagues, and conflict with demands and pressures can lead to increasing job stress. There are other sources of job stress, insufficient staffing, and long working hours. Responsibility schedules which are in conflict with time for family, projectile field responsibility, deployments, threat of military disciplines, problem with supervisors and a wide diversity of other job related matters and problems. Work overload, work design, job qualifications, job performance and organizational structure are indicators of job stress. This study also added other sources of job stress which are work dimension factors which include lack of clearness of the work role, and disturbance of personal life and every day routines (Bokti and Abu Talib 2009: 301). There are three different influences that have great impact on creating stress. The first influence is personal influence; it confirmed that the feature of the marital relationship will arbitrate the effects of job insecurity (Wilson and Larson 1993: 74). Low wages or salaries, bad environment in work such as low social support and high workload, and high level of stress, those are factors that make employees leave their work and positions. While, getting recognition in the workplace was one of the reasons that make employees to continue in their jobs (Abualrub and Al-Zaru 2008: 228). Work overload related to the amount of stress practiced by people because of the awareness which they are can not deal with the quantity and the amount of required work allocated to them. People are expected to practice strain when they are expected to work hard and do more than the available time that allow them to do. Another source of job stress is lack of autonomy. This source is related to the insight of the control of decision making. This is because of the limitations of job or the workplace. The person is expected to experience stress when there is interdependence between the tasks of individual and the tasks of other people. There are other different sources of stress; broken or poor relationships with work colleagues will leas to high levels of stress. Unfair management will consider a potential source of stress. The jobs basic nature could be a source of stress. This study confirmed that lack of challenging and meaningful tasks, physical working circumstances is considered aspects of the job that may increase stress (Coetzee and Villiers 2010:30). Job stress is an adaptive reply happening in the workplace. Its reply is mediated by the characteristics of individuals and mediated by the psychological processes. In many occupational situations are now usually identified in educational situations. A lot of top stressors associated positively to the limitations of time. Time pressures, work overload and interpersonal relationships were major stressors among universitys staff. Conflict happens among teaching; scholarship and the responsibility of service were highly ranked as stressful condition. Job stress increases with greater public service expectations included faculty members rank, type of institution and gender (Thorsen 1996:474). Universitys teachers stress related to phenomena as poor physical comfort, mental ill-health and intention to leave. Teaching is considered as a demanding profession. There is bad impact of job stress between teachers on their well being and the behavior of work. Stress between universitys teachers leads to burnout. University teachers who practice and understand higher demands on their attention, energy, and time than others, whereas getting fewer prizes and recompenses, they become estranged from their work lives (Taris and Schreurs 2001: 284). Job stress should be at a suitable level, job stress has a negative effect on job performance of university teachers. Pressure of universitys teacher resulted from big competition, role conflict and the expectation of job which introduced in the system of education. This caused problems in professional behavior and job burnout (Cai-feng 2010: 130). He and Li (2000: 254) mentioned in their study that stress has sources, those sources are Social Environment, Family Condit, and workplace culture and atmosphere. Those sources lead to a response from individual, and then it causes job stress symptoms.Job efforts could be considered as stressor, it placed depend on the workplace and the deadlines of meetings. Job efforts have a direct relation with stress in the workplace, when it increases stress level increases also and vise versa. Job reward which is the real wages, categorized into three different mechanisms. The three mechanisms are personal financial need, personal social need, and finally personal esteem on and off the work environment. Job reward has a negative relationship with job stress (Rehman and Khan 2010:43). Levels of job stress The qualified difference between the requirement of the environment and the abilities of the individual is what stress means. Job stressor factor is divided into three main sectors. The first one is individual factor; second one is job factor or group factor and finally organizational factor. Job factors and specific job responsibilities structure the job, the ecological work factors and those factors that is associated to work plan comprise some variables, such as; job duties diversity, job difficulty, temperature, noise, and the level autonomy and control that workers have on their technique and speed on their job (Khatibi, Asadi and Hamidi, 2009:272). Individual level Some studies have been found that individuals stressors are the most important level than other levels. Several individual stressors are; the lack of social support, Individuals stressor factors have been studied more than other levels: role conflict, role ambiguity, volume overload of work, embarrassment changes, the quality of interpersonal relationships, lack of social support and personality type. Those stressor factors that are attributed to organizational factors are cultural and management practicing within the organization, non-participation in decision making, inappropriate and inadequate communication, totalitarian leadership style, organizational policies, insufficient opportunities for advancement, lack of job security which play a role in making stress. Job stress with any model needs the signs to recognize. (Khatibi, Asadi and Hamidi, 2009:272). There are three different influences that have great impact on creating stress. The first influence is personal influence; it confirmed that the feature of the marital relationship will arbitrate the effects of job insecurity (Wilson and Larson 1993: 74). Low wages or salaries, bad environment in work such as low social support and high workload, and high level of stress, those are factors that make employees leave their work and positions. While, getting recognition in the workplace was one of the reasons that make employees to continue in their jobs (Abualrub and Al-Zaru 2008: 228). Group level Organizational level The person environment fit model concerns with two main variables. The two variables are the individual characteristics of the worker and the organizational qualities of the work environment. In this Model, job stress is supposed to arise from an oddity between the environment and the person. This model showed the inconsistency in fit is a stressor. Unresolved issues will lead to psychological and physiological strain and strain is any psychological or physiological variation from what is usual for the person. Bad person environment fit could create a high risk to the employees (Blix and Lee 1991: 290). Stress-related illnesses A considerable relationship between level of peoples stress and repulsive reaction has been found in some therapeutic researches, such as; mental distress, sleep disorders and heart disease which may lead to the increase in the rate of absenteeism and that affect the employees job performance and as a result the organization in general will be affected. (Hamidi and Eivazi, 2010:964). Overview on Job satisfaction Baker College (2004:31-32) stated that the affective reaction to the job satisfaction is reflected by the constructive emotional condition, that defines the term job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is accompanied with two effects either absenteeism or turnover. Job satisfaction is considered a perfect predictor of employee absenteeism or turnover. Definition of job satisfaction Job satisfaction defined by Lambert (2004, p.210) as the amount of which the workers like their job. While Lambert, Barton, and Hogan (1999, p.97) defined job satisfaction as the gratification of peoples need that linked to their work. Camp (1994) and Lambert (2004) mentioned that employees job satisfaction can be measured by the satisfaction from pay, promotion, work, supervision, and coworkers. On the other hand Glisson Durick (1988) mentioned that job satisfaction is attached to another five additional measurements which are; task significance, skill variety, task identity, independence, and feedback. Sources of job satisfaction Some paraphernalia may cause the employees satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The major factors that encourage and satisfy them are wages, chances, raises, bonuses, working hours, environment, communication and relationship with their peers and supervisors. In addition to the availability of resources needed to achieve their jobs and tasks, one more thing is the involvement in the decision making process (Adeyemo, 2007: 325). Researches agreed that culture, race, education, age, residence and relatives can affect employees job satisfaction. For example; the groups of workers who didnt complete their education or even didnt graduate from a high school are more likely to be very satisfied from those who graduate, also the younger employees or workers are least likely to be fulfilled than the older ones. African Americans workers are more likely to be satisfied than Hispanic workers. Also there are some other sources that may affect job satisfaction negatively or positively like for example; the employees that dont show their emotions are more likely to be very fulfilled with each and every increase in the emotional control. On the other hand, employees that come across violence from customers or the members of the family are less likely to be much fulfilled with each and every increase of the abuse occurrences (Delp et al, 2010:929). Monetary limitations that boundary the contact with health care can significantly reduce job fulfillment. There are three main reasons that illuminate the impact of meeting of the physicians. Firstly, the insufficient health aids that dont protect all workers or all costs. Secondly, there is no sick leave that requires workers to sacrifice their salaries when they miss their work for health arrangements. Finally, there are no support respite care workers which will force them to choose between disregard their own health requirements or leaving consumers and caring for themselves (Delp et al, 2010:933-934). Importance of job satisfaction Job satisfaction is a must in any organization, since employees with low level of job satisfaction create a lot of unwanted and adverse behaviors within the organization; like for example wasting the organization working hours doing some personal duties, emotional and actual retirements from their jobs, and other changes that change the work environment (Camp, 1994) in (Getahun, Sims Hummer: 1). Some other negative results is related with low level of job satisfaction such as the early withdrawals, absenteeism and attendance problems, and the absence of involvement in job tasks. Overview on organizational commitment Many researchers concentrated on the association between employees job satisfaction and organizational commitment. They showed that job role encounter and uncertainty have no effect on the organizational commitment in law, but they revealed the presence of the positive relationship between organizational commitment and leader provision, group cohesiveness and promotion chances (Jaramillo, Nixon Sams, 2005). Definition of organizational commitment Organization commitment and job commitment have been studied (Koslowsky, 1990: 167-168). Organization commitment can be simply defined as the level at which the employee attracted to the organization while job commitment is the level at which the employee attracted to the job (Bashaw; Grant 1994: 43). Job commitment describes how people feel towards their duties and tasks. One can be committed to the organization without being committed to his job and vice versa (Freund; Zahavy, 2007: 322). Workers can be more satisfied with their jobs and loyal to their organization by raising their empowerment as a result they will improve their performance as well as the organizations performance (Gallie et al, 2009: 2). Types of organizational commitment There are three types of organizational commitment; affective, continuous, and normative. In the words of Allen and Meyer (1990: 3) employees with strong affective commitment remain because they want to, those with strong continuance commitment because they need to, and those with strong normative commitment because they feel they ought to do so. Affective commitment According to (Solinger, Olffen Roe, 2008: 72) affective commitment was defined as the sentimental link between the employee and the organization, in which the employee is attached to the company; it also comprises employees involvement in the organization as well as their identification with it. Affective commitment represents satisfied and pleased feelings of employees towards their jobs. Indeed affective commitment can be described as the willingness of the employee to stay in the organization because he wants to as said by Allen and Meyer (1990: 3). Also (Turner Chelladurai, 2005:195) agreed that affective commitment imitates an emotional affection to the organization as an objective not to the action of staying or leaving the organization. Consequently, affective commitment greatest prognosticator is the emotional agreeable involvement of work. Continuance commitment Continuous commitment was defined by (Solinger, Olffen Roe, 2008: 72) as the supplementary cost paid by the employee after leaving the company, this resembles with the utilitarian outcomes that consists of penalties and rewards that are supposed to follow from engaging in the behaviour (Eagly Chaiken, 1993: 209). Continuous commitment is the attitude toward a behaviour not headed for the organization. It reveals the deliberation of outcomes of action whether to remain or leave in the organization. In other words as Meyer Allen (1990) that employee with a strong continuous commitment remain in the organization because he needs to. Normative commitment Normative commitment is the state of the employee where he feels responsible to stay in the organization (Solinger, Olffen Roe, 2008: 72). Normative outcomes concern to approval or disapproval that significant others are expected to express after performing the behaviour as well as the self-administered rewards (pride) and punishments (guilt) that follow from internalized moral rules (Solinger, Olffen Roe, 2008: 72) In fact employees that are characterized by normative commitment feel that they should stay in the organization and that they have to carry on their work. Normative commitment is a value where similarity between employees and organizational values might take place. (Turner Chelladurai, 2005:195) Factors affect organizational commitment Chen, Silverthorne Hung (2005) mentioned that not only the job stress that affects the level of organizational commitment but also organizational communication has a substantial and affirmative relationship with organizational commitment. They also found that organizational intervention and personal predisposition can influence organizational commitment. Organizational intervention Personal predisposition Importance of organizational commitment One of the key factors that affect productivity is organizational commitment that increases the performance that leads to a higher productivity as well as the employees are loyal and committed to their jobs in addition to job satisfaction. Therefore organizational commitment leads to the job satisfaction and motivation which affect productivity (Eaton, 2003: 148). (Gallie et al 2009) also believed that workers who are highly committed to their organizations can increase their results because they will be more likely to work hard, they may also decrease their absence as for example in Google organization people are less likely to be absent because they are highly committed to their jobs and organizations and they may not leave their jobs. In contrast employees who have no other choices rather than staying in the organization may have a negative effect on productivity as he is not committed to his organization or to his job in addition he may affect his other employees resulting in fewer outcomes (Eaton, 2003: 148). The impact of job stress on job satisfaction and organizational commitment Many researchers found that in one hand, job stress is indirectly proportional with job satisfaction. On the other hand, they found that between organizational commitment and job satisfaction positive relationship. As a result, it is rational to have a negative relationship between job stress and organizational commitment (Khatibi, Asadi and Hamidi, 2009:273). Low organizational commitment Many researchers concluded in their researches that there is a significant relationship between job stress and the whole organizational commitment. Extra investigation displays that there is also a relationship between the affective and continuous commitment with job stress but they didnt find any clear link between job stress and normative commitment (Ziauddin et al, 2010: 617). While Somers on the other hand stated that there is a relationship between affective and normative commitment with job stress, but no clear link between continuous commitment and job stress. Also Khatibi, Asadi Hamidi (2009: 272) agreed with Somers that there is a negative significant relationship between job stress and organizational commitment, affective commitment and normative commitment, but there was not a significant relationship between job stress and continuance commitment. Lee et al stated that there is an adverse relation between job stress and organizational commitment, while wells et al (2009) on the other hand revealed in his study that there is a positive relationship between job stress and organizational commitment and an adverse relationship between job stress and job commitment. Yaghoubi et al disagreed with all these relations and declared that there is no significant relationship between organizational commitment and job stress, he then added that it is important for any organization to have healthy and committed employees as well as sport organizations as ther are not exceptions. Job dissatisfaction and termination of employee In the short run, job stress will reduce job satisfaction that results in decreasing the rate of absences of the employees. Absenteeism is the reaction of the employees towards the feeling of being dissatisfied. While in the long run, being dissatisfied will have a huge result in increasing the rate of turnover. On the other hand, some employees may not leave the company as they buildup financial interest which will be so difficult for them to quit the job and these financial interests may include wages, encouragements and it might be the only return to the employees family (Baker College, 2004:36). So whenever the employees are satisfied and committed to the organization they will have a lower tendency to leave it (Ziauddin, 2010:618). Stress affect organizational outcome Some researchers discovered that the previous and the significance of the lower job stress leads to a higher job satisfaction and higher organizational commitment, since it will give them the feeling that the job met expectations (Moncrief et al, 1996) they also added that employees will have a lower tendency to leave the organization when they are highly satisfied and committed to the organization. (Elangovan, 2001) indicates that there are durable fundamental relations between job stress and satisfaction (where the higher the job stress the lower the job satisfaction), and between job satisfaction and organizational commitment (the lower the job satisfaction the lower the organizational commitment). He also stated that there is a mutual association between organizational commitment and turnover goals (lower organizational commitment leads to a great intention to quit). Stress is linked with some negative effects in the workplace some of them are the lack of interest for work, organization, and colleagues. It also includes absence of creativity, loss of duties, reduced effectiveness, increased inflexibility of thinking, and decreased the ability of performing (Fairbrother and Warn, 2003: 9). Job stress is related with significant occupational consequences of job satisfaction, organizational commitment and the withdrawal behaviour of the employees (Sullivan Bhagat, 1992). Organizational commitment and job satisfaction regularly report an adverse relationship with the intent to leave and turnover (Hollenbeck and Williams, 1986). According to Fairbrother and Warn (2003: 9) they stated that organizational commitment and job satisfaction have repeatedly negative relationship to intent to quit and leave the organization, since high level of job stress most of the time connected to the low level of commitment and satisfaction. The major predictive effect of dissatisfaction is job stress and it will have a great tendency to leave the organization (Landsbergis, 1988; Terry et al., 1993) Methodology In order to test the mentioned hypotheses, a quantitative method should be applied which includes questionnaires and interviews. Since we are aiming to examine the effect of job stress on job satisfaction and organizational commitment, a questionnaire will be a valid tool to draw statistical conclusions. The questionnaire will be distributed in two private manufactories one for clothing while the other one for paper and cardboards. Thus a structured face-to-face questionnaire is needed where the interviewer presents the items orally in order to clarify the main purpose of the study and the meaning of the questions, because most of labors are illiterate. The sample of the study will consist of two hundred Egyptian employees working in private manufactories in Egypt, specifically in Cairo for convenience. We chose private manufactories due to the easy access to them in order to distribute the questionnaire, because it will be much more difficult to distribute the questionnaire in public organizations or