Job satisfaction is the most important element for any organization and its employees. If a person is satisfied with a job, he can be happy at work and can also grow rapidly in an organization.
Job satisfaction is a very subjective term. However, organizations have tried to bring objectivity to it by providing better facilities to their employees at work, and by doing things which can keep them satisfied.
Researchers and psychologists have spent years in trying to find how they can define it, what affects it, and what doesn't. It means different things to different people; this is because it has a lot of do with motivation. It is affected by different elements, which are mentioned here.
Individual Elements
This means personality, education, intellect, age, and marital status. These individual elements play an important role in achieving satisfaction in the job.
Social Elements
Social elements are all the things in the social environment of the work place, such as working relationship with colleagues, interaction, and informal association with colleagues.
Cultural Elements
These are a person's beliefs, attitude, values, and religious elements.
Organizational Elements
They are directly related to the organization like the size of organization, its structure, employee-employer relationships, management abilities, leaderships, delegation.
Environmental Elements
These are influences of the environment around workplace, like economic, social, technical, and even governmental or sometimes political influences.
All these factors, elements, or dimensions are very different for each individual and his or her perspective of job satisfaction changes accordingly. One of the best ways people have realized to get a grip on the satisfaction is by establishing the right kind of culture in their organization, which is often called corporate culture.
Use a Checklist
Many people are switching jobs at an alarming rate. Most of them are dissatisfied with their jobs and so they switch. There is a checklist that you can use to judge your satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a job.
✦ Do you believe in the company's vision and mission statement? Some people don't even read it, and so they are not in sync with it. If you are not working in tandem with the company's mission statement, quite naturally, you are on another page and hence not satisfied.
✦ Do you enjoy your job and at the same time do you feel that you are contributing to the organization? Most people do not enjoy their jobs and only do them because they need money. This is not job satisfaction. Doing something above and beyond your duty is a contribution.
✦ Do you have the scope for growth? Is your company and job giving you the chance to grow in your current position? Do you have opportunities to showcase your talent and expertise?
✦ Do you enjoy working with the people around you and your boss? Most people will answer this question with a very firm no! It is normal to dislike your boss, his/her attitude, and some colleagues, but it cannot be normal to dislike every single person you work with.
✦ Do you think you are being paid what you deserve? There is a fine line between being paid according your expectations and being paid according to your worth. If you feel you are being exploited for the amount of work you are doing, then you are not satisfied with your job.