The Job Satisfaction of District Officers

Abstract

Organizations expect involvement and commitment from their workforce to create esprit de corps for the realization of corporate as well as individual objectives. However, worker’s attitude (involvement and commitment) depends on his/her satisfaction from different aspects of the organization as related to the employees. Employee’s satisfaction or ‘Job Satisfaction’ therefore determines the degree to which a worker will be involved in and committed to any job/work. Several organizational dimensions have been identified as the predictors of job satisfaction but pay, work, supervision, promotion, work environment and co-workers are widely researched independent variables that have been studied over and over again (job-related factors). In the background of these instant variables, organizational structure, policies and broader social context play dominant role in the variation of job satisfaction (organization related variables). Finally, the personal characteristics of employees are also responsible to explain the job satisfaction of the workers in any organization (personal features). Job satisfaction is the degree of match and mismatch between whatever is expected by the employee from the organization and what he/she gets in reality. The worker expectations are the motivators which, if fulfilled, motivate the employee to get involved and show commitment. Thus, what motivates a worker is the predictor of his job satisfaction. According to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, job satisfaction of those employees who need to meet their primary needs depends on the fulfillment of primary motives. And those at the higher levels of motivation can be satisfied only when their8/193 higher level motives like status, recognition, and self-actualization are addressed by the organization. For example, workers with high level motives cannot be motivated or satisfied with the fulfillment of low level needs. One who needs high profile status cannot feel happy (neither motivated nor satisfied) with an increase in pay only. Although job, organization and person related variables are universal in their existence as predictors of job satisfaction however, they all ‘read’ differently from person to person, job to job, organization to organization and location to location. The same factors operate in every study of job satisfaction but their impact on workers’ contentment and performance vary significantly in multiple manners. Given this, neither the same explanation/definition can portray all the situations nor the single solution model can be implemented everywhere. There is need to understand every individual organizational situation separately in terms of job, organization and person related factors. These factors hold unique attributes in every employee and work situation and must be tapped by the researchers so that a ‘local’ definition of ‘job satisfaction’ could be developed to figure out a ‘domesticated solution’ for addressing satisfaction problems. A huge research is going on to explore the issue of job satisfaction of top management or executives, managers, supervisors, and the staff in different countries, organizations and situations. The findings from developed and developing nations match in several aspects but they also differ in many dimensions. For example, in advanced countries, high level motivation factors are more responsible for job satisfaction than in the developing states9/193 where job satisfaction still depends more heavily on the primary and middle level of factors of motivation. To cut short, the understanding of ‘job satisfaction’ as an issue for developing countries (in public or private sector organizations) is only possible if local research is conducted to record the nature, intensity and variety of job, organization and employee related characteristics. This local knowledge can give real touch of the ‘native problem’ thereby enabling the concerned researchers and authorities to sort out a real picture of the problem. Furthermore, the localized version of the problem is only logical option for devising a solution that is compatible with the local work attitudes and environment. The research shows that there is big variation between the job satisfaction of public and private sector employees with common belief that public sector employees are less satisfied than those working in private organizations. Similarly, job satisfaction varies within public organizations across different departments. Abdul Sattar Khan PhD scholar in Management Studies Department of Public Administration, GU, DIK, KPK, Pakistan