Emotions and Job Satisfaction

Written By: Leanne Schnurer

    When it comes to job satisfaction in the work place, everyone has different motivators that help improve their performance levels. According to the Value-Percept Theory of Job Satisfaction, the big motivators that contribute to overall job satisfaction, and therefore more effective performance, are as follows: pay, promotion, supervision and coworker satisfaction, and being satisfied with the work itself. These are the basic outlines of concepts that can play into overall job satisfaction. A key variable that can affect all of these pieces of the puzzle, however, are our moods and emotions. Drastic changes in mood can especially affect the satisfaction with the work itself. This is because a bad mood can affect someone's motivation to work, therefore their performance can hinder, or they may just simply not care about the job at all because they feel, at that moment, the job is irrelevant.

    In a report on motivation in the workplace, written by J. Richard Hackman and Greg R. Oldman, they focus on the different theories of work redesign that focus on improving not only productivity in the work place, but the quality of the overall work experience for employees as well. One of the theories they address is William E. Scott's ideas on the Activation Theory. In general, the activation theory states that we need a certain level of mental arousal in order to motivate ourselves to reach our goals and do good work and be able to function effectively in all aspects of life. Getting back to Hackman and Oldham's report, they point out how Scott focused on stating how the activation theory could be applied to the work environment because it can help in understanding how to improve jobs that are under stimulating and repetitive or jobs that may be over stimulating.

    One of the big challenges with this theory is that everyone has different "optimal levels" to which they can achieve this mental arousal. This is because everyone has different emotional and psychological reactions to different stimuli. In order to affectively use the activation theory to help improve motivation in the work place, HR departments would have to take into affect what stimuli will have the best effect on each individual worker. For example, to help add variety to repetitive tasks on assembly lines, managers could have employees rotate what task they have every so often and give them a new challenge. However, if the manager notices that a specific employee doesn't have a good psychological or motivational reaction to this change. They then must figure out what exactly they can do to help make the quality of work better for that specific employee.

    A key hurdle when it comes to motivating employees is any outside sources they may be affecting their overall attitude.  If an employee is having an off day, that may lead them to being dissatisfied with work in general that day, whether it be focused toward coworkers or the work itself. For example, if an employee got a bill in the mail before they got to work that day, they could be in a bad mood for that day because that event stimulated a negative emotion. This could lead to them not caring about their quality of work that day and just wanting to do what they have to until they can finally leave. Having a bad day once in awhile where emotions can throw our work off track isn't that much of an ordeal, however, it becomes a problem when this becomes a daily occurrence. For example, if someone were to unfortunately have a death in the family, these negative emotions could haunt them and effect their motivation in the workplace for an extended period of time. These outside sources would be hard for an HR department to keep control of to ensure poor moods do not affect performance. The best companies can do is to make sure that the workplace, quality of work, other employees, and other job satisfaction elements, provide a sound work environment because at least these types of emotional stimuli are in their control.

    According to Cynthia Fisher's publication on moods and job satisfaction, "Job satisfaction is an attitude. Attitudes are usually described as containing at least two components: an affective (emotional, feeling) component, and a cognitive (belief, judgment, comparison) component." This statement sums up exactly why moods and emotions are so key to job satisfaction. A worker can have the "perfect" pay, coworkers, supervision, and promotional opportunity, but if they do not feel any kind of positive feelings relating the work itself, then how can they have a good attitude about their work? Without a good attitude, how will they stay motivated? If they are not motivated, how will they excel in their job performance? To conclude, if employees experience positive emotions during work, or relating to work, they will generally have a good attitude in the workplace. As previously stated, this attitude is directly related to job satisfaction, because job satisfaction is in fact a personal attitude or feeling. If an employee feels they have value fulfillment and overall job satisfaction, they will then generally perform to their greatest capability because this fulfillment can stimulate a positive emotion.

References:

-- Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1976). Motivation through the design of work: Test of a theory. Organizational behavior and human performance, 16(2), 250-279.

           Retrieved from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0030507376900167#

-- http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/activation_theory.htm

-- Fisher, C. D. (1998). Mood and emotions while working-missing pieces of job satisfaction. School of Business Discussion Papers, 64.

            Retrieved from: epublications.bond.edu.au