Hrm1110 Summative Essay: Job Satisfaction

This essay aims to elucidate the relationship between job satisfaction & job performance by exploring preceding studies and reputable theories on the topic. The essay question seems to suggest that job satisfaction is a mandatory and an initial influence for increased performance, and that it is management who orchestrates the process. The reader should attain a more informed perspective on ways in which management impinge on (and if it is in fact, significant to) an employee’s satisfaction, and whether satisfaction is paramount to productivity (as opposed to a supplementary, excessive tactic for increasing performance). Further analysis on potential mediators between the two variables such as LMX (leader-member exchange), ACC (affective-cognitive consistency) and OCB (organizational-citizenship behaviour) will also be investigated. A conclusion will be made that ultimately gives credence to or opposes the view that job satisfaction is imperative to improving performance. The connection between the two variables (satisfaction & performance) is described as the “Holy Grail” by industrial psychologists (Landy, 1989). Organizations and unions across different generations have generally endorsed the notion that greater performance occurs when employee’s are more satisfied (Katzell & Yankelovich, 1975), however a noteworthy number of researchers have labelled the relationship as an “illusory correlation” that we intuitively believe should intertwine, but perceivably doesn’t (Chapman and Chapman, 1969). Job satisfaction is a pleasurable or affirmative emotional state that results from experiences on the job, or the individuals’ evaluation of the job (Locke, 1976). Individuals evaluate the conditions of their employment by socially comparing themselves to similarly ranked employees (Michalos, 1983). This links well with Adams’ equity theory (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2010, p. 271) which suggests that perceived differences in treatment by