Researching the factors afcting job satisfactionfor employees at hoa sen group

Organizational Commitment, Job Stress, Job Overload, Role Ambiguity, Role Conflict, May the result of this research contribute to the accretion of the Group and help the human resources

RESEARCHING THE FACTORS AFFECTING JOB SATISFACTION FOR EMPLOYEES AT HOA SEN GROUP

ADVISOR’S NAME & TITLE : NGUYEN THE KHAI (DBA)

AVISOR’S ACCESSMENT

ADVISOR’S SIGNATURE

NGUYEN THE KHAI (DBA)

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am using this opportunity to express my gratitude to everyone who has supported me throughout this MBA course and the process of this research I am thankful for their aspiring guidance, invaluably constructive criticism as well as friendly advice during

my research I’m sincerely grateful to them for sharing their utmost truthful and

enlightening illuminating views on various issues raised during the process of this research,

I would also like to express my most sincere thanks for the outstanding support and unceasing guidance from my lecturer, Nguyen The Khai (DBA) who have helped me follow through with every step made towards this MBA research,

Finally, I would like to send my best regards and thanks to the collective of employees and managers alike at Hoa Sen Group for providing me with the opportunity to make this research, your generosity provided me with the facilities being required and conductive conditions for my MBA research

Thank you all,

Ph m Minh Hòa

ABSTRACT

Most organizations strive for job satisfaction from employee, but not all attain this goal That’s why it’s important for human resources professionals to know more

about the factors that can increase employee satisfactions and how it fits into a

company’s overall success The purpose of this research is to determine the factors

that can influence job satisfaction at Hoa Sen Group,

This research applied Business Research Methods to determine Job Satisfaction and what other factors that attribute to Job Satisfaction This research also made use of quantitative methods with its data collected from surveys which with the permission and participation of the collective of 500 employees at Hoa Sen Group,

The valid accumulative survey results then went on the processing phase using the software IBM SPSS version 22 to be statistically analyzed The Business Research Model included an independent variable called Job Satisfaction and 5 other dependent variables acting as hypothesized factors attributing to Job Satisfaction (Organizational Commitment, Job Stress, Job Overload, Role Ambiguity, Role Conflict),

May the result of this research contribute to the accretion of the Group and help the human resources team at Hoa Sen Group to allocate their tasks and resources accurately to maximize job satisfaction

Keywords: Job Satisfaction (JSA), Organizational Commitment (OC), Job Stress (JS), Job Overload (JO), Role Ambiguity (RA), Role Conflict (RC)

CONTENTS

Introduction 5

CHAPTER 1 5

Company Introduction: 5

Hoa Sen Group’s Information 5

The Fiscal Year 2012 – 2013 10

HR Management 10

Vision 11

Mission 11

12

Business Philosophy 12

Research Introduction 13

Research Problem Statement: 13

Research Objective: 13

Research Scope: 14

Research Significances: 14

Limitations of Research: 15

Literature Review 16

CHAPTER 2 16

Definition of Constructs 16

Job Satisfaction: 16

Organizational Commitment: 16

Job Overload: 17

Job Stress: 18

Role Conflict and Ambiguity: 18

Argument for the relationships among the Constructs: 19

Job Roles: 19

Theory: 19

Applicability to Research: 21

Job Stress: 21

Applicability to Research: 23

Job Characteristic Theory: 25

Theory: 25

Applicability to Research: 28

Organizational Commitment Theory: 29

Theory: 29

Applicability to Research: 33

Hypotheses 34

Methods 36

CHAPTER 3 36

Data Collection 36

Job Satisfaction: 36

Organizational Commitment: 37

Job Overload: 38

Job Stress: 39

Role Conflict & Ambiguity: 40

Data Collection Process: 41

Data analysis: 42

Results 43

CHAPTER 4 43

Cronbach’s Alpha 43

Cronbach’s Alpha standard applied 43

Cronbach’s Alpha of Construct: 43

Job Satisfaction (JSA): 43

Organizational Commitment (OC): 44

Job Overload (JO): 44

Job Stress (JS): 44

Role Conflict (RC): 44

Role Ambiguity (RA): 45

Descriptive Information 45

Descriptive Statistics: 45

Correlation Statistics: 46

Hypotheses testing: 47

Independent Variable: OC – H1 48

Independent Variable: JO – H2 48

Independent Variable: JS – H3 49

Independent Variable: RC – H4 49

Independent Variable: RA – H5 49

CHAPTER 5 50

Conclusion 50

Discussion: 50

Limitations of Research: 51

Forecast Recommendations: 51

References: 52

Appendix 53

Appendix 1: Surveys 53

JOB SATISFACTION SURVEY AT HOA SEN GROUP 53

Appendix 2: presentation 57

from a steel sheet retail store, under Mr Le Phuoc Vu’s sound leadership, Hoa

Sen Group is now known as the leading steel sheet enterprise in Viet Nam and South East Asia

Hoa Sen Group’s Information

- Name of Corporation: HOA SEN GROUP

- Headquarters: No.09, Thong Nhat Boulevard, Song Than 2 Industrial Park, Di

An Ward, Di An District, Binh Duong Province

Figure 2 - General Assembly of Shareholders

Hoa Sen Group has 7 subsidiaries and over 200 branches across the country:

Hoa Sen Steel Sheet One Member Limited Liabilities Company

Address: No 09, Thong Nhat Boulevard, Song Than 2 Industrial Park, Di An Ward, Di An Town, Binh Duong Province, Vietnam

Hoa Sen Building Material One Member Limited Liabilities Company

Address: Phu My 1 Industrial Park, Phu My Town, Tan Thanh District, Ba Ria –

Vung Tau Province, Vietnam

Hoa Sen Transportation & Engineering One Member Limited Liabilities Company

Address: No 09, Thong Nhat Boulevard, Song Than 2 Industrial Park, Di An Ward, Di An Town, Binh Duong Province, Vietnam

Hoa Sen Binh Dinh One Member Limited Liabilities Company

Address: Nhon Hoa Industrial Park, Nhon Hoa Ward, An Nhon Town, Binh Dinh Province, Vietnam

Hoa Sen Nam Cam Nghe An One Member Limited Liabilities Company

Address: Nam Cam Industrial Park, Nghi Xa Commune, Nghi Loc District, Nghe

An Province, Viet Nam

Hoa Sen Nghe An One Member Limited Liabilities Company

Address: Dong Hoi Industrial Park, Quynh Lap Commune, Hoang Mai Town, Nghe An Province, Vietnam

Hoa Sen Ha Nam One Member Limited Liabilities Company

Address: Dong Van III Industrial Park, Yen Bac Commune, Duy Tien District,

Ha Nam Province

Since the day of establishment with only VND 30 billion of initial charter capital and 22 employees, up to now, Hoa Sen Group has become the powerful steel sheet company in South East Asia with VND 1,300 billion of charter capital and nearly 6,000 employees Among them, there are young managers with the age from 23 to 35, which creates dynamic in the outstanding development of Hoa Sen Group

Hoa Sen has successfully developed five core competitive advantages:

1 The vertically integrated value chain from importing hot roll coils, manufacturing finished products and directly delivering to end – users

2 The nationwide distribution with 200 retail branches

3 The unique corporate governance and culture under “Integrity – Community Development” philosophy

-4 The strong, friendly and community - oriented brand name

5 Pioneering in investing in modern equipment line and applying new technology

Figure 3 -Non-Oxidizing-Furnace line at Phu My 1 Industrial Park, Ba Ria Vung Tau Province

Thanks to these advantages, Hoa Sen Group has established and maintained the leading position in manufacturing and trading steel sheets in Viet Nam with 40% market share, 20% of Steel pipe market share and become the leading exporter of steel sheets in Southeast Asia

Hoa Sen Group takes Lotus which is the floral emblem of Vietnam as its name and symbol because Lotus contains Buddhism philosophic meanings, the brown color of Buddhist monk costume, the yellow color of lotus and 8 flower petals represent for 8 true spiritual paths of Buddha Moreover, with its core value of INTEGRITY – COMMUNITY – DEVELOPMENT, Hoa Sen Group has built a

unique culture to affirm the missions of the Group to the development of community and country Specifically, Hoa Sen Group has contributed to the national economy many key products with high value, created thousands of jobs, participated and sponsored for many social and charity community activities

Figure 4 - Pre-painted galvanized steel sheet (PPGI)

With the 15 years old solid foundation, Hoa Sen Group is taking steps to affirm the stature of a dynamic Vietnamese enterprise in economic integration, and constantly getting high position in international market

The Fiscal Year 2012 – 2013

- Inaugurate and put Galvanizing line with NOF technology and with a capacity

of 120,000 tons/year into operation

- Establish 7 more branches to increase the total number of branches and general depots to 115 and 3 respectively

- Hoa Sen Group honorably received “Top 100 Vietnamese Largest Enterprises 2012” award and “Top 30 Largest Vietnamese Private Enterprises 2012” award

- Hoa Sen Group honorably received “Top 10 Vietnam Gold Star 2013” award and “Top 10 Corporate Social Responsibility” award

- On September 9th 2013, Hoa Sen Group honorably received Third – Class

Labor Medal awarded by Vice President of Vietnam

- Implement Phase 2 of Hoa Sen Phu My Steel Sheet Plant Project to achieve the target of 1 million ton in sales volume and the target of USD 1 billion in turnover

HR Management

Training and HR development is always a top priority of Hoa Sen Group to which the leaders pay much attention with criteria of “being better, being more professional, being more effective and getting higher incomes” The training

target is to improve professional knowledge, professional skills, management and leadership skills and ethics for each employee to meet the requirements of an active, multidisciplinary and highly competitive business environment, thereby

promoting and heightening “Integrity – Community – Development” culture of

the Group

Vision

Become a leading economic group in building material field in Vietnam and in the region with a sustainable development strategy that focuses on traditional products such as coated steel sheet, steel, plastic and is based on building and developing core competitive advantages: vertically integrated value chain; distribution - retail network; strong, friendly and community - oriented brand; unique governance system and corporate culture as well as pioneering in technological innovation investment in order to maximize added value for shareholders, employees and society

Mission

Provide products with international quality and reasonable prices under the Hoa Sen brand in order to meet customers’ needs and contribute to changing the country’s architectural landscape and developing the community

Business Philosophy

 Products’ quality is the focus

 Customers’ benefit is the key

 Employees’ income is the responsibility

 Sharing with community is the obligation

Core Values

Development Community

Integrity

Research Introduction

Research Problem Statement:

There is little doubt that great employees are the group’s number one resource

Keeping workers happy helps strengthen the group in many ways including lower turnover rate, boost productivity and thus profits and keep employees onboard with the group plans,

The Chairman of Hoa Sen Group (HSG) realized that keeping employees happy

is the Human Resources (HR) number one job Like other public companies, in recent years, HSG has been focusing on its Human Resources Management (HRM) by providing a lot of activities to strengthen its human resource training and development such as coordinating with universities in HCM city to recruit potential candidates, conducting variety of internal training programs Besides, HSG also provide many HR management policies to retain and develop its workforce such as salary and reward systems,

However, according to annual reports, the turnover rate at HSG has been steadily increasing over the years Turnovers can be one of the highest costs attributed to the HR department since talents from HSG who have received excessive trainings and process invaluable experiences have been flaking off to take on jobs from competitor brands,

The Group’s HR experts have allotted one of the rooted reasons for the problem

could be due to the lack of job satisfaction among the highly trained and multitasking capable workers This talent bleeding has made some critical impacts to the Group and can no longer be ignored thus the need for this research We aim to find out which factors attributed to job satisfaction at HSG

Research Objective:

The purpose of this research is to identify the factors contributing to the job

satisfaction of Hoa Sen Group’s employees,

To design a research model and hypothesize the influence effect that each factor has contributing to job satisfaction,

To test related factors for the correlation of each contributing to job satisfaction

so that a strong or weak level of influence between the factors can be correctly assumed,

To access the results of the tested data so that discussion may commence to adequately propose adjustments as well as to forecast plans to improve the HRM process at HSG

Research Scope:

The scope of this research involves the entire employee body of HSG including General Director, Vice General Directors, managers, subordinate and employees working at HSG,

It does not include: Chairman, Board of Directors, Shareholder, Supervisory Board, and employees are under probation period or on maturity leave,

This research has its scope limited to only surveying active roster of HSG; it

doesn’t reach out to any of the group former employee,

The survey scope is confined within the territory of Vietnam, which included 500 employees of HSG,

Contents of this research revolves around only factors determining job satisfaction, it has no intention of reviewing performance, restructuring and or replacing any employee,

The surveys are conducted from 1st to 28th of February, 2017

Research Significances:

This research is aimed to assist the HRM team at HSG in determining the contributing factors to job satisfaction for their workers thus will open up new opportunities to recruit and retain new talents,

By doing so, the research will also indoctrinate the importance of job satisfaction within the Management team and boards of directors at HSG so that they can apprehend the effectiveness of their current policies on employees to amend and adjust if need be,

Besides its importance to management, this research will also help strengthen the ties between management and employees by letting their voices be heard through means of surveys This will greatly improve employees’ loyalty with the group

contributing to strengthen HSG financial lead

Limitations of Research:

Although the research has reached most of its aims, there were some unavoidable limitations First, because of the time limit, this research was conducted only on a small body of employees who were present at the representative office Therefore, to generalize the results for larger groups, the study should have involved more participants at different levels Secondly, because the survey took place in Vietnam, most of the contents had to be translated and some of the

contents that couldn’t be applied to Vietnam due to the different in culture and/or

other external reasons were shortened thus reduced the liability of the survey Finally, due to time constrain, some of the surveys were given to supervisors to pass on to workers of their division and this may have dampened the accurate of the survey since employees tend to give positive review if their supervisors are around to avoid confrontation To make the result more accurate, we need more time to approach each individual personally and ensure their anonymity when participating in the survey

Measuring job satisfaction can be challenging, as the definition of satisfaction can be different for different people,

This measure was originally developed by Quinn and Shepard (1974) and subsequently modified by Pond and Geyer (1991) and Rice et al (1991) It uses

six items to measure an employee’s general affective reaction to his or her job

without reference to any specific facets

In this measure, job satisfaction also correlated positively with affective commitment to an occupation and the organization, job involvement, the importance of interaction with a boss, and the importance of customer contact (Birnbaum & Somers, 1993; McFarlin & Rice, 1992; Mossholder, Bennett & Martin, 1998; Pond & Geyer, 1991) Global job satisfaction correlated negatively with the extent of perceived job alternatives, role conflict, role ambiguity, turnover, and the importance of pay and promotion (Birnbaum & Somers, 1993; McFarlin & Rice, 1992: Mossholder Bennett, & Martin, 1998: Pond & Geyer, 1991)

Organizational Commitment:

Organizational commitment s variously defined as an attitude that associates

employee’s identity with organization; a process during which objectives of the

organization are in conformity with those of employee

It can also be defined as a force of connection – a psychological or attitude stage – with the goals and values of the organization, which determines a direction at the level of the individual’s behavior towards the employer organization, with the

aim of benefiting it

The Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) was origin developed by Mowday, Steers, and Porter (1979) It uses 15 item describe Global organizational commitment This widely used measure been modified to examine Professional commitment by replacing the w organization with profession It has also been used to assess job commitment by changing the wording from organization to job (Gunz & Gunz 1994; Millward & Hopkins, 1998) Sagie (1998) developed and use Hebrew-language version of the measure, in Riggs and Knight (1994), structural equation analysis showed dis criminate validity between organizational commitment, job satisfaction and personal efficacy We however only made use of 6 items in this measure, it was shortened due to the different in culture and language of the workers, most notably was the basic level

of standardized education the workers we approached possess

Job Overload:

Job overload or just simply too much work can lead to mental strain happens when an employee is tasked with such a heavy workload that they cannot bear or capable of handling

Job overload measure, developed by Caplan, Cobh, French, Van Harrison, ad Pinneau (1980), uses 11 items to describe an employee’s job overload This focuses on the employee’s perceptions of quantitative job overload (rather than

mental strain or Psychological pressure) It asks for description of the perceived pace and amount of work

In this measure, Job overload correlated positively with hours worked competitiveness, firm size, and absenteeism and correlated negatively with work satisfaction, job satisfaction, and Professional commitment (Dwyer & Ganster 1991; Pheland et al., 1993; Sargent & Terry, 1998; Wallace, 1997) We however only made use of 6 items in our survey due to reasons aforementioned

Job Stress:

Job stress can be defined as the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources,

or needs of the worker Job stress can lead to poor health and even injury

The concept of job stress is often confused with challenge, but these concepts are not the same Challenge energizes us psychologically and physically, and it motivates us to learn new skills and master our jobs When a challenge is met, we feel relaxed and satisfied

This Stress Diagnostic Survey, developed by Ivancevich and Matteson (1980), describes employee tension due to role ambiguity (five items), role conflict (five items), quantitative role overload (five items), qualitative role overload (five items), concerns about career development (five items), and responsibility for people (five items) The measure can also be used as a composite indicator of the presence of job stressors (Nelson & Sutton, 1990) We however only took advantage of 7 items from abovementioned list

Role Conflict and Ambiguity:

Most of the research about job roles has focused on role conflict and ambiguity Role conflict is defined as incompatibility between the expectations of parties or between aspects of a single role Role ambiguity is defined as uncertainty about what actions to take to fulfill a role Role conflict, ambiguity, and overload may affect employees because they increase stress

This measure, developed by Rizzo, House, and Lirtzman (1970), was one of the first measures of role ambiguity and role conflict A lack of necessary information regarding role expectation for a given organizational position has been defined as role ambiguity Role conflict was defined as a condition of when employees have incompatible roles defined by supervisors or other members of

an organization This measure includes intra-role, inter-role, and inter-sender conflict, as well as ambiguity due to lack of role predictability, role clarity, and role certainty (Bedeian, Mossholder, Kemery, & Armenakis, 1990)

Though the role conflict and role ambiguity measures have been used extensively, some scholars have raised concerns about the content validity, susceptibility to wording biases and factor structure of these measures (King & King, 1990; Smith, Tisak, & Schmieder, 1993) Netemeyer and colleagues (1995) evaluated alternative structural models and showed that role conflict and role ambiguity are distinct constructs (Netemeyer et al., 1995)

Argument for the relationships among the Constructs:

Job Roles:

Theory:

According to role theory, every position in an organization should have a clear set of responsibilities so that management can give appropriate guidance and employees can be held accountable for performance If people do not know the extent of their authority and what is expected of them, they may hesitate to act and be fearful about the potential repercussions for making decisions (Jackson & Schuler, 1985) Clear job roles tend to increase employee feelings of competency because individuals understand what needs to be done (Spreitzer 1996) However, job roles are seldom clearly specified in advance, and there typically is

an episodic role-making process between role senders and role receivers (Schaubroeck, Ganster, Si me, & Ditman, 1993)

Disruptions in the role definition process, limitations inherent in the nature of jobs or organizations, and differences in management styles may lead to job role conflict, role ambiguity, and role overload These aspects of job roles in an organization may create job tension and stress for employees and negatively affect employee attitudes (Schaubroeck et al., 1993) Greater role discretion and the freedom to innovate in a job role may enhance employee views about their job and positively affect attitudes (Gregersen & Black, 1992) Of course, role innovation in itself may be stressful and bring an employee into conflict with others in a similar role or with established practices in an organization (West, 1987) In general, fulfilling a job role may be an inherently stressful activity because some tension will always exist between the way an employee wants to

do a job and the needs of an organization for conformity among persons filling similar job roles

Most of the research about job roles has focused on role conflict and ambiguity Role conflict is defined as incompatibility between the expectations of parties or between aspects of a single role Role ambiguity is defined as uncertainty about what actions to take to fulfill a role Role conflict, ambiguity, and overload may affect employees because they increase stress Prolonged exposure to stressors

increases demand on an employee’s cognitive resources because individuals

exert greater effort to cope and neutralize stressors This leaves fewer cognitive resources available for performing assigned job duties and responsibilities effectively (Fried, Ben-David, Tiegs, Avital, & Yeverechyahu, 1998) Employees may find it more difficult to function effectively in a work environment where a number of role stressors such as role conflict, ambiguity, and overload are present concurrently When stressful demands exceed an employee’s capacity to

cope, work attitudes and performance are likely to deteriorate (Erera- Weatherley, 1996)

However, it is also possible that role conflict, ambiguity, and overload have direct effects on key employee outcomes independent of stress In a meta-analysis, Jackson and Schuler (1985) reported that role ambiguity and role conflict both correlated negatively with job satisfaction However, Netemeyer, Burton, and Johnston (1995) evaluated alternative structural models and found that (a) role ambiguity and role conflict both had direct negative effects on job satisfaction, (b) role conflict had positive effects on job tension (role ambiguity did not), and (c) role overload covered with both conflict and ambiguity, but did not directly affect job tension or job satisfaction All three dimensions of role perceptions affected organizational commitment and intention to leave indirectly through their effects on job satisfaction

Applicability to Research:

In my opinion, job roles have strong connections with job satisfaction, as aforementioned, in various researched the results have been found that role ambiguity and role conflict both have negative effects on job satisfaction albeit directly or indirectly

In applicability to this research, the chances are very high that both role conflict and role ambiguity are key factors affecting the job satisfaction for the highly trained employees at Hoa Sen Group

Job Stress:

Diathesis – stress model:

The diathesis–stress model is a psychological theory that attempts to explain

behavior as a pre-dispositional vulnerability together with stress from life experiences It can take the form of genetic, psychological, biological, or situational factors A large range of individual differences exist between persons

in their vulnerability to the development of disorder

The diathesis, or predisposition, interacts with the subsequent stress response of

an individual Stress refers to a life event or series of events that disrupt a person's psychological equilibrium and potentially serves as a catalyst to the development of a disorder Thus, the diathesis–stress model serves to explore

how biological or genetic traits (diatheses) interact with environmental influences (stressors) to produce disorders, such as depression, anxiety, or schizophrenia

The diathesis–stress model asserts that if the combination of the predisposition

and the stress exceeds a threshold, the person will develop a disorder

The use of term diathesis in the fields of medicine and psychiatry dates back to the 1800s; however, the diathesis–stress model was not introduced and utilized to

describe the development of psychopathology until it was used to explain schizophrenia in the 1960s The diathesis–stress model is used in many fields of

psychology; specifically for studying the development of psychopathology It is useful for the purposes of understanding the interplay of nature and nurture in the susceptibility to psychological disorders throughout the lifespan Diathesis–stress

models can also assist in determining who will develop a disorder and who will not For example, in the context of depression, the diathesis–stress model can

help explain why Person A may become depressed while Person B does not, even when exposed to the same stressors More recently, the diathesis–stress

model has been used to explain why some individuals are more at risk for developing a disorder than others For example, children who have a family history of depression are generally more vulnerable to developing a depressive disorder themselves A child who has a family history of depression and who has been exposed to a particular stressor, such as exclusion or rejection by his or her peers, would be more likely to develop depression than a child with a family history of depression that has an otherwise positive social network of peers

The diathesis–stress model has also served as useful in explaining other poor (but

non-clinical) developmental outcomes

Protective factors, such as positive social networks or high self-esteem, can counteract the effects of stressors and prevent or curb the effects of disorder Many psychological disorders have a window of vulnerability, during which time

an individual is more likely to develop disorder than others Diathesis–stress

models are often conceptualized as multi-causal developmental models, which propose that multiple risk factors over the course of development interact with stressors and protective factors contributing to normal development or psychopathology The differential susceptibility hypothesis is a recent theory that has stemmed from the diathesis–stress model

Source:

Ingram, R E & Luxton, D D (2005) "Vulnerability-Stress Models." In B.L Hankin & J R Z Abela (Eds.), Development of Psychopathology: A vulnerability stress perspective (pp 32-46) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc

Applicability to Research:

In general, the study of job stress has focused on the belief that prolonged exposure to stressful conditions within a job leads to mental anchor physical disorders (Ganster& Schaubroeck, 1991) In terms of defining stress, difficulties can arise because operational definitions may fail to reflect the transactional nature of the stress process That is, stress does not reside solely in the environment or solely in the individual but is established when the interactions between the two are appraised as demanding enough to threaten well-being (Dewe, 1992)

Two models have been frequently used to describe the process by which aspects

of a job and its environment lead to worker stress and strain One model focuses

on the fit between the stressors, such as demands and requirements of the job,

and an employee’s coping resources, such as his or her skills, abilities, and

needs/preferences (Ganster & Schaubroeck, 1991) Job stressors are defined as those aspects of a job that produce excessive and undesirable constraints or demand on the individuals (Scheck, Kinicki, & Davy, 1995) A positive or negative appraisal of a stressor affects the outcomes to the employee differently (Scheck et al., 1995)

The second model is known as the job demands-control perspective (Karasek, 1979) This model suggests that when the Psychological demands of a job are high and control over the job is low, health status and well-being are lowered However, when both demands and control are high, an individual will experience

an increased motivation to perform A major hypothesis of this model is that high job demands produce a state of physical arousal in a worker that would normally

be channeled into coping responses such as altering the schedule of work or changing procedures If a worker is not allowed sufficient control to implement stress- reducing changes, the physical and mental impacts of job demands are increased To a degree, this model predicts that some job conditions may buffer the negative effects of other job dimensions of employees For example, larger amounts of control at work may suffer the effects of very high job demands (Damels & Guppy, 1994)

Both models indicate that Job Stress possess an important influence on the overall effectiveness of employees or more broadly the overall Job Satisfaction,

so in my opinion, Job Stress has a direct bond with Job Satisfaction

Job Characteristic Theory:

Theory:

Job characteristics theory is a theory of work design It provides “a set of implementing principles for enriching jobs in organizational settings” The

original version of job characteristics theory proposed a model of five “core” job

characteristics (i.e skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback) that affect five work-related outcomes (i.e motivation, satisfaction, performance, and absenteeism and turnover) through three psychological states (i.e experienced meaningfulness, experienced responsibility, and knowledge of results)

Work redesign first got its start in the 1960s Up until then, the prevailing attitude was that jobs should be simplified in order to maximize production, however it was found that when subjected to highly routinized and repetitive tasks, the benefits of simplification sometimes disappeared due to worker dissatisfaction It was proposed that jobs should be enriched in ways that boosted motivation, instead of just simplified to a string of repetitive tasks It is from this viewpoint that Job Characteristics Theory emerged

In 1975, Greg R Oldham and J Richard Hackman constructed the original version of the Job Characteristics Theory (JCT), which is based on earlier work

by Turner and Lawrence and Hackman and Lawler Turner and Lawrence, provided a foundation of objective characteristics of jobs in work design Further, Hackman and Lawler indicated the direct effect of job characteristics on employee's work related attitudes and behaviors and, more importantly, the individual differences in need for development, which is called Growth Need Strength in Job Characteristics Theory

In 1980, Hackman and Oldham presented the final form of the Job Characteristics Theory in their book Work Redesign The main changes included the addition of two more moderators- Knowledge and Skill and Context Satisfaction, removal of the work outcomes of absenteeism and turnover, and increased focus on Internal Work Motivation Several of the outcome variables were removed or renamed as well Concentration was shifted to the affective outcomes following results from empirical studies that showed weak support for the relationship between the psychological states and behavioral outcomes

In addition to the theory, Oldham and Hackman also created two instruments, the Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) and the Job Rating Form (JRF), for assessing constructs of the theory The JDS directly measures jobholders' perceptions of the five core job characteristics, their experienced psychological states, their Growth Need Strength, and outcomes The JRF was designed to obtain the assessments from external observers, such as supervisors or researchers, of the core job characteristics

According to the final version of the theory, five core job characteristics should prompt three critical psychological states, which lead to many favorable personal and work outcomes The moderators Growth Need Strength, Knowledge and Skill, and Context Satisfaction should moderate the links between the job characteristics and the psychological states, and the psychological states and the outcomes

Core job characteristics

• Skill Variety: The degree to which a job requires various activities,

requiring the worker to develop a variety of skills and talents Jobholders can experience more meaningfulness in jobs that require several different skills and abilities than when the jobs are elementary and routine

• Task Identity: The degree to which the job requires the jobholders to

identify and complete a work piece with a visible outcome Workers experience more meaningfulness in a job when they are involved in the entire process rather than just being responsible for a part of the work

• Task Significance: The degree to which the job affects other people’s lives

The influence can be either in the immediate organization or in the external environment Employees feel more meaningfulness in a job that substantially improves either psychological or physical well-being of others than a job that has limited effect on anyone else

Figure 5 -Hackman and Oldham's Job Characteristics

• Autonomy: The degree to which the job provides the employee with

significant freedom, independence, and discretion to plan out the work and determine the procedures in the job For jobs with a high level of autonomy, the

outcomes of the work depend on the workers’ own efforts, initiatives, and

decisions; rather than on the instructions from a manager or a manual of job procedures In such cases, the jobholders experience greater personal responsibility for their own successes and failures at work

• Feedback: The degree to which the worker has knowledge of results This is

clear, specific, detailed, actionable information about the effectiveness of his or her job performance When workers receive clear, actionable information about their work performance, they have better overall knowledge of the effect of their work activities, and what specific actions they need to take (if any) to improve their productivity

Source:

Hackman, J R & Oldham, G R (2005) How job characteristics theory happened The Oxford handbook of management theory: The process of theory development, 151-170

Hackman, J R & Oldham, G R (1975) Development of job diagnostic survey Journal of Applied Psychology, 60, 159-170

Applicability to Research:

Over the years since Job Characteristics Theory’s introduction into the

organizational literature, there have been many changes to the field and to work itself Oldham and Hackman suggest that the areas more fruitful for development

in work design are social motivation, job crafting, and teams