THE IMPACT OF OPTIMAL JOB SATISFACTION ON EFFECTIVE EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
It is a general understanding that job satisfaction is an attitude towards job, in other words job satisfaction is an affective or emotional response toward various facets of one’s job. A person with a high level of job satisfaction holds
positive attitudes towards his or her job, while a person who is dissatisfied with his or her job holds negative attitudes about the job. Job satisfaction is a result of employees’ perception of how well their job provides those things which
are viewed as important. Job satisfaction is also defined as reintegration of effects produced by individual’s
perception of fulfillment of his needs in relation to his work and the surrounding. Furthermore, Job satisfaction
represents a complex assemblage of cognition, emotion and tendencies. There is no definite way of measuring job
satisfaction, but there are varieties of ways to identify when an employee is satisfied or dissatisfied with his or her job.
A questionnaire can be used to measure job satisfaction, in this method, it measures the satisfaction with the different
dimensions or facets of the job by the employee and sum of all satisfactions scores will be taken as the overall job
satisfaction (JS). Almost any job related factor can influence a person’s level of job satisfaction or dissatisfaction and
there are a number of factors that influence job satisfaction. The major ones can be summarized by recalling the
dimensions of job satisfaction and they are pay, the work itself, promotions, supervision, workgroup, and working
conditions (Theresa et al, 2016).
Moreover, employee performance very much depends on perception, values and attitudes, there appear to be so
many variables influencing the job performance that is almost impossible to make sense of them. Performance is
defined as a function of individual ability and skill and effort in a given situation. In the short run, employee’s skills and
abilities are relatively stable (Theresa et al, 2016). This research defines the performance in terms of effort extended
to the job of an employee. Effort is an internal force of a person which makes him or her to work willingly when
employees are satisfied with their job and their needs are met, they develop an attachment to work or we say that
they make an effort to perform better but increased effort results in better performances. Attainment of a high level
performance through productivity and efficiency has always been an organization’s goal of high priority. In order to do
that, highly satisfied work force is an absolute necessity, but when employees feel dissatisfied with the nature of job
they do, their level of commitment could be deliberately reduced and since employees are the engine room of an
organization, their dissatisfaction with the nature of job they do could pose a threat to the overall performance of the
organization. A dissatisfied employee tends to have a low morale towards the job and when employees’ morale to the
job is low, their performance could be affected.
THE IMPACT OF OPTIMAL JOB SATISFACTION ON EFFECTIVE EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE