Job Satisfaction There Is a Distinct Difference

Job Satisfaction

There is a distinct difference between job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Job satisfaction relates specifically to the job. While this is influenced by organizational factors, the job itself can be satisfactory even when there is little commitment to the organization. Either one can be a source of motivation, but it is important for management of an organization to know which dynamic is at play, and which one might be more valuable as a motivating force.

Tella, Ayeni and Popoola (2007) studied the issue, and found that motivation was correlated with both job satisfaction and organizational commitment, but that the correlation with job satisfaction was strong and positive while the correlation with organizational commitment was weak and negative. This means that the job is more important to motivation than the organization. Intuitively, this makes sense. Motivation is related to the job, because that is what the person does on a daily basis. The organization might be a source of motivation, but if this commitment to the organization results in a person doing a job that he or she does not like, then the result is going to be a lower level of motivation. People are self-centered, so it comes as no surprise that motivation is more highly-correlated with the factor that most affects their daily lives.

From experience in my company, it is clear that these findings hold. There is a much higher level of commitment to the job than there is to the company. This reflects that the company tends to have a low level of loyalty to its workers, and the workers respond in kind. Workers are employed at will, and it is the job and compensation that keep the employees in place. Motivation derives much more from the job than from the compensation. Workers who feel stuck in a poor job, even if they otherwise love the company, are more likely to leave their job, and are unmotivated by their contribution to the company's success. In part, this has lessons for organizational behavior, because employees with a high level of organizational commitment should be motivated by that, but many do not seem to feel engaged in the company's overall success. There are insufficient linkages between individual performance and bonuses, and that reduces motivation to perform.

Moynihan, Boswell and Boudreau (2000) also studied the link between organizational commitment and job satisfaction, something that should ideally have been included in the Tella study. They found that workers showed greater job satisfaction when they had higher organizational commitment. While this might not translate to greater motivation, it is worth considering that there are strong links between these three factors, and job satisfaction plays a central role in both organizational commitment and motivation.

As a potential employer, a company needs to do two things, based on this research. The first is that it needs to provide stimulating jobs. Workers are motivated most strongly by the jobs they are doing, so a company where the jobs lack stimulation can generally expect to experience a lower level of worker engagement and motivation. A company with more stimulating jobs can expect a higher level of motivation and engagement from its workforce.

The second thing that a company needs is to cultivate a sense of organizational commitment. This is, however, less important. But companies where the employees believe in a specific mission are more likely to have more motivated employees. That said, some employees will never be sold on a company mission -- they are working for themselves and their families, and are unlikely to place commitment to the company ahead of this. Such attitudes naturally flow from the decades-long erosion of corporate commitment to workers; workers have more trouble engaging with their employers on that level, and there is no trust.

Performance management, therefore, benefits more from attention to job-related measures of performance, and incentives based on individual or team measures. Organizational measures are less successful, because employees tend to be less likely to be motivated by organizational commitment, and because they are less connected with the results against which their bonuses are measured. A company that links employee bonuses to corporate performance is not likely going to generate additional extrinsic motivation from such a policy. Intrinsic motivation driven from having a great job, or the promise of having a great job, is far more powerful, and is a tool that companies should explore more frequently.