Human Resources Development Practices and Employees' Job Satisfaction

Introduction

Job satisfaction means what are the feelings of different employees about the different dimensions of their jobs. The level of satisfaction and dissatisfaction is another aspect which is related to employee job satisfaction. Job satisfaction may be the general behavior emerged due to different happenings at the work place; it may be supervisor’s behavior, relationship with peers or the work environment (Robbins, 2012) .Various factors such as an employee needs and desires, social relationships, job design, compensation, developmental opportunities and aspects of work-life balance are considered to be some of the key factors of job satisfaction (Spector, 1997). Robbins (2012) stressed that a satisfied workforce can increase organizational productivity through less distraction caused by absenteeism or turnover, few incidences of destructive behavior, and low medical costs.

According to Baron (1976) and Chan et al. (2004), job satisfaction is viewed as an employee’s overall assessment of his (or her) work and work-related experiences. The employee's assessment is generally influenced by individual’s values, ideals and beliefs. To be more precise, job satisfaction is an evaluative judgment regarding the degree of pleasure of an employee derives from his or her job that consists of both affective and cognitive elements (Hulin & Judge, 2003; Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). Alternatively, job satisfaction is defined as the “pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experience” (Locke, 1976, p. 1300), job satisfaction signifies an interaction between employees and their work environment and it is judged based on the congruence between what employees want from their jobs and what employees feel they received.

On the other hand, Jens (2008) argued job satisfaction is not only an important indicator of employees’ well-being, but is also central for understanding the process of employee turnover. For example, it has been found that job satisfaction explains variance in withdrawal cognitions, turnover intentions, and actual turnovers, independent from organizational commitment (Tett & Meyer, 1993). In human resource development literature, job satisfaction is discussed as an important construct representing employees’ interests (Guest, 1999).

Job satisfaction is always an important focus in corporate world. Job satisfaction is perceived to have significant implications for organization productivity based on the assumption that the benefits that employees received from their organization would positively contributing to the effort, skill, and creativity that they are willing to provide their employer. Many human resource development literatures have devoted to discuss the job satisfaction as an important construct representing employees’ interests (Guest, 1999).

In addition, meta-analysis has been conducted to examine how the relationships between the availability of high commitment HR practices, as perceived by employees, and affective commitment and job satisfaction change with age (Kooij, Jansen, Dikkers, & Lange 2010). The study also reveals that, in line with social exchange and signaling theories, employees’ perceptions of HR practices are positively related to their work-related attitudes, and that calendar age influences this relationship largely as expected.