Kamis, 12 Juni 2008

Coret-coretan

JOB SATISFACTION, JOB CHARACTERISTICS
AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT
FOR THE INDONESIAN MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATION



The research focused on job satisfaction, job characteristics, and organizational commitment of Indonesian Communication Ministry employees. Job satisfaction is refers to the attitude and feelings people have about their work (Armstrong, 1988). Positive and favorable attitudes towards the job indicate job satisfaction, negative and unfavorable attitudes towards the job indicate job dissatisfaction. The model of the job satisfaction is based on the theory of facet and overall job satisfaction that overall-global job satisfaction of employee is determined by some combination of all facets satisfaction feelings. Facets used in the this research are nine facets job satisfaction of Spector (1997): pay, promotion, supervision, fringe benefits, contingent reward, operating condition, coworkers, nature of work, communication. While, based on the job characteristics theory (Hackman and Oldham 1975, 1980) this research derived a theoretical framework for explaining empirical relationships between job characteristics and outcomes. This approach posits that core characteristics of jobs induce psychological states that in turn lead to job satisfaction, job performance, motivation and turnover. Job characteristics covers five cores of job that affect job attitudes and behavior: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and job feedback. In addition, other theories strongly proposed that an important effect of job satisfaction is organizational commitment (Hrebeniak and Alluto,1972; Bluedorn, 1982; Clegg, 1983; Mathieu and Zajac, 1990). It is largely assumed that employees with higher job satisfaction will be more committed to the organization. While employees’ organizational commitment positively affects their performance, productivity and organization tenure and negatively correlated to turnover, withdrawal behavior, and absteein.
According to theories discussed, a working model of this research can be derived from the correlation of facets of job satisfaction to overall-global job satisfaction, job satisfaction and job characteristics to organizational commitment (figure 1). Facets job satisfaction covers several factors that influence the degree of overall-global job satisfaction. The facets positively affect job satisfaction, the higher a person gets from the facets of job satisfaction the higher the level of job satisfaction (hypothesis 1). Meanwhile, job characteristics also have an important influence to job satisfaction. It positively affects job satisfaction (hypothesis 2). The job characteristics induce psychological states that turn lead to job satisfaction. In addition, one of the consequences of job satisfaction is organizational commitment, a person with higher job satisfaction will be more committed to the organization (hypothesis 3).


MEASURES
This research used four scales to measure the research variables: job satisfaction facets, global job satisfaction, job characteristics, and organizational commitment (The Job Satisfaction Survey, the Michigan Organizational Assessment Questionnaire, the Job Diagnostic Survey, and The Porter, Steers, Mowday, and Boulian Organizational Commitment Scales).

RESULTS
The results of this study indicate that employees are satisfied with their job in supervision, coworkers, nature of work, and communication. In contrast, employees seem to have low level of satisfaction with pay and promotion opportunities. It also proposed that employees have a fairly high level of job characteristics. It means that generally employees have positive job attitudes and behaviors regarding the five core job characteristics. Employees consider that they have used a variety of skills and talents in doing their job. The results also indicate that employees can do a complete job from beginning to end with visible outcomes and give a substantial impact to others. Employees also have a freedom and independence in doing their job and could receive a clear feedback about the job that have done. Results for organizational commitment also show a fairly high commitment to the organization. Generally, employees are committed to the organization in term of the three primary components of organizational commitment: a strong belief and acceptance of the organization’s goals and values, a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization, and a strong desire to maintain membership in the organization.
The research also proposed that the correlation between facet job satisfaction and global job satisfaction is significant. Each facet of job satisfaction significantly influences the level of global job satisfaction. Natures of work and benefit have the most important influence on global satisfaction. Then, supervision, contingent reward, and coworkers have a moderate effect on global job satisfaction.
Results on the correlation between job characteristics and job satisfaction indicated a significant effect for job characteristics on job satisfaction. Each job characteristic (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and job feedback) contribute an equal amount to job satisfaction. It consistent with the main theory of job characteristics (Hackman and Oldham, 1975) that the core characteristics of jobs induce psychological states that in turn lead to job satisfaction, job performance, motivation and turnover.
Corresponding to the job satisfaction-commitment theories that satisfied workers are more committed to an organization, this research produced a consistent result for correlation between job satisfaction and organizational commitment. An employee’s organizational commitment (strong belief and acceptance of the organization’s goals and values, willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization, strong desire to maintain membership in the organization) positively influences an employee’s job satisfaction.
Generally, the results of this research reflect a specific condition of a public sector organization. According to this research’s variables, there are some differences between the public and private sectors in job external factors that influence employees’ job satisfaction. Generally, the private sector offers higher pay and benefits to employees than public sector organization. Under this circumstance, private sector employees tend to have higher pay satisfaction. On the other hand, public sector employees have a higher chance for career opportunities and tend to have higher satisfaction regarding retirement benefits and job security. Moreover, under the current economic circumstances of Indonesia, employment in the public sector is stable. However, the private sector sometimes is forced to downsize or rationalize in order to deal with difficult economic conditions. This condition causes the organizational commitment of public sector employees to be higher than the private sector. Private sector employees focus on pay and immediate benefits. Some studies show that rapid job change is common among Indonesian employees in the private sectors. Ichimura (1985) proposed that if the chance arises (in the form of payment or position), Indonesian middle managers would think nothing of leaving their company.
According to the results, the research suggested that management might be able to increase the level of job satisfaction in the organization by increasing satisfaction with payment and promotion. In the view of promotion, management could reevaluate its promotion system and promotion planning. It consists of several elements, such as organizational policy, identification of promotion channel, selection and appraisal, training and development, communication and centralized record and coordination (Beach, 1980). Meanwhile, management should reevaluate whether the payment system and payment policy are appropriate to the recent employees’ requirements. Surely, it should be concerned with both external and internal payment requirements. Internal requirements are associated with whether pay is appropriate to the job itself, and external requirements relates to whether pay is appropriate to the external socio-economic condition of employees.
The results also suggested management to give a more attention to the nature of work and benefit because they contribute the highest influence on employee’s job satisfaction. According to the influence of job characteristics on employee job satisfaction, management should also be concerned with the five core job characteristics (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and job feedback) in order to get effective outcomes from employees. One way of addressing this could be through job design and job analysis. One important component of the modern effort to improve productivity and the quality of work life has been to emphasize job design (Milkovich and Boudreau, 1991). Through job design, management could integrate work content, qualifications, and rewards for each job in a way that meets the needs of employees and the organization. Meanwhile, through job analysis, management could determine complete information about a specific job. It includes a job description that contains job items condition (identification of the task performed, the equipment utilities, the materials, products or services involved, the duties, location/environment, supervision given or received, working condition, hazards) and job specification that contains human qualifications necessary to do the job (education, experience, training, judgment, initiative, physical effort, physical skill, responsibilities, communication skill, and emotional characteristics).
This study identified job satisfaction and it correlation with nine facets of job satisfaction, job characteristics, and organizational commitment among employees of the Indonesian Ministry of Communication. Beneficially to the management if any future studies that deeply discuss and explore each factor, which influence employee’s job satisfaction. It is also suggested that further study can identify other factors that relate to individual factors related to job satisfaction, such as personality, self esteem, affectivity, emotional condition, and life satisfaction.