MGT3002 Week 1 Discussion

Job Satisfaction, Personality, Emotions © 2016 South University

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Organizational Behavior

©2016 South University

2 Job Satisfaction, Personality, Emotions

MGT3002 W1 L3

JOB SATISFACTION

Job satisfaction is something we all want. But what determines job satisfaction? Most people assume that the happier people are, the more productive they will be. Research supports this assumption by showing that if an organization has more satisfied employees, then the organization's performance is likely to be better. Job satisfaction is also positively correlated with low absenteeism and low turnover.

But what about dissatisfied employees? Will a dissatisfied employee's performance be worse? Possibly, but this mainly occurs when the dissatisfaction is long-term. Most people experience short periods of dissatisfaction, part of which may be from the job and part of which may come from outside of work.

Many companies recognize that satisfied service and customer- support employees are likely to improve customer satisfaction. In contrast dissatisfied employees who deal directly with customers are more likely to generate unhappy customers. Dissatisfied customers, in turn, become more negative with unhappy employees, leading to greater negative feelings overall.

As a result, it would be productive to recognize, monitor, and study the effect of customers' anger on satisfaction and productivity among customer support and service staff.

PERSONALITY

Do you have a strong personality? A moderate one? A weak one? These are questions that an average person would ask. However,

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Organizational Behavior

©2016 South University

3 Job Satisfaction, Personality, Emotions

MGT3002 W1 L3

as a professional manager you would need to go into more detail by focusing on personality.

Simply put, the concept of personality tries to capture the sum total of a person. Principally, this refers to how a person responds and relates to others. Personality is shaped by heredity, the environment, and situational conditions.

Heredity is a very significant determinant of personality. However, environmental factors have a significant effect on our personalities, particularly during our early years. The cultural and social traditions and practices that we experience during these early years are the most important in determining our personality. In addition, situations as they arise also affect how we behave.

The most common way to describe personalities is through traits. These are the persistent and consistent characteristics of a person. We commonly refer to traits such as hard-working, ambitious, submissive, timid, and dominant. Traits are the most commonly used parameters in the measurement of personality.

There are major personality attributes that are of interest to organizations. Some of these are risk-taking, self-esteem, self- monitoring, locus of control, and Machiavellianism.

EMOTIONS

Emotions are inseparable from personality. However, for a long time, people in organizations believed that emotions did not belong in the workplace, that emotions were problematic and disruptive, and that control over emotions was a virtue. There were many who even believed that having and displaying emotions was a sign of weakness.

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Organizational Behavior

©2016 South University

4 Job Satisfaction, Personality, Emotions

MGT3002 W1 L3

In recent years, there has been a discernible shift in this perspective, and as a result, more organizations are placing emphasis on the value of emotions. People are also recognizing that emotions are both inevitable and necessary. In fact, it is the withholding or suppression of emotions that is now considered to be a sign of disturbance or "weakness," as is being over-emotional.

Of recent interest among organizations is the concept and measure of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is measured along the five dimensions of self-awareness, self- motivation, self-management, empathy, and social skills.

One of the most significant discoveries is that emotional intelligence has more to do with success and high performance than Intelligence Quotient (IQ) does. Many organizations have been using emotional intelligence in their selection procedures with a good deal of success.