Satisfaction_at_Work.docx.pdf

Satisfaction at Work 1

Satisfaction at Work

Liberty University

BMAL 500

Satisfaction at Work 2

Abstract

The goal of any organization is to ensure that they have happy employees. To do this,

supervision at all levels must understand what it takes to insure this. Being able to identify the

factors in one’s organization is important. Hersberg’s Two-Factor Theory is one theory that has

been widely used to determine what factors lead to increased and decreased job satisfaction. In

the sections to follow, you will see how the Hersberg’ Two-Factor Theory ties into job

be used to identify the areas that need work. The recommendations listed fall under only one of

the factors.

Keywords: Hersberg’s Two-Factor Theory, Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, Micro-managing

Satisfaction at Work 3

Step 1

For the men and women that work in the missile maintenance career field, the one

section that they will all tell you that they don’t want to go to is the Vehicle and Equipment

Section (VES). They say this because VES is look upon as a dumping ground were all the

troubled airmen go when they are no longer wanted in their primary work section. Because of

this negative attitude toward VES, the airmen within the section feel mistreated, untrustworthy,

have mentioned have led to dissatisfaction with the military, which has caused good airmen to

separate from the military. In the year that I have been in charge, changes have been made to

how VES is viewed which has turn it into one of the more sought out places to work. I have seen

airmen aren’t motivated and why morale is low. As I move forward I will discuss what the issues

were that led to job dissatisfaction in my organization.

There are many things that can lead an employee to being satisfied or dissatisfied

with the job that they are performing. Herzberg’s Two-Factor theory is broke down into two

different areas of motivation and hygiene, as they relate to positive and negative job satisfaction

in the work place[ CITATION Als17 \l 1033 ]. Based off this theory, as long as an employee is

happy with their current environment, they are satisfied. The moment that a employee starts to

become bored our disinterested, they become dissatisfied. What I had discovered within my

Satisfaction at Work 4

organization was that the lack of involvement by the shop boss and the micro-managing of the

work section had caused the airmen to lose interest their job.

Under the hygiene factor of Herzberg’s theory, the supervision is a reason for job

dissatisfaction. It is stated that poor leadership and management may decrease the level of

satisfaction in the work place[ CITATION Als17 \l 1033 ]. The things noted from the previous

leadership was the lack of job knowledge, the unwillingness to work with other airmen, and the

failed inspection and long work hours directed by upper management because the current

supervision couldn’t lead their people, cause upper management to replace the shop boss only

after four months of being in charge.

perception of the work section, the quality of the airmen being moved into the section and the

way that the other work sections treat the airmen in VES. These are also known as the artifacts,

which are the physical manifestation of an organizations culture[ CITATION Kni18 \l 1033 ].

These things are the key areas that needed to be addressed.

Who’s Involved

The military is no different than any other organization when it comes the chain

of command structure. You always have a boss that has a boss that has a boss. In my case it’s

the flight commander followed by the operation officer who reports to squadron commander who

Satisfaction at Work 5

reports to the group commander and it just keeps going up until you get to the president. Moving

forward I will discuss the many individuals that have their hands in everything and the roles that

they play.

Coming into this organization I knew that I was going to have to hit the ground

running. I usually like to sit back at first and get the lay of land before I come in guns a blazing.

With the leadership that I had, there wasn’t time to get the lay of the land. Because of the person

to micro-manage me as well. All of this was happening because of the lack of trust from the

person I replaced. As one can see, the first challenge was getting my leadership to back off and

gain their trust. Because of the lack of trust, you could tell that the airmen were not happy with

the lack of trust and the lack of supervisor involvement that the airmen weren’t satisfied with

their job. With the lack of supervisor involvement was the threat of the airmen doing whatever

they wanted. This did create counterproductive work behavior that increased tardiness, internet

usage for personal reason and gossiping[ CITATION Kni18 \l 1033 ].

With everything that was happening, opportunities did open. One such

opportunity was improving the training program. According to Hasebur Rahman, every

organization needs, well-adjusted, trained, and experienced people to be able to effectively and

efficiently perform tasks[ CITATION Rah14 \l 1033 ]. The current training program didn’t

Satisfaction at Work 6

ensure that those who were being trained were comfortable doing tasks that they were signed off

on. There also wasn’t a process for evaluating the airmen after they were signed off on task. I

had discovered this by walking around and watching my airmen work. On more than one

occasion I had to correct them on the proper way of completing the task. Also, I found that some

of the airmen weren’t even signed off or trained on the task that they were doing.

The above is just a snippet of the main areas in my organization that needed

I feel the job satisfaction and dissatisfaction is within my organization.

Step 2

In the article Hersberg’s Two-Factor Theory, the author establishes that the theory

experiencing. The authors examined many studies in the nursing field along with their own.

They discovered that Hersberg’s hygiene factors are less important to job satisfaction, were as

motivation factors are the most important and lead to job satisfaction[ CITATION Als17 \l

1033 ]. Being in the military, I feel that there isn’t much you can do with hygiene factors like

pay and the actual work environment like the base location. However, there are things we can do

with the work conditions and supervision.

In reading this article, there weren’t any indicators that I was able to pick out.

Throughout our textbook one can find were the text talks about things that motivate people, as

Satisfaction at Work 7

well as things that can make a supervisor or manager better. Even though Hersberg’s motivation

and hygiene theory are connected to job satisfaction, each of the individual factors can be used

by supervisors and manager to help their employees find satisfaction in their jobs. Each sub

section that was mentioned has to do more with the motivation and hygiene theory than anything

else.

The article as a whole is relevant to the issues that I have faced within my

satisfaction from our jobs. The hygiene factor mentions things like salary, supervision, and

working conditions to name a few. These hygiene factor can lead to job dissatisfaction, but it is

up to the individual to determine what job is best for them before they accept the job. As a

winter our airmen must work in temperatures that are sometimes below zero degrees. The only

thing I can do is implement a work rest cycle to prevent them from getting frost bite once a

certain temperature is reached.

One hygiene factor that I can control is the supervision that I am over. In the

article that I found, the author states that the supervisor needed to have the willingness to

delegate responsibility or teach, fairness and job knowledge[ CITATION Als17 \l 1033 ]. These

are things that are covered in my feedback reports to the supervisors under me. However, not all

Satisfaction at Work 8

supervisor follows what was laid out in the feedback. From Hersberg’s motivation and hygiene

theory, even these small things can increase or decrease job satisfaction.

Step 3

In this section I will be going over the recommendations for the issue at hand.

After each recommendation, I will add how we need to move forward to implement it. With the

issues that have been occurring, I feel that the Hersberg’s Two-Factor theory is useful in

The fist recommendation we will discuss is how to get the supervision involved. I

picked this because the supervision is the first contact that these airmen will see when they arrive

from technical training. We want the supervisors to set a good example for the airmen and show

her/his superiors, subordinates and peers[ CITATION Als17 \l 1033 ].

The whole point behind this to decrease the dissatisfaction in the job. However,

the downside that I see to building these relationships is that the supervision and their employees

can become too comfortable with each other. This can in turn be perceived as an unprofessional

relationship that could affect the moral and motivation of the work section and lead to

dissatisfaction in the job. This ties into the competence or incompetence, and fairness or

unfairness of the supervisor[ CITATION Als17 \l 1033 ]. A competent and fair supervisor will

ensure that a relationship does not get out of hand, while an incompetent and unfair supervisor

Satisfaction at Work 9

won’t care enough to keep the relationship professional. It’s a fine line that management has to

make sure is followed. If management doesn’t stay engaged, things can get out of hand very

quickly.

The next recommendation would be for me as a manager talking to my leadership

about their micro-managing. It’s very difficult to manage a work section when you are

consistently being told how to do it by those above you. To get leadership to back off, I would

Asking my leadership to give more control of delegation of authority and changing the policies

and procedures as well as getting them to improve their communication[ CITATION Als17 \l

1033 ]. This would increase my own satisfaction which would make me want to work harder.

to me because of how involved my leadership was. It made feel like I wasn’t in charge of my

work section. The amount of time that I was spending trying to get my leadership to back off,

started to burn me out. Fortunately, I didn’t give up and kept pushing back until leadership

listened to me. If it would have been anyone else, they probably would have just rolled over and

let leadership continue to micro-manage them.

The last recommendation involves revamping the training program. This is

probably one of the easier recommendations that can be implemented quickly. Employee

training is a learning experience: it seeks a relatively permanent change in employees that