In today’s competitive business environment, technically skilled employees have become the most indispensable determinants and factors that lead to the success and growth of any organization. A good management of these employees will help the organizations to gain sustainable competitive advantages which in return results in attainment of organizational objectives. The technical, skilled employees consist of two types, namely hard and soft skills. For the purpose of this study the focus was based on employees who possess hard skills. These employees are the ones that have acquired skills in welding, electrical engineering, fitting, boiler- making and mechanical engineering, from college, university, technical school or have acquired their skills on the job. Therefore, these employees will be called artisan employees for the whole of this study. Artisan employees are said to have the skills and knowledge needed to operate and maintain complex diamond mines properties.
It is of great benefit for organizations’ managers to properly manage these valuable assets. Artisan employees’ retention is the major concern for Lesotho Diamond Companies due to employee turnover and prolongs unfilled positions requiring artisan employees. This shortage frustrates this companies’ management as a result of investing time, money and effort on employees during the employment process only to leave a short time later. The shortage of artisan employees and low employee commitment are the results of employee dissatisfaction and weak organizational identity in the Lesotho Diamond Mine Companies.
Therefore, good management of these talent employees is an important aspect of organizational processes which results in an increased organizational performance, increased employee retention and attraction. A well-managed and successful organization is normally the one that considers its employees as the primary source of productivity and comparative advantage gains. This organization considers both talent employees and capital as the core foundation of the business and contributors of organizational development. To ensure the achievement of organizational goals, there is a need for an organization to create an atmosphere of its employees’ commitment and cooperation through organizational policies and regulations that facilitate artisan employee job satisfaction. Highly motivated employees become loyal and committed to their organizations resulting in high productivity and reduced employee turnover (Mosammod and Kabir, 2011).
It is crucial for organizational managers know the factors that affect employee job satisfaction because satisfied employees normally perform their work effectively and efficiently. They also become committed to their jobs and identify themselves with the organization. Satisfied employees consider the organization’s successes and failures as their successes and failures. The knowledge and understanding of the factors that influence employee job satisfaction will help the management of the Lesotho Diamond Companies come out with strategies to mitigate the shortage of artisan employees (Ismail, 2012). This is because the successes and growth of Lesotho diamond industry depend on artisan employees’ organizational commitments because the entire operation of the company depends on these employees’ efforts. Moreover, the committed employees are the ones who are satisfied with their work and identify themselves with their organizational membership. These employees internalize their organizations’ attributes as their own attributes (Yonetim, 2015).
Therefore, in order to meet the fluctuating organizations’ product demands in the global competitive market, it is critical for diamond mine companies’ management to utilize their organizational identity in order to increase job satisfaction of its employees (Ivancevich, 2014). Organizational identity can be used as a strategy to retain and attract artisan employees’ which will in turn result in decreased artisan employee turnover and reduced shortage of artisan employees. Organizational identity influences the way the organizational management deals with the organization’s problems and conflicts, establish competitive advantage, strategies and set organizational goals.
This study, therefore, used Lesotho Diamond Companies as a case study due to the fact that it is a major driver of Lesotho’s economic growth and development within the diamond mining industry. The company’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) is around 9%, employed 1500 employees, of which 1,350 employees are local people. The growth of diamond industry has significantly contributed to the increase in the diamond industry’s share of GDP from 0.2% in 2000 to 8.5% in 2016. Diamond industry has also been pivotal in increasing Lesotho’s export earnings resulting in an increased gross foreign reserve as its diamonds are traded in the international markets. The industry accounts for 70% of the Lesotho’s corporate tax revenue and 60% of its foreign exchange earnings.
The rationale for choosing a Diamond industry as the study area is that, it has been experiencing a shortage of artisan employees as a result of artisan employees’ turnovers and prolongs unfilled artisan employees’ positions. Therefore, the decrease in industry’s profitability results in a decline in production, which reduces the mining sector share of GDP and total export earnings. In response to this, the diamond companies led by Letšeng Diamonds embarked on an intensive exercise focusing on a global search for qualified and experienced Basotho citizens who have skills on welding, electrical engineering, fitting, boiler-making and mechanical engineering and other mining related skills, who are willing to work in Lesotho. The outcome of the study was that there is a limited pool of available skilled Basotho people and they are not willing to work in Lesotho’s diamond mining industry (Council of Higher Education, 2016).
The focus of this study was to determine which among the three organizational identity features (centrality, distinctiveness and continuity) has a significant and positive effect on employees’ job satisfaction. These features were defined by Albert and Whetten (1985) as: (1) what employee perceived to be central, that is the centrality of organizational identity. The centrality of organizational identity is representing those features that are essential to the existence of an organization. This means those features, beliefs and norms that cannot change without triggering a substantial redefinition of the nature of the organization; (2) what employee perceived to be distinctive, that is distinctive of organizational identity. The Distinctiveness of organizational identity represents those features that differentiate the organization from other organizations, so that it can be distinguished from other organizations with similar features. This shows that, these features are used to assess the difference between an organization and its competitors and; (3) what employee perceived to be continued/enduring, that is the continuity of organizational identity which represents those features that exhibit some degree of sameness or continuously over time about the organization (Albert and Whetten, 1985).
Therefore, finding and understanding how organizational identity can influence employee job satisfaction will help the Diamond Mine Companies to establish better ways to strategically utilize their organizational identity in order to increase levels of job satisfaction of its artisan employees. This will lead to an increased artisan employees’ propensity to stay and ultimately reduced shortage of artisan employees.
The study will help the management of the Diamonds Mine Companies together with those of mining sector in understanding the impact of organizational identity features on employee job satisfaction and employees’ propensity to stay. Understanding the importance of strong organizational identity in increasing employee job satisfaction and reducing turnover will help managers to develop strategies that improve companies’ identity. The findings of this research will, first of all, inform the management on how organizational identity can be used as organizational strategy in reducing artisan employees’ shortage.
In addition, the research will provide valuable information to the management in understanding the factors that affect artisan employee job satisfaction together with those that lead to strong organizational identity. Employee job satisfaction is perceived to be an important driver of employees’ organizational identity which in turn leads to low employee turnover. It is of utmost important that the management knows and understands these factors. This will assist the management in creating a conducive working environment for these talent employees in order to increase their level of job satisfaction hence high employees’ propensity to stay.
Knowing which organizational identity features significantly and positively impacts on artisan employee job satisfaction, it will make it easy for diamond Companies management to make informed decisions pertaining to compensation, supervision, working conditions and personal growth for the benefit of the artisan employees, as well as the organization. The findings of the research will definitely contribute to the body of knowledge, especially regarding raising job satisfaction of artisan employees within the mining industry in Lesotho.
Researcher, therefore, hopes that this study will provide the management of the Lesotho Diamond Companies with organizational identity factors that significantly contribute to the reduction of artisan employees’ shortage. It is important to retain and attract valuable employees and minimize the turnover hence shortage. In order to face global artisan employee’s shortage, the company’s concern should be more towards raising job satisfaction of its existing employees which will help in retaining and attracting new employees.
The study will also contribute to the literature related to the relationship between organizational identity features and artisan employees’ job satisfaction. The findings of this study will also enhance knowledge on the importance of organizational identity features in organizational life and their impact on employee job satisfaction within the diamond industry. This will also provide a knowledge base for a number of academicians and researchers who are interested in organizational behavior and employee job satisfaction.
The diamond industry is one of the main economic growth and development drivers in Lesotho and thus, the interest in studying this industry is very important. Therefore, this industry needs to be managed in the manner that both organizations and employees are benefiting. The organizations with the shortage of capital may resort to borrowing money from financial providers. However, if this shortage is on technical, skilled workers, it cannot be solved by borrowing hence little chance of survival in such organization. Therefore, for the purpose of this study, the Lesotho Diamond Industry was selected as a case study due to its massive contribution to the Lesotho’s economic growth (with approximately 9%) and employment opportunities. In addition to this, Diamond Industry is the largest taxpayer and contributor of foreign earnings in Lesotho. The company is also the largest employer of around 2,500 employees, of which 90% are local employees. Despite the industry’s massive contribution to Lesotho economic growth, it is faced with the problem of artisan employees’ shortage due to employee turnover and prolongs unfilled positions requiring artisan employees. This shortage is negatively affecting the industry’s ability to operate profitably and continuously contributing efficiently to the Lesotho’s revenue and employment creation.
The risk imposed by this shortage within the Lesotho diamond industry was also highlighted by Letšeng Diamond Mine Company Chairman Clifford Elphick, who is also the chief executive of Gem Diamonds during the launch of the Letšeng Diamond Discovery Centre in Maseru. He stated that the key risk to a sustainable Lesotho diamond industry and, a major hindrance to the growth of the diamond mining sector are due to lack of technical skills (both hard and soft skills) available in the Lesotho labour market to operate complex diamond mine machinery confidently and effectively. The success and growth of any company largely depend on its ability to attract and retain suitably qualified and experienced employees (LesothoTimes, 2016).
This study, therefore, drew inspiration from several discussions concerning the shortage of artisan employees facing diamond mining industry in Lesotho. This shortage of artisan employees is identified as the main problem hindering both success and growth of the Lesotho Diamond Industry. It is, therefore, negatively affecting the industry in terms of replacement and disrupted work (Lesotho Mining and Mineral Policy, 2016), (National Strategic Development Plan, 2013).
In attempting to solve this problem, the aim of this study is to determine the relationship between organizational identity and job satisfaction of artisan employees and identify which, among three organizational identity features has a significant positive relationship with job satisfaction. It is important to note that an improvement in these features will lead not only to reduced shortage of artisan employees, but also to an increased organizational life and employee’s propensity to stay which in turn would make a significant impact on the growth and development of the organization. This analysis also helped to identify factors that affect job satisfaction of artisan employees and influence strong organizational identity in order to assist the organization to retain and attract these valuable resources. Therefore, finding and understanding the factors that lead to both strong organizational identity and high level of job satisfaction of artisan employees will help Lesotho Diamond Mine Companies management to establish better ways to strategically utilize its organizational identity to increase its artisan employee job satisfaction. This will ultimately lead to an increased artisan employee job satisfaction and reduced artisan employees’ shortage.
The main objective of this study is to determine the relationship between organizational identity and employee job satisfaction. This study would further identify which, among the three organizational identity features (centrality, distinctiveness and continuity) is the most driver of job satisfaction of artisan employees. In addition, the outcome of this study will also provide a room for a better understanding of the factors which are positively and negatively affecting both artisan employee job satisfaction and organizational identity in the Lesotho Diamond Mine Companies.
There are several researches on employee job satisfaction done by other researchers which have identified factors affecting employee job satisfaction. However, none of these studies looked into the relationship between organizational identity features and job satisfaction of which is the focus of this study. In this study, researchers have identified factors that affect artisan employee job satisfaction and organizational identity in addition to the ones from previous researches. Therefore, from the main research objective, the following specific objectives have been derived:
Objective 1: To determine the relationship between organizational identity and artisan employee job satisfaction
Objective 2: To identify which, among three organizational identity features, significantly and positively impact on job satisfaction of artisan employees in the Lesotho Diamond Companies.
Objective 3: To identify the factors that influence strong organizational identity
Objective 4: To identify the factors that affect artisan employees’ job satisfaction
The attainment of these objectives will help researchers provide a theoretical overview on relationship between organizational identity features and employee job satisfaction. Finally, taking into consideration on job satisfaction and organizational identity literature, this study, before highlighting the recommendations, will conclude by stating which feature of organizational identity significantly and positively affect artisan employees’ job satisfaction within Lesotho Diamond Industry (Xingwana, 2012).
Based on both research objectives and problem statement, the research addressed the following three research questions:
Question 1: What is the relationship between organizational identity and artisan employees’ job satisfaction?
Question 2: Which among three organizational identity features is the most driver of job satisfaction?
Question 3: What are the factors influencing a strong organizational identity? Question 4: What are the factors affecting artisan employees’ job satisfaction?
When conducting a research, it is crucial for a researcher to identify the direction of logic, which is guided by either of the two research approaches: deduction and induction. The difference between the two approaches is that an induction approach generalizes the findings from the observation while deduction tests the theories with the results from the observations. Based on these distinctions, this research adopted an inductive research approach which has the advantage of using actual data rather than being merely derived from logical assumptions from literature. According to this approach, researchers begin with specific observation, which are used to produce generalized theories and conclusions drawn from the research. The reasons for employing inductive approach were because it is the most appropriate approach for newly collected data and small sample size (Khalid et al, 2012).
The inductive approach also helps to establish a clear link between the research objectives and the research findings derived from the raw data. When applying this approach, researchers began with specific observation, which in turn were used to produce generalized theories and conclusions based on research results. Even though the inductive approach is most appropriate for a small number of observations, its main weakness is to produce generalized theories and conclusions based on this limited information, thereby the reliability of research results being under question (Creswell, 2014), (Langos, 2014).
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Figure 1. The Logical framework of an Inductive Research Method to be employed; Source: ( Creswell, 2014 ).
The scope of this research was based on organizational identity and job satisfaction of artisan employees: The case of Lesotho diamond Industry in Lesotho. Lesotho Diamond Industry is located in the mountainous Districts of Lesotho. The companies’ headquarters are based in the capital city of Lesotho in Maseru district.
Diamond Industry is a major force in Lesotho’s economy, employing about 1,500 workers, 90% of them are local employees. The industry contributes 70% of Lesotho’s corporate tax revenue and 60% of foreign exchange earnings. The rationale for using this company as a case study was due to its massive contribution to Lesotho’s economic growth and development. The study population included 106 artisans which consist of welders, boiler-makers, electrical engineers, fitters and mechanical engineers. Data collection was done within a period of one week starting from 19th September 2017 to 24th September 2017. Before, distributing the questionnaire, the researcher assured the respondents about confidentiality with the aim of increasing the response rate and honesty in responding to the questionnaire and they were also given two days to answer and hand back the questionnaire to the researcher at the agreed time and place. It was not possible to cover all technical, skilled employees due to time constraint that is why this study only focused on the artisans.
This study showed the importance of organizational identity with three features in raising job satisfaction of artisan employees. It also showed how organizational identity can be used as technical employees’ attraction and retention strategy. There are several studies conducted on the relationships between organizational identification, culture, image, and Commitment in relation to job satisfaction.
However, none of them has realized the importance of organizational identity as a strategy that organizations can use to overcome the problem of employee turnover and shortage. The uniqueness of this study is that it strives towards utilization of three organizational identity features in increasing job satisfaction of artisan employees. This study will also help diamond mining companies realize the importance of strong organizational identity in retaining and attracting of artisan employees.
This section presents key terms and their definitions used in this study.
a. Organizational Identity signifies the internal perception. It has three features which are: (1) central attributes representing those features that are fundamental to the organization; (2) continuity attributes representing those features that are continuing over time and (3) distinctive attributes representing those features that are uniquely described (Albert and Whetten, 1985).
b. Organizational Identification: Organizational Identification represents the oneness between employees and organizations they belong to (Ashforth and Mael, 1992), (Ismail, 2012), (Albert and Whetten, 1985).
c. Organizational Commitment shows the psychological bond which unit employee to the organization. It consists of three-components which highlight: (1) Affective commitment which reflects the employees’ emotional attachment to an organization when identify themselves with an organization and enjoy the membership; (2) Continuance commitment which reflects the employees’ perceived costs-benefit evaluation of maintaining organizational membership; and (3) Normative commitment which reflects the employees’ feelings of obligation to remain with the organization (Ismail, 2012), (AL-Mugatti et al, 2016).
d. Organizational Culture is defined as common expectations and standards as well as the values, beliefs, norms and knowledge that both organizational members and outsiders hold central and that bind organizational groups. This shows that organizational culture represents the set of shared understanding of the organization’s mission by its employees and outsiders; organizational values which guide decision-making and activities carried out at three levels of organization and norms that control organization members’ interactions with each other and with outsiders (He and Bown, 2013), (Tastan, 2012).
e. Organizational Image: Organizational image is defined as the actual perspectives that internal members believe outsiders view their organization (Hatch and Schultz, 2000). The perception of an organization’s identity from the outsiders is captured by the notion of an organizational image, which is the externally produced symbols and interpretations made by outsiders about the company (Karim et al, 2002), (Azadehdel et al, 2013).
f. Job Satisfaction refers to the employees’ positive feelings and attitudes towards their jobs and other related job components such as better working environment, working conditions, compensation and relationship with their supervisors and co-workers. This definition shows that employees’ job satisfaction signifies how individual employees feel about their job and organization they work for. Therefore, for the purpose of this study, employees’ job satisfaction means a positive feelings and attitudes in which employees perceive about the job-related variables such as work itself, job security, compensation, working environment and conditions, employees-supervisor relationship as well as employees’ relationship with co-workers (Abraham, 2012), (Ahmed et al, 2011), (Aziri, 2011).
g. Artisan Employees: Artisan employees are the employees working in the following positions: Welders, Electrical engineers, Fitters, Boiler-makers and Mechanical engineers in the diamond industry. These employees acquired their skills from college, university, technical school or have acquired their skills on the job.
This study is structured into the following order: This research comprises of five chapters. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the thesis and highlights the background and significance, research problem statement and structure, research method which shows the method followed by this research, what data was collected and the data collection instrument used to gather data, why particular technique of data analysis is suitable for research problem. Chapter 2 presents a literature review which contains a detailed section with an outline of previous literature and theories concerning organizational identity and job satisfaction, and the relation between the two concepts. This review provides definitions of important terms, the conceptual literature and the empirical literature consisting of studies made prior which are similar to the proposed research. This chapter also presents drivers and determinants of these two concepts. It also provides the study variables and their measurements. Chapter 3 explores research methodology which entails the study design, sampling procedure, data collation and method, types of data, data analysis and techniques, criteria for evaluating the instrument, descriptive statistics analysis and regression analysis.
This chapter outlines how the research was conducted that is qualitatively and quantitatively. Chapter 4 presents the data analysis and presentation of findings which are relevant to the study questions and hypothesis from the questionnaire. The Econometric data analysis tool (E-views 9.5) was widely used to provide descriptive and inferential analyses for the study. Chapter 5 contains a conclusion, recommendations and limitations of the research. These limitations will lead to suggestions for future research in this specific research field of organizational identity and job satisfaction.
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Figure 2. Structure of Research
This chapter reviews the literature on organizational identity and goes further to discuss the organizational variables. It also provides the definitions of organizational identity and its three features as proposed by Albert and Whetten, (1985). The empirical studies on the relationship between organizational identity and employee job satisfaction will also be looked at. This will be followed by the review of literature on job satisfaction and its measurements. It will also look into the drivers and measurements of organizational identity and job satisfaction which affect employees in their daily work. Moreover, the researcher developed the research framework which links dependent variable with independent variables (the centrality of organizational identity, the distinctiveness of organizational identity and the continuity of organizational identity) (Albert and Whetten, 1985).
There are three sections in this chapter. The first section covers organizational identity and its related organizational variables such as organizational identification, organizational commitment, organizational culture and organizational image. The second section covers literature on job satisfaction and the factors that affect employee job satisfaction. The chapter ends with a summary of all subsections covered under both organizational identity and job satisfaction. It will also provide a brief introduction of chapter three. This will be followed by a theoretical framework which will provide the link between organizational identity features and employee job satisfaction in the form of econometric model.
Organizational identity has captured the interest of human resource management and organizational behavior scholars. Organizational identity is a strategic tool used to understanding the purpose and mission of the organization in the short-term. Organizational identity describes to the outsiders, “who are we?”, “what we want to become?” and “what we do?” as an organization. It serves organizational employees ‘retention strategy. It consists of two sides which are an external and internal perspective. From the external perspective side, there are competitive pressures and the desire for organizations to be recognized and supported. This side represents the interactions between an organization and its members and how members’ expectations about the actions of the organization are met which in turn influence their attitudes towards the organization (Dowling and Moran, 2012). From an internal perspective, organizational identity is viewed way organizational members to understand and define their roles in the organization. For the purpose of this research, the focus is on the internal aspects of organizational identity because our interest is in an employee organizational identity. Understanding the factors that lead to strong organizational identity, is crucial for managers to manage the organization’s capabilities and resources, frame organization’s strategic actions as well as an organizational problem solving. The knowledge of these factors will also help in increasing employees’ identification with the organization. Organizational identity helps the organizational manager to: (1) explain the purpose of the organization to employees; (2) improve organizational decision-making process; (3) facilitate their employees’ loyalty, and (4) be recognized by outsiders. It describes the employees’ organizational identification. This means that employees’ self-image is derived from the organizations they choose to identify themselves with (He and Bown, 2013), (Mosammod and Kabir, 2011). Therefore, the growth and success of an organization fully depend on its technical employees’ commitment which in turn, influenced by the strength of the organizational identity.
Organizational identity was originally introduced by Albert and Whetten (1985), on the base of Social Identity Theory in social psychology. In this concept, they reaffirmed that organizational identity symbolizes the internal environment, that is, employees’ view of the organization. They conceptualized the organizational identity as what employee perceived to be central, distinctive and continuing about the organization. They further highlighted that organizational the distinctiveness of organizational identity motivates employees to maintain consistency between their self- perceptions and the characteristics of the organization. This means that when employees identify themselves with their organization, their perceived self-worth resembles what they feel is central, enduring, and distinctive about the organization. In addition, they further indicated that organizational identity is the boundary between the claims made by internal members and the one granted by outsiders. This definition means that organizational identity symbolizes the degree to which employees identify themselves with the organization as a result of having the same attributes that they believe define the organization (Ashforth and Mael, 1992,1989), (Glynn, 2013), (Albert and Whetten, 1985).
In addition, Gallup, (2013) and Gioia et al, (2013), emphasized that organizations with a strong organizational identity have strong central values, more distinctive compare to other organizations with similar characteristics and the longer the identity remains the same over time. Employees’ beliefs about the distinctiveness, the centrality and the continuity of the organization are important in improving their organizational identification (Gallup, 2014), (Gioia et al, 2013).
For the purpose of this study, organizational identity represents what employees perceived to be the central attributes about the organization, distinctive attributes about the organization in the eyes of its employees and unique from other competing organizations’ eyes and continuing about the organization over time. These three features of organizational identity suggest that support the notion that organizations with a strong organizational identity have central attributes, are distinctive from other organizations and remain the same for long periods (Oliver, 2003), (Witting, 2006).
In support of Albert and Whetten, (1985), Ashforth & Mael, (1992) stressed the importance of organizational identity in strengthening the employees’ identification with the organization. They stated that a strong organizational identity shows that a large part of the organization’s characteristics are similar to the one’s for employees’ personal characteristics. This combination, in turn, creates a strong employees’ organizational identification and then produces a psychological connection between the organization’s successes and failures together with the individual employees’ value of self-worth (Ashforth and Mael, 1992,1989). Organizational identity scholars generally agree to use the term “organizational identity” referring to (internal members)’ employees’ perceptions, and “organizational image” to refer to (external members) stakeholders’ perceptions about the central, distinctive and continuity of the organization (Ravasi, 2016). For the purpose of this study, the focus would be on internal members’ perceptions about the central, distinctive and continuity of the organization that is organizational identity.
Organizational identity can be used as a strategic lens influencing how organizations’ problems are resolved, decision-making processes are done, employees’ confidence for proactive behavior is built, institutional legitimacy necessary to attract talent employees is implemented and organizational goals are communicated to its employees. Organizational identity as strategy helps organization to answer the question of, ‘where we want to go and how do we reach there as organization?’ This question adds to the question of, “who we are and what we are as organization?” which seek to be answered by organizational identity. This, therefore, shows that organizational identity link employees with the organization in which they work for (Golmohammadi et al, 2016), (He and Bown, 2013), (Robbins, 2009), (Michal et al, 2011).
In support of this, Akbari et al (2014), indicated that understanding, developing, and strengthening the organizational identity is crucial for organizational managers in increasing employee’s identification with an organization which will help to reduce employee turnover. This will result to an increased employees’ positive organizational behavior consistent with the purposes of that organization, and ultimately help them achieve the organization’s intended purposes (Akbari et al, 2014).
According to Albert et al, (2000) and Albert & Whetten, (1985), organizational identity is required for organization to perform effectively and efficiently at all levels that is from individual, group, and organizational levels. A strong organizational identity is an advantage to the organization to attract and retain talent employees (Alby et al, 2011), (Albert & Whetten, 1985). Based on the fact that an organization functions at the three levels as mentioned above, it is, therefore, concluded that personal identity symbolizes the distinctiveness and incomparability of the employee which is shaped by his beliefs, attitude, behavior, values, traditions, principles, character, personality, self-concept, and group membership. The team level representing group identity which refers to the question of, “who we are as a group”. Lastly, at the organizational level, organizational identity signifies people’s view of the organization in relation to its mission and vision. This view of the organization, points to people’s relationship with the organization within the internal environment (Bueno et al, 2015), (Gioia et al, 2013), (Maritz and Jarne, 2014), (Sato, 2014).
In review of organizational identity literature, He and Brown (2013), identified four elements of organizational identity; namely functionalist, social constructionist, psychodynamic and postmodern. Under functionalist perspective,they highlighted that organizational identity is viewed as being tangible such as organizations’ logos and documents and official stories. On the other hand, under the social constructionist perspective, they stated that organizational identity is as socially constructed with shared understandings. In social constructionist perspective, they saw organizational identity as more organically evolved and less seen as under the thumb of executive decision-making. Under psycho-dynamic perspective, they considered organizational identity as something unknowable and that conscious efforts at defining identity of the organization, whether collective or individual, will lack certain unconscious process and as such makes definitions of organizational identity illusionary. Finally, under postmodern perspective, they regarded organizational identity as a myth or an illusion (He and Brown, 2013), (Oliver, 2003).
In addition to He and Brown in organizational literature, Gioia et al. (2013) also identified three additional perspectives which present organizational identity in different lights; social actor perspective, institutional perspective and population ecologist’s perspective. They indicated that under social actor perspective, an organization is seen as an entity that makes assertions about itself, and its role in society. In the institutional perspective, they considered organizations as being strongly influenced by institutional forces and as such propose more isomorphic tendencies among organizational identities. Finally, under population ecology perspective, they viewed organizational identity as something wholly defined by outsiders. In their view, an organization does not have an identity, but the identity can only be what outsiders or members believe it to be (Dowling and Moron, 2012), (Gioia et al, 2013).
In organizational identity theory, Albert and Whetten (1985) highlighted the importance of the continuity and distinctiveness of organizational identity in distinguishing one organization from its competing organizations. They hypothesize that the continuity of organizational identity provides an organization with a sense of belonging offering stability to its employees. In distinctiveness of organizational identity on the other hand, they emphasized the importance of the uniqueness of the organization compared to other organizations with similar characteristics. They further highlighted that this theory shows how employees are attached to their organizations and how they share a limited number of organizational identity attributes. They indicated that organizational identity consists of two components, namely: purpose and philosophy of the organization. It defines the importance of the organization’s existence and therefore reveals the real meaning underlying the work of the organization. The purpose also provides the linkages between organizational work and employees. It also informs culture and the road map that articulates for every employee in the organization, “how we do things around here.” This also helps to define organization’s identity and enhances the ability to adapt to environmental change. It also provides focus and allows for better allocation of resources. The purpose produces an organizational culture of the organization (Aguinis, 2012), (Gallup, 2014), (Hansen and Margolis, 2002), (Albert and Whetten, 1985).
They emphasized that the organizational purpose alone is not necessarily unique, but when combined with the philosophy yields the distinctive and enduring essence of the organizational identity. They, therefore, defined philosophy of the organization as the central character of the organization. In addition, they stated that employees believe that organizational philosophy is the source of the organization’s uniqueness and this attribute combined together with the organizational purpose is what loyal employees are typically connected to. These two components of organizational identity combined together defined centrality of organizational identity, distinctiveness of organizational identity and continuity of organizational identity (Hansen and Margolis, 2002).
The figure 3 below illustrates the relationship between organizational purpose and philosophy.
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Figure 3: Structure of Organizational Attributes (Albert and Whetten, 1985).
Social Identity Theory emphases the importance of organizational identity features and employees’ self-confidence in relation to organizational identity. The theory shows that the existence of consistency between employees’ self-perception and the attributes of employees’ organizational work, the stronger that employees identify themselves with the image and values of the organization they work for. It also highlights that employees seek to emphasize their own distinctiveness by attaching to organizations that they perceive as compatible and complimentary to their self-perceptions. It advocates that the existence of a strong bond between employees and their organization motivates them to strive hard to achieve organizational outcomes. Social identity theory proposes that an employee can acquire a more positive social identity through an association with workplaces that have positive identities. It also suggests that the individual identity is defined by the organization or work group to which they belong and how the individual identifies themselves with the organization. This provides the answer to the question of “who am I?” (Boutwell, 2003), (Lin, 2004).
Organizational members assess the attractiveness of an organization’s image based upon how well the image preserves the continuity of their self-concept, provides distinctiveness, and enhances self-esteem. The more an organization enhances its members’ self-concepts, the stronger the employees’ organizational identification becomes because the members define themselves with the characteristics indicative of the organization. A strong employee’ self-concept and organizational identity leads to more engaged and committed employees. Social identity theory construction enables employees to relate to one’s environment through an intricately intertwined process that includes one’s immediate environment, organization, and society at large (Cetin et al, 2016), (Moksness, 2014). The organizational identity helps organization’s managers to efficiently and effectively manage their employees in order to achieve organizational performance and implement both organizational short and long-term strategies. Therefore, organizational identity is an important subject which has a great potential to help organizations to increase levels of employees’ job satisfaction which in turn will result to the attraction and retention of artisan employees. This will result to a decrease employee turnover and reduced artisan employees’ shortage (Phillips and Ravasi, 2011).
Hatch and Schultz (2002), emphasized that employees’ beliefs about organizational identity features; distinctive, central, and enduring serve as a powerful organizational image that influences the degree in which employees identify themselves with their organization. Thus, this means that employees who believe their organization has a distinctive culture, strategy or structure of distinctive characteristics as compared to other organizations with similar characteristics, are easily identified with an organization’s image and values. They further indicated that organizational identity is needed for employee recruitment and organizational change efforts. Thinking about an organization’s identity before taking any actions will definitely help in organizational processes. This can also be proved by alumni who perceived their university or college as distinctive in attitudes, values and practices always identify with the university or college. As a result of the above information, I conclude that a strong organizational identity positively influences employees’ organizational identification (Hatch and Schultz, 2002).
According Hatch and Schultz (2000) dynamic model, the relationship between organizational identity, culture, and image, employees express their understandings of the organizational culture through organizational identity, which in turn, affects the perception of others outside the organization about the organization. The outsiders ’perception about organizations, in turn, affects the organizational identity, which again is reflected in the central elements of the organizational culture (Hatch and Schultz, 2000), (Davoodalmousavi, 2013). The Hatch and Schultz (2000) dynamic model is presented in figure 5 below.
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Figure 4: Hatch and Schultz’s model, (Griffith Cameron, 2016).
As stated in the introduction of this chapter, organizational identity is considered as one of the drivers of organizational life. Organization development scholars, organizational change researchers, and industrial psychologists also supported the notion that organizational identity is the driver of organizational growth and success (Stinglhamber and Eisenberger, 2011). Albert and Whetten (1985), defined organizational identity as what organizational members perceived to be central, distinctive and enduring characteristics of the organization. They further stated that central represents the organization’s core attributes while distinctiveness represents those attributes which distinguish the organization from its competitors that is “organization maintains identity through interaction with other organizations by a process called interorganizational comparison over time”. Lastly, they understood these enduring characteristics as residing in the organization’s continuity over time (Gioia 1998), (Corley et al. 2006).
For the purpose of this study three organizational identity features were used to measure organizational identity. These features of organizational identity are the ones that organizational members perceive to be distinctive, continuity and central about their organization (Albert and Whetten, 1985).
The distinctiveness of organizational identity shows the comparisons that distinguish one’s organization from another. It consists of the characteristics that differentiate an organization from other organizations in the same industry. The importance of the distinctiveness of organizational identity is employee self-classification (Albert and Whetten, 1985). The attractiveness and distinctiveness of the organizational identity, shows the extent to which employees identify with their organization. According Rindova and Schultz, (1998), the perceived consistency between the self-identity and the distinctiveness of organizational identity determines employee organizational identification. It is important for an organization to have an identity which will help its employees identify themselves with; this is what is referred to as organizational identification. This, therefore, shows that organizational identity (what the organization is) and organizational identification (organizational members’ association with the organization). Organizational identification as defined by Albert & Whetten, (1985) is a powerful cognitive scheme that has both positive and negative impacts in rapidly changing environments. They further stated that employees will dedicate themselves to the preservation of the organization’s image in order to maintain cognitive harmony (Albert and Whetten, 1985).
Dutton & Dukerich, (1991), stated that the distinctiveness of the organizational identity was firstly derived from its distinctive images and symbols and secondly from the “construed external image“, that is, what employee perceives outsiders think about their organization. This shows that if an employee’ identity has the same characteristics as the one he/she perceives to be distinctive about the organization, the end result will be a strong organizational identification. As a result of this, employees will identify themselves with the organization (Dutton et al, 1994). When an organization has a distinctive identity, it will be easier to increase its employees’ self-classification as one of the distinctiveness of organizational identity. Employees feel proud to belong to an organization which has socially valued and distinctive characteristics. Employees’ beliefs about the distinctive characters of the organization help in influencing the degree to which employees identify themselves with the organization. This shows that the distinctiveness of organizational identity taps into individual employee’s need to be unique and attain this through memberships in a distinctive organization. When an organization becomes ‘‘infused with distinctive value”, its distinctive features generate strong loyalties among its employees. In their empirical study, Mael and Ashforth (1992) discovered that the university with distinctive attitudes, values and practices leads to alumni who have high levels of organizational identification (Mael and Ashforth, 1992).
Employee organizational identification originates from loyalty and helps to develop positive beliefs, attitudes and emotions towards the organization. These beliefs, attitudes, and emotions are unveiled behaviourally within the realm of the organization through the level of employees’ work commitment.
This creates a loyalty to the organization which results from a psychological internalization of organizational identity and self-concept. Employees internalize the values of their organization by identifying themselves with that organization, thus creating the employees’ organizational identification (Boutwell, 2003). This psychological tie is the result of the employees’ adoption of organizations’ characteristics as their own. Thus, employees’ organizational identification symbolizes an employee’s sense of belonging, loyalty and shared characteristics with the organization. The belongings and loyalty occur when an employee feels that the organization considers both himself and tasks assigned to him equally important. Organizational identification also shows that employees internalize their organizations’ values and goals, that is they consider organizational values and goals as their values and goals. A strong organizational identification leads to behavioural attitudes in employees’ organizational commitment, organizational endurance longevity and loyalty (Basim and Ufuk, 2015), (Karanika et al, 2015).
The continuity of organizational identity shows those characteristics of the organization which are persistent or have continuity over-time. This means that there is “some degree of sameness” or “continuity” within the organization (Albert and Whetten, 1985). Thus, the changes are acceptable as long as they are not characterized by discontinuity in the organization. However, Albert and Whetten (1985) asserted that for this criterion, an organizational identity could change as long as it had continuity. The centrality of organizational identity refers to the core characteristics of the organization, that is, the characteristics shared by all members (Corley et al, 2006). The continuity of organizational identity has potential to assist organizations in maintaining the continuous appearance and permanent presence in the face of variability. According to Albert and Whetten, (1985), continuity of organizational identity shows how organizational identity has to be maintained and changed.
Previous research indicates that stakeholders develop persistent notions of what their company is, which are difficult to change. Internal stakeholders, such as managers and employees, can become strongly attached to activities that define the company because such activities are the basis for their expertise, and, thus, their jobs depend on them and because belonging to the organization has become an important nexus through which they identify themselves with the organizational identity (Dutton and Dukerich 1991), (Bhattacharya and Sen 2003), (Tripsas 2009). As a result of this personal identity, employees become more committed to their organization. Employees’ organizational commitment represents the degree in which employees identify with the organization they work for and are willing to stay in that organization. In other words, it measures employees’ willingness to continue working with that organization. It reflects the employees’ belief in the mission and goals of the organization, willingness to apply more efforts in order to achieve organizational goals and intentions to continue working in the organization. According to Allen and Meyer (1990), employees’ organizational commitment is characterized by:
(1) affective (emotional attachment to their organization and its goals), This type of attachment is an emotional attachment, based on which highly committed employees specify their identity by the organization, participate in the organization and enjoys membership in the organization. Employees with high affective attachment to the organization have strong motivation to contribute to the organization goals because they see them as theirs (Allen and Meyer, 1990); (2) Continuance (employees’ commitment based on their perception of the costs they may incur when leaving the organization). According to this definition, employees remain in the organization not due to moral force feelings. It describes employees’ commitment related to the potential costs an employee fear to incur when leaving an organization and (3) Normative (an employees’ feelings to stay in the organization because of moral force). In other words, employees stay in the organization because they have a sense of duty that they should not leave the organization. It is based on the organization’s investment in an employee who then feels a ‘moral’ obligation to stay with the organization, based on employee’s social or cultural norms and believes that one should be loyal to one’s organization. It describes the pressure on an individual employee to stay with an organization as a result of the organization’s norms. Without employees’ organizational commitment, even the most organized strategic plans would not be useful and effectively implemented (Abman et al, 2017).
Based on the definition of employee organizational commitment, continuity of organizational identity helps organizations in building the strength their employees’ organizational identity in favour of mutual trust, understanding the organization’s goals and values, and a strong desire to achieve organizational goals. One of the distinctive features of an organization over other organizations is having loyal and committed employees. Employees’ commitment increases organizational performance and ultimately leads to reduced employee turnover (Ahmed et al, 2011), (Susanty et al, 2013).
The centrality of organizational identity represents those features that are deemed to be core features of the organization. These core features are the values that constitute what the organization stands for. They are the heartbeat of the organization and also the foundation for employees’ identification with the organization. Thus, the core values guide all of the organization’s actions and decisions regarding organizational culture, that is, “how we do thing in this organization” (Lencioni, 2002), (Manohar and Pandit, 2013), (Lencioni, 2002). Organizational culture refers to a combination of shared meanings, beliefs, assumptions, understandings, norms, values and knowledge about the organization. Organizational culture defines the organizational life and also shapes employee’s behaviour by providing them with a unique identity. Organizational culture helps organization to shape its employee’s behaviour by instilling loyalty and establishing parameters for acceptable behaviour. It is an integral part of organizational identity and reflects the fundamental values important to the organization. Therefore, what is claimed central about the organization is determined by its core values. It has an important implication for the retention of employees because it is the most important factor that determines how well employees fit in the organization. This shows that employees who fit well with their organization’s culture are less likely to stay with the organization and are generally more satisfied with the conditions of their employment (Elliot and Tranmer, n.d), (Stinglhamber and Eisenberger, 2011), (Hartnell et al, 2011), (Hatch, 2013).
According to Albert & Whetten (1985 and Hatch and Schultz (2002), organizational identity and organizational culture are two concepts which are closely related. Organizational culture presents the organizations’ goals, values, and norms, while organizational identity shows the extent to which individuals are committed to the organizational culture. They do this by internalizing the goals and values of their organization as part of their self-concept. Organizational culture answers the question “how we do things?” while organizational identity answers the question “who we are and what are we?” (Cheboi, 2014), (Colman Helene, 2008), (Hatch and Schultz, 2000), (Albert and Whetten, 1985).
Albert and Whetten (1985) consider the centrality organizational identity as the core values of the organization and it is used by top management as their own frame of reference by which they project images, make decisions, participate in dialogues, develop processes, and make investments, model behaviours. The centrality of organizational identity assists employees on how to internalize organizational core values. It provides guidance to organizational management on how to manage the direction and persistence of organizational behaviour. The centrality of organizational identity helps the organization to align its actions to their core values. Many researches have proved that sustainable and successful companies are the ones that consider their core values as guiding tool for decision-making (Manohar & Pandit, 2013).
As indicated by Albert and Whetten, (1985) when defining organizational identity, they stated that it is important for organizations not only to have a unique identity, but also a continuing identity which shows the organization’s survival over time. For organizational identity to be continuous, there are some variables that serve as determinants of strong organizational identity and these are perceived organizational support, Organizational Engagement, Satisfaction of needs, Perceived fairness, Perceived organizational prestige and Organizational communication.
According to Eisenberger et al (1986), perceived organizational support strengthened employees believe about their organizational value’s contributions to their well-being. This makes them feel being cared and supported by their organization. This also increases employees’ attachment to the organization and identifies with their organization (Edwards and Peccei, 2010), (Eisenberger et al, 1986).
Employee engagement shows the extent in which employees are committed to their organizational work with the aim to achieve the mission and vision of the organization. This is measured in terms of employees’ active participation in organizational activities. The concept of organizational engagement has three main elements which are as follows: influence, interaction and sharing information with employees. In addition to the above definition of organizational engagement, engaged care about the growth of the company and are willing to work beyond expected in order to achieve the organizational outcomes. Engaged employees feel a strong emotional attachment to their organization, which results in higher retention levels, attraction of skilled workers and ultimately higher productivity levels (Angela, 2014).
Employees who are engaged in their organization have autonomy over work, they are considered to have high organizational involvement, since they are given the ability to influence how they do their work, the pace of their work, the order in which they perform tasks and when they conduct their work (Adham Ayman, 2014), (Timming, 2011). Therefore, it is concluded that there is a relationship between perceived organizational support and organizational engagement.
Functionalists argue that people who are members of social institutions have physiological needs which must be met. These needs are the basis of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs which include employees’ survival needs such as shelter and food, etc. Employees experience more job satisfaction and consequently satisfaction with the organization if and when their goals and physiological needs are fulfilled. This suggests that the needs of employees, as members of organizations, must be met if job satisfaction and satisfaction with the organization is to be experienced. This further implies that employees will identify more with the organization if they have more positive influence on the identity of the organization when their needs are satisfied (Backer, 2011).
The perception of fairness serves as a key catalyst in motivating employees to identify themselves with their organization. Organizational members will have a positive influence on the identity of their organization if perceived fairness is evident in the employer-employee relationship. If perceived fairness is not evident in the employer-employee relationship, employees will show a negative influence on organizational identity (Peer and Gamliel, 2010).
Perceived organizational prestige as defined by Mael and Ashforth (1992) shows the extent to which employees regard their organization in absolute and comparative terms. In support of Mael and Ashforth (1992), Smidts et al. (2001) defined perceived organizational prestige as how believe outsiders view their organization. This signifies organizational members enjoy the glory as well by identifying themselves with the good reputation of the organization and this pushes them to identify themselves more with the organization and its goals. When organizational members identify themselves with the organization’s reputation, the ideals that the organization stands to become their own ideals (Ashforth and Mael, 1989, 1992), (Smidts et al, 2001), (Witting Marjon, 2006).
A clear communication mechanism between the employer and employees serves as catalyst for the promotion of a strong organizational identity. According to Backers, (2010), if and when employers have open organizational communication with employees, this will serve as an effective means of conveying essential information to their employees, which will foster more employee’ organization identification, thereby exerting a positive influence on organizational identity. Various types of communication such as horizontal and vertical communication are essential to ensure a positive, strong and enduring organizational identity (Backer, 2011).
Job satisfaction is one of the important attitudes that influence employee’s behavior in the workplace. This brings to human resource management and organizational behavior researchers to develop an interest in studying the impact of job satisfaction and understanding its consequences for employees at work place. Job satisfaction is defined as positive feelings and attitudes that employees have about their jobs and the organizations in which they perform these jobs. It shows the extent to which employees feel about their work and organization. Job satisfaction is defined as the positive feelings that transpire as a result of the fulfillment of employees’ needs which are divided into two dimensions: (1) intrinsic needs and (2) extrinsic needs and its strength depend on the degree of meeting individual employees’ expectations. These feelings control and drive the employees’ behavior and work attitude, which in turn have an effect on the organizational outcomes (Bruch and Cole, 2006). It is an employee’s affective reaction to a job, based on a comparison between actual outcomes and desired outcomes. Job satisfaction is characterized by two elements which are intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction. Intrinsic job satisfaction represents those job elements derived from internally mediated rewards, such as the job itself, opportunities for personal growth and accomplishment while extrinsic job satisfaction represents those job elements resulting from externally mediated rewards such as satisfaction with pay and benefits, company policies, support, supervision, co-worker’s relationships, job security and chances for promotion (Hettiararchchi and Jayarathna, 2014), (Ismail, 2012).
Ahmed et al, (2011) supports this view by defining job satisfaction as the basic thing that shows the path towards recognition, salary, promotion, and the achievement of the goals that fulfill employees’ desires. They indicated that employees have different behaviors about their job such as the different kinds of work they perform, supervision and their salaries (Ahmed et al, 2011). The study of employee job satisfaction is a topic of wide interest to organizational management scholars. Employee job satisfaction is affected by many factors such as workload, incentives, and job security, relationships with supervisors and co-employees; as well as organizational variable such as culture. These factors are divided into two dimensions: First dimension is an extrinsic satisfaction which refers to employee satisfaction that have little to do with the job tasks or content of the work itself, such as pay, working conditions and co-employee’s relationship. The second dimension is an intrinsic satisfaction which refers to employee satisfaction that does with the job tasks themselves, such as skill variety, skill utilization, job autonomy (Gozukara, 2016).
In addition, there are quite a number of theories which tried to outline and explain the factors affecting employee job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. For instance, Frederick Herzberg (1959) and his colleagues introduced job satisfaction theory known as the motivation-hygiene theory, also called the two-factor theory. In this theory, they suggested that employee job satisfaction is influenced by two factors which are hygiene and motivating factors.
Table 1. Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory (Frederick Herzberg, 1959)
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They also suggested that employee job satisfaction is the result of motivating factors while employee job dissatisfaction is the product of non-existence of hygiene factors in the employees’ working environment. They stated that for employees to be satisfied there is a need for improvement in hygiene factors together with motivating factors. Herzberg’s theory advocates that satisfied employees tend to be more productive, creative and committed to the job (Dennis and Dugguh, 2014), (Khan et al, 2017), (Kuoppala, 2013).
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Figure 5: Herzberg’s Description of Job Satisfaction and Job Dissatisfaction
Based on the above, we therefore conclude that, Herzberg’s theory of job satisfaction provides the factors that affect employee job satisfaction and the combination of these factors can result to either satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Employee job satisfaction and dissatisfaction not only depend on the nature of the job, but also depend on the employee expectation of the job (Susanty et al, (2013).
Locke’s value theory (1969), also indicated that the different factors impact differently on employee job satisfaction. The theory emphases the need for an organization to know the value placed on each factor and the significant shift caused by that factor in employee job satisfaction. This theory also advocates that there is a need for balance in value placed on all the factors affecting employee job satisfaction. Locke’s theory is therefore defined job satisfaction as the pleasurable emotional state resulted from the appraisal of employees’ job performance due to attainment of their tasks while job dissatisfaction is defined as the unpleasable emotional state resulting employees’ job appraisal due to attainment of their values. Job satisfaction is the result of employees’ perception
regarding certain aspects of the job and the relationship between their expectations and reality, they faced when doing the job (Kuoppala, 2013). The overall employee job satisfaction is associated with different factors of job satisfaction which includes, among others nature of the job, working environment, salary and incentives linked job, promotional methods & performance appraisal, relationship with co-workers & managers, and grievance handling (Chahal et al, (2013).
Moreover, Abraham Maslow (1970) in Maritz and Jarne, 2014, on his theory known a Maslow’s Theory of Needs, in support of Locke’s theory, shows that employee job satisfaction correlates with increased employees’ job performance, positive work values, and high levels of employee motivation and decreased employee turnover. He stated that within every individual there is a hierarchy of five levels of needs which ranges from lower level to higher level needs (Maritz and Jarne, 2014). These levels are presented in figure 7 below.
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Figure 6: Maslow’s Five-level hierarchy (Backer, (2011) .
Maslow’s five level hierarch postulates that employees are never satisfied since their expectations are not always merged with the organization’s expectations. When employees’ expectations are met, their level of job satisfaction increases and ultimately organizational performance increases too. This is because satisfied employee strives to achieve organizational goals. Based on Maslow’s theory of needs, employees’ needs shall never be satisfied since after satisfying physiological needs they seek to satisfy another level of needs until they reach to self- actualization needs (Ismail, 2012).
Hackman and Oldman developed the job characteristics model (JCM) based on Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory. The JCM outlines five core job characteristics, namely skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. These characteristics, then affect three critical psychological states which in turn results in personal and organizational outcomes (Zeeshan et al, n.d).
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Picture 7. Job characteristics model, (Loi et al, 2014).
According to the JCM any job can be described in terms of these five core job dimensions: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. The first three dimensions, skill variety, task identity, and task identity, determine if the work is meaningful. If these three characteristics exist in a job, it can be predicted that employees will view their jobs as achievement, recognizable and worthwhile. Autonomy gives the employees a feeling of empowerment and personal responsibility for the results, and feedback lets the employees know how effectively they are performing.
In addition, this theory indicated that there are three critical psychological states which can be expected to occur when the job is designed such a way that it increases the presence of the five core job dimensions mentioned above: experienced meaningfulness of the work, experienced responsibility for work outcomes and knowledge of results of work activities. Hackman and Oldman also stated that the existence of these three critical psychological states would collectively promote increased work motivation and job satisfaction (Kuoppala, 2013).
Therefore, job satisfaction is one of the main factors in relation to the growth and competitive advantage of the organization. The satisfied employees strive to achieve the organizational outcome. If employees show a positive attitude towards their work it means that they are highly satisfied with their job. This shows that job satisfaction positively affects employees’ productivity and contributes to employees ‘turnover (Kuoppala, 2013), (Prasetio et al, 2017), (Subelo et al, 2013).
The level of job satisfaction determines the emotional and mental state of employees. The behavior of employees depends on their level of job satisfaction which has effects on the functioning and activities of the organization’s business. Therefore, high levels of job satisfaction results in positive behavior which in return will lead to growth and profitability of the organization.
Job satisfaction can serve an operational strategy for the organization to retain its current employees and attract new employees from the labour market. Through job satisfaction organization can be regarded as a home for talent employees’ due to the way the current employees identify themselves with the organizational image, commitment and values (Borges, 2012), (Emerson, 2013), (Robbins, 2009).
Job satisfaction is an essential component in the success and growth of an organization. This implies that for the organizations to successfully improve their performance, employees’ level of job satisfaction is critical for the achievement of organizational goals. When employees are not satisfied the organizations are likely to suffer the problem of employee turnover, which will ultimately lead to a shortage of talent employees. This shows that satisfied employees are not only beneficial to organizational performance, but also acts as the organizational branding (Davoodalmousavi, 2013), (Ismail, 2012).
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