Assignment
Employee satisfaction is critically important for an organization’s success and competitiveness in today’s global economy. However, much debate exists in the literature regarding the underlying factors that contribute to employee job satisfaction. Part of the problem stems from the complexity of attitudes in human behavior: employees have different viewpoints about many aspects of their jobs, careers, work situations, and organizations. As such, job satisfaction does not translate directly into job performance. That is, a happy worker is not necessarily a productive worker. Moreover, dispositional and cultural influences on job satisfaction are not yet well understood.
Another challenge that organizations can encounter is determining what will satisfy employees. Some welcome incentives such as employee appreciate banquets while others may prefer work scheduling options such as flexible schedule, telecommuting or job sharing. Or employees with children might like an outside day care while those with older parents might value some types of elder care arrangement. These examples again point to differing needs of individual employees.
For this task, imagine that you are responding to a request from management for help in increasing hiring diversity. Prepare a white paper where you review the usage and effectiveness of job satisfaction surveys in bolstering targeted recruitment efforts of special groups. In your analysis of the value of job satisfaction surveys, address the following questions:
What is the relationship between job satisfaction and employee retention?
Are there differences in job satisfaction by gender, generational cohorts, or race/ethnicity?
Should job satisfaction survey results be used in the recruitment efforts of special groups? Explain why or why not.
Support your assignment with at least three references from scholarly sources.
