Paper Example on Job Satisfaction and Staff Retention

Introduction

Companies with a high level of staff retention are also characterized by employees' job satisfaction levels. Job satisfaction refers to the extent a job provides fulfillment to an employee or how well a job provides fulfillment to a person as a source of income. Job satisfaction can also be explained to be the degree to which an individual feel positively or negatively about his/her job. Employee retention, on the other hand, is the ability of an institution to retain its workers over a defined period of time. Today, high employees' job satisfaction and elevated staff retention rates are some of the factors that characterize the prevalence of successful business organizations.

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In the past, there are numerous research publications that have been authored explaining the association between job satisfaction and staff retention. The focus of this research will be to perform a literature review focusing on providing the definition of satisfaction and on determining the importance of job satisfaction in organizations. The literature review will also ascertain the importance of staff retention in an organization and find publications providing information about the link between job satisfaction and staff retention. Lastly, the review of literature will also seek information on how the Maslow's Hierarchy link to job satisfaction as well as staff retention.

Definition of Job Satisfaction

A journal article that was authored by Mishra (2013) defines job satisfaction as the attitude that an individual has towards his/her job. The research also characterized job satisfaction to be the specific factors that make an employee feel contented with his/her work (Mishra, 2013). Examples of such factors include work conditions, wages, type of supervision, treatment by the employer, steadiness of employment and social relations of the job among others (Mishra, 2013). Moreover, Mishra (2013) in his research stated that job satisfaction is also connected to personal and socio-economic factors such as age, education, sex, duration of work and work incentives among others.

In a different research Zhu (2013), job satisfaction can be characterized as the positive or pleasant sensation affection state that develops when an individual is evaluating his/her work experience. In this case, the research publication considered job satisfaction to be an effective reflection of work being undertaken by an individual in his/her working environment (Zhu, 2013). Lastly, according to Thiagaraj and Thangaswamy (2017), job satisfaction is a person's complex attitude towards his/her job. Also, it is the pleasurable and emotional state derived from the appraisal of a person's job, after the attainment of the job's value (Thiagaraj & Thangaswamy, 2017

Importance of Job Satisfaction in an Organization

Research conducted by Khan et al. (2014) illustrated that job satisfaction in an organization significantly reduces the employees' intention to leave their employment positions due to dissatisfaction. Examples of such dissatisfaction factors that were cited by Khan et al.'s (2014) research were inclusive of poor pay, harsh supervision, lack of promotion, poor working conditions, and challenges in handling the work itself (Khan, et al., 2014). In this case, if the employees in an organization are not satisfied with such factors, they may opt to leave their work positions in search of better employment opportunities elsewhere.

Barling, Kelloway, and Iverson (2003) in their research also ascertained that employees' job satisfaction can also lead to the perpetration of high-quality work among the employees. The research also stated that customer satisfaction leads to the attainment of high productivity among the workers (Barling, et al., 2003). In this case, higher productivity is in reference to the execution of organizational tasks and in the attainment of the establishment's objectives. Lastly, according to research executed by Bakotic (2016), job satisfaction among employees leads to the attainment of a higher return on assets (ROA) and attainment of higher earnings per share.

In order for the organizations to retain the best as well as the most important employees, it is imperative for them to examine the factors that are associated with attrition (Harper et al. 2015). In addition, one of the strongest predictors of whether staff members in an organization will leave their workplaces is their job satisfaction. Studies have portrayed that workers that have high job satisfaction levels tend to stay with the organizations where they work longer, are more motivated and highly productive (Harper et al. 2015). Also, according to Harper et al. (2015), employees with job satisfaction have less absenteeism, portray better organizational commitment, and possess higher levels of engagement.

Importance of Staff Retention

Research that was executed by Das and Baruah (2013) evidenced that staff retention is important for an organization because the personnel's' knowledge, as well as skills, are vital in enabling an organization's to be economically competitive in the market. In a different research, employee retention was ascertained to be imperative for an organization because it is cost effective (Sinha, 2012). That is because a high employees' turnover incurs an organization additional costs of recruiting and training new employees (Sinha, 2012). Moreover, employees' morale is crucial to the attainment of an organization's success (Vasantham, 2014).

The research performed by Vasantham (2014) found out that retaining employees in an organization through employment help in boosting their morale. Subsequently, workers with a high morale are highly productive and they significantly elevate the overall performance of an organization (Vasantham, 2014). The effect of staff retention in boosting their morale in a working environment can also be supported by research that was executed by Balakrishnan, Masthan, and Chandra (2013). The research theorized that through employees' engagement, the morale of workers to execute various functions in an organization can be improved due to the job satisfaction (Balakrishnan, Masthan & Chandra 2013).

Employee retention is also imperative to promote good performance in an organization. According to a research executed by Suresh and Krishnaraj (2015), employees' retention enables a business to be driven by top performing personnel. Additionally, this is important for an organization because it allows an establishment to retain a pool of highly qualified workers for long periods (Suresh & Krishnaraj 2015) Subsequently, this helps establishments to increase their profitability due to the elevated productivity of workers functioning with such organizations. Also, the resultant employee retention enables the organization to remain highly competitive in comparison with its rivals.

Link Between Job Satisfaction and Job Retention

There exists a close connection between job satisfaction and retention in an organization. The connection has been supported by a number of research publications such as the one authored by Behera, Sahoo, and Sundaray (2014), which theorized staff satisfaction as a product of employee retention. According to research, job retention fosters opportunities for workers such as job enrichment, career development, work-life balance, training opportunities, stress management, role clarity as well as reward and recognition opportunities (Behera, et al., 2011). Subsequently, such opportunities as a result of staff retention create outcomes such as job satisfaction, cost reduction and high productivity of the personnel.

In a different research authored by Jane Ann Reukauf (2018), the findings of a study illustrated that there exists a correlation between job satisfaction and employees' retention (Reukauf, 2018). The research postulated that employees who are satisfied with their work environment are more productive and they tend to remain in the same organization for a long time. Subsequently, this results in a high rate of employees' retention in an organization or a low rate of staff turnover. Ultimately, from the two featured research publications, it is evident that employee satisfaction is a product of job retention in an organization.

How Maslow's Hierarchy Links to Job Satisfaction and Staff Retention

It is a concept that was invented by Abraham Maslow (1943) to illustrate the various levels of human needs (Taormina & Gao, 2013). The five levels of Maslow's Hierarchy include psychological, safety, love/belonging, self-esteem as well as self-actualization (Taormina & Gao, 2013). In relation to a workplace setting, past research publications have portrayed that the Maslow's Hierarchy of needs can be associated with job satisfaction as well as staff retention. Examples of such research include the Taormina and Gao (2013) research that sought to find out the Maslow's and motivation hierarchy needs in an organization.

The research evidenced that different employees have differing level of needs in an organization and the identification of individualized needs is essential in fulfilling employees' satisfaction. Based on Maslow's hierarchy, employees in an organization will strive to satisfy their primary needs, which can be likened to the psychological needs on the hierarchy platform. For instance, they will strive to attain satisfaction from attaining incentives like good pay while working in an organization. Ultimately, the staff will strive to fulfil their secondary wants like self fulfilment at the workplace, which can be likened to the self-actualization level in the Maslow's Hierarchy.

Conclusion

In conclusion, today, high employees' job satisfaction and elevated staff retention rates are some of the factors that characterize the prevalence of successful business organizations. Job satisfaction refers to the extent a job provides fulfillment to an employee or how well a job provides fulfillment to a person as a source of income. Contrary, employee retention is the ability of an institution to retain its workers over a defined period of time. Ultimately, from the literature review, it is evident that there exists a link between job satisfaction and customer retention in an organization. Additionally, this is because job satisfaction is measured to be a factor derived from staff retention.

References

Bakotic, D., 2016. Relationship Between Job Satisfaction and Organizational Performance. Economic Research, 29(1), pp. 118-130.

Barling, J., Kelloway, E. K. & Iverson, R. D., 2003. High-Quality Work, Job Satisfaction, and Occupational Injuries. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(2), pp. 276-283.

Behera, N., Sahoo, C. K. & Sundaray, B. K., 2011. Retaining High Performing Employees through Job Satisfaction: A Theoretical Construct.

Das, B. L. & Baruah, M., 2013. Employee Retention: A Review of Literature. IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM), 14(2), pp. 08-16.

Harper, E., Castrucci, B., Bharthapudi, K. & Sellers, K., 2015. Job Satisfaction: A Critical, Understudied Facet of Workforce Development in Public Health. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, Volume 21, pp. 46-55.

Khan, M. S. et al., 2014. The Impact of Job Satisfaction and Organizational commitment on the Intention to leave among the Academicians. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 4(2).

Mishra, P. K., 2013. Job Satisfaction. IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), 14(5), pp. 45-54.

Reukauf, J. A., 2018. The Correlation Between Job Satisfaction an...