National survey analysis of job satisfaction by age, income, and education

Job satisfaction has become an issue that majority of the organization has not taken seriously because it is assumed that all people are contented with whatever job they do, which might not be the case. Job satisfaction is influenced by several factors such as age, income, and education. According to the survey done nationally representative sample of the employed found that various categories of groups are not very satisfied with their job. Unfavorable working environment deter employees from feeling satisfaction in their jobs.

This analytical report aims at assessing the extent of job satisfaction within various groups of people nationally in bringing forward a number of data as well as trends on job satisfaction. What will be conveyed in the analytical report is the way data regarding job satisfaction is revealed by using national survey while concentrating on the used figures in presenting available data on job satisfaction. The survey will consist of different sections with its set of questionnaires. One of the sections will mainly put its emphasis on the national surveys that deal with job satisfaction more particularly to the age of the targeted working group. The category will fall either on the young, middle age or old.

Another section will focus on job satisfaction particularly on the highest degree of education among the working group. The category will be high school, college or graduate.

Another section will be on job satisfaction focusing on the level of income where the category will be low income, middle class, or the rich.

As investigated by various discipline like sociology, psychology, economics and management science, job satisfaction has been a commonly studied within work and organizational literature. The reason behind this is that most of the experts believe that trends of job satisfaction do affects labor market behavior as well as influencing work effort, work productivity, staff turnover and employee absenteeism, (Syptak, J.M., Marsland, D.W. & Ulmer, D. 1999). In addition, job satisfaction is viewed to be a strong predictor of the general somebody's well being, and somehow the best predictor of decisions or intensions of employees to quit a job.

Apart from its research studies and literature, job satisfaction is as well considered as an important everyday life. Companies or work environments will always have significant effects on its workers and parts of such effects are reflected on the way people feel concerning their work. Therefore job satisfaction proves to be of great significance for employers and employees. Just like the way different studies shows, satisfied employers are beneficial to the employers for this environment faces fewer staff turnover as well as higher productivity in case a high level of satisfaction is experienced by employees, (Nguyen, A.N., Taylor, J. And Bradley, S., 2003). Nevertheless, employees too are to feel happy within their work, considering the time span they have to devote to it maybe as long as he works.

Survey's framework describes job satisfaction to relay on the balance between work-role input like income, age, and education. In case there is increase in work-role outputs relative to work role inputs, there is possibility of increase in job satisfaction.

Some of the theorists have gone ahead to view job satisfaction to be a bi-dimensional concept that is made up of extrinsic and intrinsic satisfaction. Sources of intrinsic satisfaction rely on somebody's characteristics of this fellow, for example, ability of using initiative, the work performed by the person, or relation with the supervisor; all of the mention form the qualitative or symbolic facets of the job, (Long Yun Siang, 2013).

Moreover, extrinsic sources of satisfaction tend to be situational and rely on the environment, for example, promotion, job security, pay; they form financial as well as other material rewards or job advantages,( Nguyen, A.N., Taylor, J. And Bradley, S., 2003). The two (intrinsic and extrinsic) job facets are supposed to be represented more equally in a composite measure of the general job satisfaction.

Literature Review

Education

Difference in education level plays a significant role in Job satisfaction. Among the 1161 interviewed, majority of the high school level people who are working are not satisfied at all with their job as their level do not provide them with the job they desired in life and even the pay. Averagely lower percentage just see the job satisfaction as normal while a higher percentage of the high school level workers are satisfied with their job as compared to employees who are not at all satisfied or consider it normal.

Education level affects the kind of job one can get the higher education one get so is the best job one is capable of getting. As a person goes to the higher level of education, the desire to get a better job increases as well.

Age

Age is a factor that affects the job satisfaction level among the employees. The young are energetic and are less satisfied with their job as they look forward to other better jobs as shown by the survey whereby only 21.5% generally are satisfied with their job. The satisfaction level of the middle age employees is higher for the variable does not affect them much. 67.4% generally are satisfied with their job. They try to minimize change of their job as they feel comfortable with most of the work they do. On the other hand, age affects satisfaction level of the old. Generally their job satisfaction level is low as they have 11.2% of the satisfaction level. In general, job satisfaction as from the survey among different age group is "normal" due to the fact that most figure in terms of the respondents have higher number compared to the respondents who were "very satisfied" and "not at all satisfied.

Income

Income is a major factor in determining job satisfaction. People work so that at the end of the day they can meet their needs. However, according to the survey done, different category of income has different impact on the employees. Majority with high income tend to be more satisfied with their job. Those who are rich are more satisfied with their jobs as compared to the middle class and the low income employees. However, the middle class income employees are generally dissatisfied with their job as compared to the low income employees. They could be looking forward to move to the best paying job for their gap between the rich is narrow and they feel they can also be rich with a greater income. On the other hand, the low income do not see the hope of advancing to the next level so they become somehow more satisfied generally as compared to the middle class income. The survey shows that average percentage in terms of respondents was: low income 14.3%, middle class 13.3%, the rich 72.4% (Scott Smith, 2013).

Hypotheses

The first hypothesis is that as the degree of education increase to the next level, the extent of job satisfaction goes down. Education is the key for landing in a good paying job with favorable environment, so those who are with degree still looks forward to get better paying job as compared to the college and the high school level employees. The study shows that in average of the satisfaction level (very satisfied, normal, and not at all satisfied) are: 57.2% for high school level; 29.5% for college level; 13.4% for graduates. People feel that when they study more they can get better job with favorable environment therefore they become more and more satisfied as they move to the next level of education.

The second hypothesis is that the middle age employees are more satisfied with their job as compared to the young and the old. Majority of young and the old tend to be less satisfied with their job. The survey shows that the average job satisfaction of: the young is 21.5%; the middle age is 67.4%; and the old is 11.2% (Scott Smith, 2013).

The third hypothesis is that employees with high income are greatly satisfied with their job. The capability of the middle class income employees can be uplifted to the higher levels so their satisfaction level is lower as compared to the rich and the low income employees. According to the survey in average, the low income is 14.3%, the middle class is 13.3%, and the rich is 72.4%. The moment one finds that it is not easy to change their financial status they become contented with what they get as can be seen with the low income employees who becomes satisfied with their position though they look forward that if anything happens they can change their job.

Materials

Quota sampling was applied, basically to make sure that this survey sample become representative of the population with respect to age, income, and education; Interviews were carried out face-to-face at resident of people; The survey population covered individuals who have reached the age of 18 to 69 and had been employed or had worked for a minimum of three months before leaving their current employer. Such requirement of three months was important for the nature of the questions made it necessary for familiarity with working environment.

The time frame was from one month February 1st to February 29th. Single-item questions were used while basing the question in terms of "how satisfied are you with your job?" Three response scales were used: normal, very satisfied, not at all satisfied. The framed question was to measure the independent variables, job satisfaction, based on level of job satisfaction from the time they have spent in their work place, (Scott Smith, 2013).

Several aspects of the work were considered, it covered areas like the workload, conditions of working (noise, heat, light), length of working time, confidence between managers as well as rank -- and file workers, organizational working time, competence of management, wages and rewards, training and requalification, opportunity for promotion, social care benefit, job security, and relationship with direct superior.

Procedure

Single-item question were used such as: How satisfied overall are you with your job? The expected answers are very satisfied, normal and not at all satisfied. There will be as well multi-facet questions, for example how satisfied are you with? How your expert skills are used; how hard the work is; how interesting your work is; interpersonal relationship within the workplace; the physical environment of the workplace and its facilities; how work is organized within the work place; your pay; your superior; the prospects of a pay rise; job security; the prospect of promotion; or how your office takes care of its employees. The three-point response scale is used: very satisfied, normal, or not at all satisfied.

Participants

The survey involved employees of different organization within the city, a total number of 4901 employees were to be covered. The young the middle age and the old were involved. Whether male or female they were categorized as one and their records were to show that they had worked for at least three months before the time of the interview. Selection of the sample was random and proportion to the size of the employees as they were interacted with either at work or at their home. Missing cases were deleted from the data and all variables were recorded to two values to produce contingency tables for the statistical analysis.

Discussion

Due to the fact that in terms of income, degree of education and age are the three major factors that affect job satisfaction, employers and organizations are supposed to realize this to avoid frequent transfer of jobs by employees that lowers the end up lowering their production level and loosing potential expertise. They should connect the factors where ranks in the work place should be increases depending on how an employee has furthered his/her studies, moreover the income/salary can be increased for them to feel more satisfied. Conducive work environment at the workplace where despite the age, each employee feels a necessary part of the organization helps boost the morale of employees thus higher job satisfaction (Namrata Ekka, 2013).

The first hypothesis present danger that employers have ones they have employees who have higher degree of education. The result indicates a significant decline in percentage in terms of the job satisfaction level. More respondents at high school are averagely satisfied as the ladder climbs higher the satisfaction level decline. The employers have to be very keen and work closely with those who are pursuing higher education to know what dissatisfy them and what satisfy them the most.

The higher percentage of satisfaction on the respondents in the second hypothesis where the middle age have more higher percentage as compared to the old and the young, indicate a comfort zone for middle age since they still undergo major responsibilities in one way or the other, whether indirect or direct, they are left with no choice but to stay where they are for their betterment.

The prediction of the third hypothesis presents that as income of respondent increases so is the satisfaction level. The result showing that majority of the rich are averagely more satisfied is evidenced with the highest percentage of 72.4%. The rich tend to be in that rich position because of that job that they landed on. They can as well find the correct job with favorable environment as they desire, therefore they are in their job because they want to so they are satisfied with it. The independent variable, income, therefore seems to be of more influence to the job satisfaction as compared to other independent variable factors, age and education. In the event of study, several errors were recorded that deter accuracy of the finding. Some were not able to accept that they were not working so they ended up giving wrong information. Some employees were not co operative thus shying away from discussing about their employers.

Conclusion

Are you satisfied with your job, is a question that should not be taken lightly by organization because by asking these question and identifying how their employee feels, they will be in a pposition to rectify places that makes their employees become unsatisfied with their job thereby retaining their employees longer. This will make them utilize the effectiveness and efficiency of their employees thus increasing the production level of the organization. There was no sufficient time allocated for his interview so the interview took shorter time. However, this should be corrected by locating the sufficient.

Reference

Long Yun Siang (2013) What is Job Satisfaction? Understand Job Satisfaction to Increase Your Own Motivation at Work. Retrieved March 13, 2013 from http://www.career-success-for-newbies.com/what-is-job-satisfaction.html

Namrata Ekka (2013) Are you satisfied in your job? Retrieved March 13, 2013 from http://info.shine.com/Career-Advice-Articles/Career-Advice/Are-you-satisfied-in-your-job/1109/cid2.aspx

Nguyen, A.N., Taylor, J. And Bradley, S.,(2003b) Job autonomy and job satisfaction: New evidence, Working Paper 050, Department of Economics, Lancaster University Management School. Retrieved March 13, 2013 from http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/publications/viewpdf/000192/

Nguyen, A.N., Taylor, J. And Bradley, S., (2003a) Relative pay and job satisfaction: Some new evidence, Working Paper 045, Department of Economics, Lancaster University Management School. Retrieved March 13, 2013 from http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/publications/viewpdf/000187/

Scott Smith,(2013) Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions: 3 Sample Templates You Can Use Today. Retrieved March 13, 2013 from http://www.qualtrics.com/blog/employee-satisfaction-survey

Syptak, J.M., Marsland, D.W. And Ulmer, D., (1999) Job satisfaction: Putting theory into practice, American Academy of Family Physicians. Retrieved March 13, 2013 from http://www.aafp.org/fpm/991000fm/26.html