In 2010, 14 employees killed themselves in Foxconn, Apple’s biggest supplier in China. The shocking suicide number attracted public and media attention even all over the world about the topic of job satisfaction. The titles such as ‘inhumane factory’ and ‘use employees as machines’ demonstrate that the terrible and poor working conditions and treatments directly lead to job dissatisfaction to those employees. Among the four behaviors of job dissatisfaction (exit, voice, loyalty and neglect) mentioned in chapter 3, they even chose a much worse one.
Obviously, satisfied with a job or not is important to not only employees themselves, but also to the company and their customers. A review of more than 300 studies suggested the correlation between job satisfaction and job performance is quite strong, even across international contexts. As several studies have concluded, happy workers are more likely to be productive workers.
In my point of view, people evaluate their jobs by different kinds of needs. Essentially, employees are happy with appropriate salaries, regular working time, comfortable workplaces and reasonable workload. More necessarily, they pay more attention to communication with colleagues and managers, engagement in a group, respect from others, acceptance and recognition in personality and culture background. As employees being more productive in work, these factors create a positive working environment and enterprise culture that benefit the company in long run.
Furthermore, customer satisfaction is also related to job satisfaction since employees interact with customers and people also evaluate a company by estimating how their jobs are. Zappos, the online retailer, encourage their employees to ‘create fun and a little weirdness’ and give unusual discretion in making customers satisfied; they are encouraged to use their imaginations, like sending flowers to disgruntled customers. Only on the premise that employees are satisfied with their jobs and recognize their working value, they are committed to offering better services than needed.
In a word, companies should care more about job satisfaction since it not only crucial for human resources but also for corporate image and company strategies.
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Source:
Bilton, Richard. “Apple ‘failing to protect Chinese factory workers'” N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30532463>.
“Zappos.com.” N.p., n.d. Web. <http://about.zappos.com/our-unique-culture/zappos-core-values/ deliver-wow-through-service. >.
T. A. Judge, C. J. Thoresen, J. E. Bono, and G. K. Patton, “The Job Satisfaction–Job Performance Relationship: A Qualitative and Quantitative Review,” Psychological Bulletin, May 2001, pp. 376–407.
