A Preliminary Study in Determining Job Satisfaction of IT Professionals

Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR) Volume 4, No.6, June 2015

ISSN No: 2319-5614

A Preliminary Study in Determining Job Satisfaction of IT Professionals in Delhi/NCR Shivani Pandey, Research Scholar, Jaypee Business School(JIIT), Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India Dr. Vinky Sharma, Assistant Professor, Jaypee Business School(JIIT), Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India.

Abstract Job satisfaction signifies one of the most complex issues faced by managers when it comes to managing their key employees. The way jobs are designed today has a massive impact on employees' rationality of contentment at work. An effective workplace and a satisfying job is what both employers and employees look out for. The key ingredients of a workplace include, trust and respect, good job and a window for innovation. Although these elements are well acknowledged, the imperativeness depends on identifying how to formulate these fundamentals. The present study is a modest effort towards looking at the association between job satisfaction and its significant measures. The data for the present study was collected from 200 software professionals holding at least 3 years of industry experience from IT companies in Delhi/NCR. The findings of the study revealed that although employees were highly motivated, they were reasonably satisfied with job. They desire jobs which offer self growth, job autonomy, recognition and satisfaction of their need for achievement. A lot of focus has been put on the features of the job particularly significance of the task. Task variety and autonomy in job has been considered as motivating factors in majority of the cases. Keywords: IT Professionals, Job satisfaction, Job Characteristics, job motivation, job expectations

Introduction

Background And Review Of Literature

Human Resource Management has been considered as the most valuable asset in organizations. It is a specialized functional area in organisations that develops policies, programmes, and activities to encourage satisfaction of jobs of individual thereby fulfilling organizational needs and objectives (Stavrou-Costea 2005). Human resource drivers in organisations are security of job, good income, better prospects, and satisfaction of social and psychological needs (Suri and Chhabra 2000). The responsibility of management is therefore to recognize this fact at the earliest and provide appropriate outlook to people at work to satisfy their needs. Studies have also reflected that human resource teams are under immense pressure to work out and develop such compensation packages that provide diverse prospects for growth and advancement and create a lucrative employee value proposition (Saraswathy, Thamaraiselvan et.al 2011). A range of finding has been reported from quantitative as well as qualitative studies literature regarding variables related to job satisfaction among IT professionals. These variables include the type of job itself, remuneration, working conditions, promotion, self growth and development, job security and leadership styles. Mamaqi & Miguel (2014) has also stated that human factor from the organisations cannot be simply ignored as in last few years the importance of human element has augmented as knowledge is becoming a vital and influential factor in gaining a competitive advantage, predominantly in the new economy backdrop. This study thus attempts to investigate the interrelationship between job satisfaction and its significant variables.

The term job satisfaction is notably figured out in any conventions on management of human resources. Job satisfaction refers to all the feelings that an individual has about his/her job (Spector 1997) that motivates him/her to stay in her job for a longer time period. Characteristics such as achievement at workplace, challenging assignments, recognition at work are viewed as crucial to both satisfaction and dissatisfaction of job (Friedlander 1964). However, in a study, Lodahl & Kejner (1966) proved that few job characteristics like meaningfulness and adequacy of both work and supervision, significantly affect job satisfaction.

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In 1964, Blair prepared a questionnaire related to 14 needs as specified by Maslow (1954). A survey was conducted on broad range of occupations where remarkable duties, security at job and self-actualization came out as vital features of job. Researchers previously have proposed that several job characteristics are perceptible in a different way from individual to individual (James 1986; Loher 1985). In a research conducted by Ronan (1971) sixty-eight features of job was rated by supervisory as well as managerial employees where a substantial agreement was found on most and least important features; however disagreements were mostly associated by a particular employee group towards nature of the work. Further, it was also found that the workers who perform tasks that have high skill variety, job significance, autonomy at work and a proper feedback system, are comparatively more satisfied with job than those who perform which are low on these aspects.

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ISSN No: 2319-5614

Motivational theories like Two-Factor Theory and Frederick Herzberg’s two factor theory is a good approach in explaining satisfaction of job and motivation in workplace. Herzberg’s two factor theory postulated that very few variables describing the work situation have direct impact on the overall satisfaction at job. A study by Arnold & Feldman (1986) state that extrinsic rewards does not affect behavioural nor self-reported measure of intrinsic motivation. Studies have also been done on the association of work achievement motivation and satisfaction at work; the findings showed that workers with high work accomplishment motivation seemed to be more satisfied than those who had low work achievement motivation (Swann, Stein-Seroussi & Giesler 1992).

job characteristics identified for IT professionals. The direct correlation of Job characteristics and job satisfaction indicates that irrespective of the achievement motivation of IT professionals being high or low, those engaged in jobs with higher job characteristics have a relatively higher job satisfaction.

The results of a study by Merwe (2008) showed that compensation and related benefits, opportunities, and day to day technological challenges does affect job satisfaction i.e. there is direct relation between salaries and benefits.

The objective of the study lies in: a) Studying the relationship associated with job motivation and expectations from job. b) Studying the relationship between expectations from job and satisfaction from job. c) Studying the relationship between different characteristics of job and satisfaction from job.

Yuan Ting (1996) listed three factors: organizational characteristics, job characteristics and individual characteristics which are the primary determinant of job satisfaction. The findings while studying job satisfaction of federal government employees showed that certain job attributes such as promotional prospect, task precision, satisfaction with the compensation & its significance, optimal utilization of skills, and also the organizational characteristics such as association with supervisors and co-workers and organizational commitment have a major impact on their job satisfaction (Hicks 2013). Few other theories have also suggested that certain job attributes such as supervision, job autonomy, stress in job and variety of job as well affect the job satisfaction and organizational commitment of employees (Paul and Anantharaman, 2004). Around seventy employees in correctional facility department at Midwestern were examined by Lambert (2004) via ordinary least squares regression to understand the effects of such job attributes on correctional staff members 'job satisfaction and organizational commitment. All of the 4 job attributes had a major impact on the job satisfaction index of the staff members. However the utmost effect was observed on correctional staff members’ commitment towards organization. Few authors have also studied a group of Information Software professionals to analyse the relationships between job characteristics and achievement motivation on job satisfaction (Linberg, 1999; Valk and Srinivasan, 2011). The results revealed that the different categories of achievement motivation of IT professionals lie in competition, difficulty control and perseverance. Professionalism, autonomy, feedback, task identity were the

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Issues that arise related to human resources are very sensitive for the organisation and should therefore be handled very carefully. Failing to do so, may result in crises, such as job dissatisfaction, poor morale among employees, reduced commitment, degrading work quality, stress and burnout, poor judgment and ultimately employee leaving the organization (Pandey & Sharma 2014).

Objectives of The Study

Scope of The Study a)

Job satisfaction should act as a major element in determining an employee’s behaviour towards an organization b) Only a satisfied employee can hold a positive attitude towards his job and could go beyond the expectation in job

Research Methodology Sampling size: 200 employees were selected after considering time and cost. Sampling method: Non-probability method of sampling is used to collect the data from the respondents. Data collection: The data is collected from both primary and secondary sources, i.e. through interview with HR managers and through questionnaire which was distributed to software professionals in different IT companies across Delhi/NCR. The secondary data consisted of books, research papers, magazines, and websites etc. Sampling technique: For the purpose of research study, the method of Snowball sampling technique is undertaken.

Statistical Tools Used The collected data has been analyzed by using a) Descriptive analysis: Means, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis were taken into account for analysing the result.

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b) Correlation Analysis: Correlation is a term that refers to the strength of a relationship between two variables. Correlation co-efficient can range from -1.00 to +1.00. The value of -1.00 represents a perfect negative correlation while a value of +1.00 represents a perfect positive correlation.

Sample And Data Collection The present study was done on 200 software professionals having atleast 3 years of industry experience from IT companies in Delhi/NCR. Various development centres like Delhi, Gurgaon etc was chosen for the purpose of the study. Snowball sampling technique was used. The subjects ranged from 28- 35 years. All the data was collected through survey hosting sites as well as through email.

Scales Used 1. Job Motivation Scale Employee Motivation Schedule (EMS) developed by Shrivastava (1980), was used. The scale consisted of 4point scale. Split-half reliability, which is a subtype of internal consistency reliability, was used for the purpose of the study which ranged between .74 and .81. We have divided in half all items of the test that are intended to look into the same area of knowledge (i.e., job motivation) in order to form two sets of items. The complete test is directed to the sample group. The total score for each set is computed, and finally the split-half reliability is obtained by determining the correlation between the two total set scores. This test was implied to measure the enormity (level) of job motivation which is related to the varying needs of employees at job. These needs range from monetary benefits, self growth, personal achievement to non financial rewards, job autonomy and Social relations at work. 2. Job Expectation Scale Based on Herzberg two-factor theory, the job expectation scale with 5 point scale was used for the purpose of the study that varies with six statements for motivation factors and six for hygiene factors. 3. Job Characteristics Scale The job characteristic scale had items depicting different characteristics of job. This was in support of the model proposed by Hackman and Oldham (1975). The sub variables were five: job autonomy, variety of skill, variety of task, significance of task and job feedback. This was based on 7 point scale. 4. Job Satisfaction Scale The scale was based on Minnesota satisfaction questionnaire (MSQ). The responses were taken on a four point scale. The scale assessed the 3 important factors (Com-

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ISSN No: 2319-5614

pensation, recognition and supervisory support) that may perhaps lead to one’s job satisfaction.

Results Descriptive Statistics Means, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis (illustrating the pattern of distribution of scores) of the sample group are given away in Table 1. The scores of samples on total of 19 variables, where 8 variables were related to job motivation (monetary benefits, personal achievement, self growth, self control at work, non financial Rewards, job autonomy, Social relations at work and overall job satisfaction), 2 variables of Job expectation (motivation factors and hygiene factors), 5 of job characteristics (task significance, variety of skill, variety of task, feedback from self, job autonomy and feedback from job) and 4 of job satisfaction (recognition from job, compensation, supervisory support and overall satisfaction from job) reveals negative skewness significantly whereas, the overall job motivation- social relations at workplace came out as positively skewed. The mean value is greater than 20 of variables of job motivation reflecting that employees are highly motivated. Moreover, the mean variables of job satisfaction reflect that employees are quite satisfied on the variables related (recognition from job, compensation, supervisory support) as the mean falls in between 8-11. Correlation Analysis The inter correlation matrix shows that among 19 variables, 8 of job motivation (monetary benefits, personal achievement, self growth, self control at work, non financial Rewards, job autonomy, Social relations at work and overall job satisfaction), 2 of expectation from job (hygiene factors and motivation factors), 5 of characteristics of job (Variety of skill, Variety of task, Significance of task, Job autonomy and Job Feedback) and 4 of job satisfaction (Recognition from job, compensation, Supervisory support and overall job satisfaction) have been figured out in Table 2 by applying Pearson’s product moment method of correlation. The degrees of freedom being 98, correlation coefficients of .198 and .280 are significant at .05 and .01 levels respectively. An inspection of inter-correlation matrix reveals that the Inter correlation among the 8 variables of job motivation ranges from .05 to .758 (p