Enhancing Employee Job satisfaction via E-learning: The Mediating Role of an Organizational Learning Culture

Although e-learning systems have been widely employed to develop employee learning at a workplace, discerning what influences the interaction between employee acceptance of an e-learning system within an organizational learning culture (OLC) and the resultant impact on job attitudes remains under-researched and requires further investigation. This study examined the relationship between employee perceptions of an e-learning system, the existing OLC, and job satisfaction. Structural equation modeling was applied to analyze data collected from 297 employees of a telecommunications company. The results suggest that employee acceptance of e-learning is a positive predictor of the OLC and employee job satisfaction. OLC mediates the relationship between the use and acceptance of e-learning by employees and their job satisfaction. Recommendations and implications are subsequently provided in terms of the future for human resource development researches and practices.     

From Job Characteristics to Job Satisfaction of Foreign Workers in Taiwan's Construction Industry: The Mediating Role of Organizational Commitment

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among job characteristics, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction of foreign workers in Taiwan. Overall, 440 Thailand foreign workers were recruited and structural equation modeling was used to test the research hypotheses. The results of this study supported all proposed hypotheses. Job characteristics had a positive effect on job satisfaction of foreign workers. However, the results showed an indirect effect of job characteristics on job satisfaction via organizational commitment. Moreover, the findings suggested that job autonomy is better compared to other job characteristics. This study contributes to the existing literature by stressing the importance of such relationships in the cross‐cultural management enterprises, particularly those concerning foreign workers.     

Job satisfaction among information system (IS) personnel

This study examines relationships between achievement motivation and job characteristics on job satisfaction among IS personnel. The analytical results reveal that the dimensions of the achievement motivation of IS personnel are perseverance, competition and difficulty control. Regarding job characteristics, the job characteristics of IS personnel are task identity, professionalism, feedback, autonomy and significance. Moreover, the dimensions of the job satisfaction of IS personnel are social, job-related and self-actualization satisfaction. Job characteristics affect the job satisfaction of IS personnel and job characteristics and job satisfaction are positively related. Regardless of whether IS worker achievement motivation is high or low, IS workers engaged in jobs with high job characteristics have higher job satisfaction. Jobs with the features of feedback, professionalism and autonomy can most easily increase the job satisfaction of IS personnel.     

The effect of intellectual capital on employees’ satisfaction and retention

We examined the effect of intellectual capital on employees’ job satisfaction and retention, and also identified two human resource management practices that positively influence intellectual capital. Survey data were collected from 1117 employees of a large Italian company leader in the food product market. Structural equations modelling results showed that intellectual capital positively affects the job attitudes examined, although differences emerged between the three dimensions of intellectual capital. Specifically, human capital and relational capital did not directly affect employees’ job satisfaction and retention as we hypothesised; in fact, these relationships were fully mediated by structural capital. Also, our results identified two measures of human resource management practices (communication and alignment) that positively influenced intellectual capital and also contributed to the improvement of employees’ job satisfaction and retention. Our findings may help managers design and implement intervention programmes and policies for effective intellectual capital management.     

Effects of individual characteristics,organizational factors and task characteristics on computer programmer productivity and job satisfaction

Several individual characteristics of computer programmers (self- esteem, level of experience, and mathematical aptitude); four organizational factors (perceived supervisory initiated structure, perceived supervisor consideration, perceived level of performance feedback, and perceived degree of participation in organizational decisions); and five task characteristics (skill variety, task variety, task significance, autonomy, and feedback) are related to computer programmer productivity and job satisfaction. Measurement was accomplished via questionnaires; least squares multiple regression was used to test the hypotheses.     

On the Relation of Job Insecurity,Job Autonomy,Innovative Work Behaviour and the Mediating Effect of Work Engagement

European policy is focusing on innovation as a way out of the economic crisis. At the same time, job insecurity is rising as Europe is still in crisis. In this paper, we examine whether job insecurity affects the innovative work behaviour of employees by focusing on the relation between job insecurity, job autonomy, work engagement and innovative work behaviour (IWB). Using employee level survey data, we use structural equation modelling to disentangle the relations between these variables. The partially mediated model shows the best fit with the data. This model shows that job insecurity and autonomy are both directly and indirectly, through work engagement, related with IWB. For autonomy these relations are positive, while they are negative (and smaller) for job insecurity. Moreover, a negative covariance is observed between job insecurity and autonomy.     

Job and organizational determinants of nursing home employee commitment,job satisfaction and intent to turnover

The purpose of this study was to examine whether job characteristics, the work environment, participation in quality improvement activities and facility quality improvement environment predicted employee commitment and job satisfaction in nursing homes, and whether those same predictors and commitment and satisfaction predicted turnover intention. A total of 6584 nursing home employees from 76 nursing homes in a midwestern state participated. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. The results supported the hypotheses that job and organizational factors predicted commitment and satisfaction while commitment and satisfaction predicted turnover intentions. The implications for retaining nursing home employees are discussed.     

The Relationship between Coworker Incivility,Emotional Exhaustion,and Organizational Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Emotional Exhaustion

The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between coworker incivility, emotional exhaustion, and organizational outcomes measured by job satisfaction, job performance, and turnover intention. Working with a sample of 286 retail bank employees in South Korea, structural equation modeling is employed to test four hypotheses drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory and affective events theory (AET). According to the analyses, while employee incivility positively affects emotional exhaustion, emotional exhaustion has a negative effect on job satisfaction and job performance. In addition, emotional exhaustion has a positive impact on turnover intention among organizational employees. These results imply that to better understand the relationship between coworker incivility and organizational outcomes, it is necessary to consider emotional exhaustion as an important mediating variable. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed, together with its limitations and future research directions.     

Doing a Good Job—the Effect of Primary Task Quality on Well‐Being and Job Satisfaction

This paper investigates whether employees’ assessment of their primary task quality has a significant impact on their well‐being and job satisfaction, respectively. Furthermore, the paper hypothesizes that professional values and norms affect employees’ quality expectations on their work tasks and thus their assessment of primary task quality. The paper proposes a measure for primary task quality and uses it in the analyses of responses from 1,247 preschool teachers and teaching assistants in 94 public daycare centers in Denmark. The results indicate that an important factor for employees is their experience of quality in the job they perform. Moreover, quality expectations can differ between employees performing the same task due to, for example, difference in professional training. This leads us to propose a new research direction for job design theory that addresses employees’ assessment of the quality of their primary task job performance.     

The impact of negative attitudes toward computers on employees' satisfaction and commitment within a small company

In order to examine the impact of negative attitudes toward computer usage, a survey was administered that measured attitudes toward computers, the level of job satisfaction in the work environment, and general attitudes toward the organization. Twenty-nine employees at a real estate office completed a 24-item survey during a regularly scheduled employee meeting. Attitudes toward computers were generally positive; however, about one third of the sample felt incompetent in their ability to use computers, and 21% said that they avoid using computers altogether. Results also indicated that feelings of frustration and confusion about the use of computers were associated with lower job satisfaction. While negative attitudes towards computers were related to one 's attitudes toward the job, these attitudes were unrelated to one's feeling toward the company. Thus, computerphobia may have a strong link to individual job satisfaction, with any consequence for overall attitudes toward the company operating through prolonged dissatisfaction with one's job.     

Workers' intrinsic work motivation when job demands are high: The role of need for autonomy and perceived opportunity for blended working

Work overload or work pressure may undermine workers' intrinsic motivation. In the present research, we tested the conditions under which this may (not) occur, including the perceived opportunity to blend on-site and off-site working through the effective use of computers and modern information and communication technology. Our sample consisted of 657 workers (51% female) representing a variety of industries. As hypothesized, it is not high job demands per se, but high demands in combination with a high need for autonomy and a lack of perceived opportunities for blended working that undermines intrinsic work motivation. When workers high in need for autonomy perceived opportunities for blended working, their intrinsic work motivation was not negatively affected by increasing job demands. This main finding suggests that, particularly for workers high in need for autonomy, the perceived opportunity for blended working is an effective, contemporary resource to cope with the increasing job demands typically observed in today's workplace. Theoretically, these findings contribute to the refinement and extension of influential demands-resource models and Person-Job Fit theory. Practically, our findings may show managers how to effectively keep workers intrinsically motivated and productive in their jobs when job demands are high.     

Job rotation as a factor in reducing physical workload at a refuse collecting department

The effect of job rotation on the physical workload was investigated for male employees working at a refuse collecting department. Before the introduction of job rotation, an employee worked as a street sweeper, as a refuse collector or as a driver. After the introduction of job rotation, every employee was allowed to alternate between two of the three possible jobs during the day, i.e. refuse collecting/street sweeping, refuse collecting/driving or street sweeping/driving. Two non-rotation groups (i.e. refuse collectors and street sweepers) and two rotation groups (i.e. refuse collectors/street sweepers and street sweepers/drivers) were mutually compared. The physical workload was determined by measuring the perceived load, energetic load and postural load during a full working day. Job rotation resulted in a significant decrease of the perceived load and energetic load and a slight decrease of the postural load. The results indicate that the total amount of work performed by means of job rotation resulted in an overall reduced physical workload of the employees of the refuse collecting department.     

Learning demand and job autonomy of IT personnel: Impact on turnover intention

Information technology jobs require a significant amount of learning to maintain currency and perform expected activities, more so than in many other professions. The sheer volume of learning can increase work exhaustion, with a negative effect on turnover. However, jobs can be designed to provide a large amount of autonomy over pace and process in the hands of the IT employee. According to job demand and control models, the ability of an employee to pace oneself and make task decisions can lessen negative impacts. From another perspective, IT employees differ in their desires to learn as part of personal and career growth. Thus, negative effects of learning demand should be lessened by the IT employee’s motivation to learn, and motivation is a crucial antecedent in turnover models. A model based on the job demand-control model establishes and tests these relationships and finds them to hold in a sample of 306 IT employees. Work exhaustion is reduced by instilling job autonomy in the presence of learning demands and motivation, which then lessens turnover intentions of the IT workers.     

The Relationships among Internal Marketing,Job Satisfaction,Relationship Marketing,Customer Orientation,and Organizational Performance: An Empirical Study of TFT‐LCD Companies in Taiwan

The thin film technology liquid‐crystal displays (TFT‐LCD) industry has become one of the main industries in Taiwan. In this research, we take Taiwanese TFT‐LCD industrial companies as the research objects and try to identify the interrelationships among internal marketing, job satisfaction, relationship marketing, customer orientation, and organizational performance. Although these companies are classified as part of the manufacturing industry, it is suggested that their service components could be the focus of greater attention to enhance the success of their business operations. Analytical results indicate that internal marketing, job satisfaction, and customer orientation have significant influences on relationship marketing as well as the organizational performance of TFT‐LCD manufacturing companies. Therefore, Taiwan TFT‐LCD manufacturing companies need to implement relationship marketing continuously, increase employee job satisfaction, and inspire employees to become more customer oriented in order to increase productivity. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A manufacturing-oriented model for evaluating the satisfaction of workers – Evidence from Turkey

Job satisfaction, in terms of worker's satisfaction, is one of the intensively studied areas in human resource and management. However, there is little information available on how ergonomics and the manufacturing environment affect job satisfaction. This study analyzes the extent of the relationship between job satisfaction and work and workplace related conditions. A conceptual model is proposed to evaluate job satisfaction that considers 34 elements in four categories: manufacturing systems, facility design, safety and ergonomics, and human resources and management. A survey of 169 blue-collar workers working in the automotive industry was conducted to investigate the applicability of the model. A comprehensive exploratory factor analysis was used to determine inter-related elements, their underlying factors and their effects on job satisfaction. The analysis revealed 6 factors with 18 related elements. From a multi linear regression analysis, we develop a job satisfaction model built on factors of human resource policies, safety, ergonomics, air quality, thermal comfort and disturbing equipment. The results reveal that ergonomics plays the most important role in workers' satisfaction for the respondent Turkish automotive workers. In contrast, human resource policies seem not play a critical role in job satisfaction because of higher standards in automotive industry compared to other industries in Turkey.     

Occupational musculoskeletal and mental health: Significance of rationalization and opportunities to create sustainable production systems – A systematic review

This literature review aims to identify occupational musculoskeletal and mental health effects of production system rationalization as well as organizational-level measures that may improve health outcome (“modifiers” in this review). A short review of the effect of ergonomic interventions is included as background and rationalization is discussed as a theoretical concept. Indicator variables for occupational musculoskeletal and mental health and related risk factors are presented. Variables with a generalized format were allowed in the literature searches (e.g., job satisfaction and absenteeism were accepted as risk factor and health indicator, respectively), suitable for the research fields of work sociology, organization science, human resource management (HRM) and economics research.One hundred and sixty-two studies of rationalization effects on health and risk factors and 72 organization-level modifier results were accepted into the final database. Entries were sorted by rationalization strategy and work life sector, and trends in outcome (positive, mixed, no effect, or negative effect on health and risk factors) were determined.Rationalizations have a dominant negative effect on health and risk factors (57% negative, 19% positive); the most negative effects were found for downsizing and restructuring rationalizations in general (71 studies negative, 13 positive) and for the health care sector in particular (36 studies negative, 2 positive). The rationalization strategy High Performance Work System (HPWS) was associated with the highest fraction positive outcome studies (6 of 10 studies). Other rationalization strategies (lean practices, parallel vs. serial production and mechanization level) reported intermediate results, in part dependent on work life sector, but also on the year when studies were carried out. Worker participation, resonant management style, information, support, group autonomy and procedural justice were modifiers with favourable influence on outcome.It is concluded that production system rationalization represents a pervasive work life intervention without a primary occupational health focus. It has considerable and mostly negative influence on worker health, but this can be reduced by attention to modifiers. The results create a basis for new priorities in ergonomic intervention research.     

An investigation of the impact of abusive supervision on technology end-users

Although they are likely to occur in many organizations, few research efforts have examined the impact of negative supervisor behaviors on technology end-users. In this study we investigate abusive supervision, and the effects it has on perceptions about the work and psychological, attitudinal, and behavioral intention outcomes. Our sample consisted of 225 technology end-users from a large variety of organizations. Results revealed that abusive supervision has a positive impact on perceived pressure to produce, time pressure, and work overload, and a negative impact on liking computer work, and ultimately these variables impact job strain, frustration, turnover intentions, and job satisfaction.     

The Identification of Job Satisfaction under Z-Information

Complexities in organizational and economical environments have lead psychologists, management scholars, and economists to investigate the multi-dimensional essence of job satisfaction. Unfortunately, existing studies are based on exact data, whereas relevant information is imperfect. To deal with imprecise and partially reliable information, Zadeh proposed the concept of a Z-number. In this paper we consider the Z-number valued rule based model to represent the relationship between job satisfaction and the facets/factors influencing job satisfaction. A real-world job satisfaction index evaluation problem is used to illustrate the suggested approach     

Psychophysical Demands and Perceived Workload—An Ergonomics Standpoint for Lean Production in Assembly Cells

The adoption of a lean production model means a systematic implementation of various management methods and practices. Such a model presents the human element as a key factor in continuous improvement efforts, influencing workers’ job content and the quality of work. However, there are few evidences regarding research on quantitative assessment of the work demand, either psychological or physical, in a lean production environment. Therefore, this study aims to analyze from an ergonomics perspective the psychophysical demand and workers’ perceived workload within assembly cells undergoing a lean production implementation. The proposed method integrates complementary concepts of widely known techniques, enabling the consolidation of several assessment criteria into one particular index for both psychological and physical demands. Such a diagnostic method is illustrated in a case study from the automotive parts manufacturing sector, whose application is performed in three critical assembly cells selected by senior management. Our findings show systemic gaps between work demand and employees’ profile, indicating improvement opportunities in order to provide a better work environment.     

Job performance through mobile enterprise systems: The role of organizational agility,location independence,and task characteristics

This study examines how organizational workers improve their perceived job performance through the use of Mobile Enterprise Systems (MES), while also investigating the impact of perceived organizational agility and location independence on technology acceptance of MES. This study also tests the moderating role of task characteristics (task significance and feedback) on the relationship between MES usage and perceived job performance. Based on the extant technology acceptance model (TAM), we proposed an extended TAM and conducted a large-scale survey among organizational workers who use MES in their workplace across industries. Our findings suggest that both positive attitude toward MES and a high level of habitual MES usage are positively associated with perceived job performance, and that task characteristics positively moderate the relationship between habitual usage (attitude toward MES) and perceived job performance. More importantly, we also found that organizational agility is positively associated with both perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, while location independence is positively associated with perceived ease of use. The present findings provide us with a deeper understanding of how organizational workers utilize MES and how they improve their perceived job performance through the use of MES. Based on these findings, we discuss further implications and limitations.