I
found it particularly interesting that Lorsch (1975) states that “a company’s culture
means the shared implicit and explicit assumptions that members make about what
is legitimate behavior in the organization” (pp. 20). This brought me to considering
what shapes the culture of an organization. Bellou (2010) states that job
satisfaction is a major predictor for the organization’s culture (pp. 4).
Furthermore,
she conducted a study to more closely analyze how an employee’s age and gender
impacts their view of satisfaction on the job. She does present that her study offers
“evidence from a different setting than the usual Ango-American”, as the study
was held in “three public hospitals located in one of the five largest Greek
cities” (Bellou, 2010, pp. 8). Nevertheless she found across the sample a direct
correlation in job satisfaction to the amount of fairness perceived by the
employee (Bellou, 2010, pp. 13). Bellou (2010) also found that gender and age
variations for “attention to detail”, “career development opportunities, sharing
information, and employer as brand name” in positively contributing to job
satisfaction (pp. 13). Bellou’s (2010) synopsis is that “organizational agents
need to realize that both gender and age are vital for motivating individuals
effectively and retaining them in the long run” (pp. 14).
I
could give several examples of how this notion coincides with our reading for
this week. I’ve decided to focus on just the simple notion that “employees are
people with complex needs that must be satisfied if they are to… perform
effectively in the workplace” (Morgan, 1998, pp. 37). As Morgan (1998) alludes
to the fact that it is a two way win if the employee feels satisfied (pp. 38).
In more recent years, there has been a bigger shift to the human resource side
of designing policies and positions to enable a more rewarding working environment.
I definitely think that more research
would need to be done in the area of using gender and age as predictors. If an
organization finds that the dominant culture to not be in alignment with the
goal of the company, perhaps taking further into account the employee’s
characteristics may give an organization another aspect to consider when
designing human resource policies.
Bellou, V. (2010).
Organizational culture as a predictor of job satisfaction: The role of gender
and age. Career Development International, 15(1), 4-19. doi:10.1108/1362043101102 0862
Lorsch, W. (1975) Note
on Organizational Design. Harvard
Educational Review, pp. 20
Morgan, G. (1998) Images of Organizations: Executive Edition,
pp.35-68
We'll be exploring organizational culture in week 10, so you can look forward to more readings that deal directly with this topic. Bellou's study sounds like an interesting one. She found that gender and age influenced job satisfaction, but how does this relate back to culture? What were her specific findings with respect to the differences in gender and age? Beyond these two factors, can you think of any other that might have an impact on job satisfaction?
ReplyDeleteHi Shanah,
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a very interesting study! How do you think organizations can take that knowledge and positively affect the People portion of the Star Model(Galbraith, 2002)? In your post, you stated, "In more recent years, there has been a bigger shift to the human resource side of designing policies and positions to enable a more rewarding working environment." I agree with you completely. In business articles, I read about companies like Zappos, Google, and Clif Bar that make great efforts to keep their employees happy, but do you still think that the "bad" companies are out there too? Are there examples just not as public? What do you think that companies like Google (or others) do to keep their employees satisfied (ie wanting to work hard and stay with the company for a long time)?
Jessica, Employee’s job satisfaction impacts the company’s culture and vice versa. The employee’s perception of their own satisfaction with their job shapes their attitudes and subsequently their behaviors. In Bellou’s study she particularly found the following:
ReplyDelete-perceived fairness increases job satisfaction for all employees
-job satisfaction is increased with jobs that pay attention to details, equal opportunities, people orientation, and calmness
-men have increased job satisfaction when there are career development opportunities and sharing information
-younger people have increased job satisfaction with personal growth opportunities and enthusiasm.
Ultimately, I think Bellou presents a possible tool to help assess the underlying factors contributing to the culture of the organization through looking at age and gender. As I previously noted, I do think more research is necessary first though. Let’s say for example that if we know that female employees are more satisfied with their position if there are equal opportunities among the company. If a company is seventy percent female, based on this research, by creating policies and procedures that support equal opportunities the female’s job satisfaction would increase. As a result, there will likely be a more positive company culture which in turn would create a more effective organization.
Cathryn, I think that organizations could take this knowledge and affect the People portion of the STAR model by creating HR policies to be aligned to encourage mind sets and behaviors that are conducive to the goal of the organization. I think that companies should take a look at their employees to create policies tailored toward their specific needs. Using information like Bellou presented (and those similar) could help streamline the process. I definitely think that there are “bad” companies, as you call them. I think that they are generally operating out of greed. They have not yet realized that by taking care of their employees and creating “happy” work environments that in fact their company would be more productive and therefore generate more revenue.