The relationship between extrinsic motivation, job satisfaction and life satisfaction amongst employees in a public organisation

Orientation: There is much research on extrinsic motivation, job satisfaction and life satisfaction in organisations. However, empirical evidence on how such factors affect employees in public organisations in developing countries is lacking. Research purpose: To examine the relationships between extrinsic motivation, job satisfaction and life satisfaction amongst employees in a public organisation. Motivation for the study: Labour strife is an endemic phenomenon in South Africa’s public sector as evidenced by the high incidences of industrial action and labour turnover. This study contributes to this subject by identifying the extrinsic factors that could be optimised with a view to enhancing job and life satisfaction amongst government employees. Research approach, design and method: The study used the quantitative research survey approach: a questionnaire was administered to 246 employees in a South African public organisation. Extrinsic motivation factors were identified using principal components analysis. Mean score ranking was used to compare the relative importance of all factors. The conceptual framework was tested using Spearman’s rank correlation analysis and linear regression analysis. Main findings: Statistically significant relationships were observed between job satisfaction and four extrinsic motivation factors: remuneration, quality of work life, supervision and teamwork. The relationship with promotion was insignificant, but a statistically significant relationship was established with life satisfaction. Practical/managerial implications: The findings may be used to implement strategies for enhancing employee performance and industrial relations within public organisations. Contribution/value-add: The study provides evidence of the interplay between extrinsic motivation, job satisfaction and life satisfaction for public servants in developing countries.

[1]  S. Robbins.  Essentials of Organizational Behavior , 1984 .

[2]  E. A. Locke,et al.  Dispositional effects on job and life satisfaction: the role of core evaluations. , 1998, The Journal of applied psychology.

[3]  Gary Dessler,et al.  Fundamentals of Human Resource Management , 2008 .

[4]  Job Satisfaction Of Civil Servants (An Evidence From The Republic Of Maldives) , 2011 .

[5]  Nezaam Luddy.  Job satisfaction amongst employees at a public health institution in the Western Cape , 2005 .

[6]  T. Judge,et al.  Employee attitudes and job satisfaction , 2004 .

[7]  Ingrid Dackert,et al.  Leadership and Climate for Innovation in Teams , 2004 .

[8]  J. Wegge,et al.  Work motivation, organisational identification, and well-being in call centre work , 2006 .

[9]  Mark C. Ellickson,et al.  Determinants of Job Satisfaction of Municipal Government Employees , 2001 .

[10]  Natalia Juristo Juzgado,et al.  How do personality, team processes and task characteristics relate to job satisfaction and software quality? , 2009, Inf. Softw. Technol..

[11]  R. Jackson,et al.  Ethnic difference in the relationship between acute inflammation and serum ferritin in US adult males , 2007, Epidemiology and Infection.

[12]  O. Ladebo.  Perceived Supervisory Support and Organisational Citizenship Behaviours: Is Job Satisfaction a Mediator? , 2008 .

[13]  O. Omar,et al.  Determinants of pay satisfaction of senior managers in the Nigerian Civil Service , 2006 .

[14]  R. O’Brien,et al.  A Caution Regarding Rules of Thumb for Variance Inflation Factors , 2007 .

[15]  Sulaiman Olanrewaju Adebayo,et al.  Influence of Supervisory Behaviour and Job Stress on Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intention of Police Personnel in Ekiti State , 2011 .

[16]  Hailin Qu,et al.  Examining the relationship of work–family conflict to job and life satisfaction: A case of hotel sales managers , 2011 .

[17]  T I Chacko.  Job and life satisfactions: a causal analysis of their relationships. , 1983, Academy of Management journal. Academy of Management.

[18]  C. Hoole,et al.  JOB SATISFACTION AMONG SOUTH AFRICAN AIRCRAFT PILOTS , 2003 .

[19]  Andy Field,et al.  Discovering statistics using SPSS: and sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll, 3rd Edition , 2009 .

[20]  Deborah Smeaton,et al.  'High-Performance' Management Practices, Working Hours and Work-Life Balance , 2003 .

[21]  Validity Studies , 1979 .

[22]  Lu Yu,et al.  A cross-lagged model of self-esteem and life satisfaction: Gender differences among Chinese university students , 2012 .

[23]  Sarina Muhamad Noor,et al.  Quality Work Life among Factory Workers in Malaysia , 2012 .

[24]  John L. Crompton,et al.  Adapting Herzberg: A Conceptualization of the Effects of Hygiene and Motivator Attributes on Perceptions of Event Quality , 2003 .

[25]  J. Maxwell,et al.  The development of a short scale measuring aggressiveness and anger in competitive athletes , 2007 .

[26]  N. Boreham,et al.  Job satisfaction among newly qualified teachers in Scotland , 2006 .

[27]  H. De Witte,et al.  Job insecurity, extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction and affective organisational commitment of maintenance workers in a parastatal , 2005 .

[28]  Marc Buelens,et al.  An analysis of differences in work motivation between public and private sector organizations , 2007 .

[29]  Luis Salvador-Carulla,et al.  Life satisfaction in persons with intellectual disabilities. , 2012, Research in developmental disabilities.

[30]  R. Larsen,et al.  The Satisfaction with Life Scale , 1985, Journal of personality assessment.

[31]  T. Cheng,et al.  An empirical study of employee loyalty, service quality and firm performance in the service industry , 2010 .

[32]  Richard E. Lucas,et al.  Subjective Weil-Being: Three Decades of Progress , 2004 .

[33]  Melanie E. Ward-Warmedinger,et al.  Improving Nurse Retention in the National Health Service in England: The Impact of Job Satisfaction on Intentions to Quit , 2001, Journal of health economics.

[34]  Savaş Duman,et al.  Examining life satisfaction level depending on physical activity in Turkish and German societies , 2010 .

[35]  T. L. Tang,et al.  Sex Differences in Satisfaction with Pay and Co-Workers: Faculty and Staff at a Public Institution of Higher Education , 1999 .

[36]  Naresh K. Malhotra,et al.  Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation , 1993 .

[37]  Scott A. Snell,et al.  Managing human resources , 1988 .

[38]  Todd Dane Bozeman.  Job satisfaction. , 2007, Nursing management.

[39]  Dong-Jin Lee,et al.  Further Validation of a Need-based Quality-of-work-life (QWL) Measure: Evidence from Marketing Practitioners , 2007 .

[40]  Vurain Tabvuma,et al.  The Impact of Life Events on Job Satisfaction. , 2012 .

[41]  D. Manolopoulos.  An evaluation of employee motivation in the extended public sector in Greece , 2007 .

[42]  Espen R. Moen,et al.  Performance Pay and Adverse Selection , 2001 .

[43]  Dong-Jin Lee,et al.  Ethics institutionalization, quality of work life, and employee job-related outcomes: A survey of human resource managers in Thailand , 2010 .

[44]  Elizabeth Lentz,et al.  The Role of Mentoring Others in the Career Plateauing Phenomenon , 2009 .

[45]  E. Deci,et al.  Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. , 2000, The American psychologist.

[46]  X. Hou,et al.  Validity and reliability of instruments designed to measure factors influencing the overuse of antibiotics. , 2012, Journal of infection and public health.

[47]  Jerry Nilsson,et al.  What's the Problem? Local Officials' Conceptions of Weaknesses in Their Municipalities' Crisis Management Capabilities , 2010 .

[48]  Yuan Ting,et al.  Determinants of Job Satisfaction of Federal Government Employees , 1997 .

[49]  M. Mount,et al.  RELATIONSHIP OF PERSONALITY TRAITS AND COUNTERPRODUCTIVE WORK BEHAVIORS: THE MEDIATING EFFECTS OF JOB SATISFACTION , 2006 .

[50]  J. L. Price,et al.  Determinants of Employee Job Satisfaction: An Empirical Test of a Causal Model , 1993 .

[51]  K. Chandrasekar.  WORKPLACE ENVIRONMENT AND ITS IMPACT ON ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANISATIONS , 2011 .

[52]  J. Durbin,et al.  Testing for serial correlation in least squares regression. II. , 1950, Biometrika.

[53]  Otilia Clipa,et al.  Teachers’ satisfaction with life, job satisfaction and their emotional intelligence , 2012 .

[54]  J. Hair.  Multivariate data analysis : a global perspective , 2010 .

[55]  T. Chacko,et al.  Job and life satisfactions: a causal analysis of their relationships. , 1983, Academy of Management journal. Academy of Management.

[56]  R. Burke.  Managerial women’s career experiences, satisfaction and well‐being: a five country study , 2001 .

[57]  K. Loscocco,et al.  Influences on the quality of work and nonwork life: Two decades in review , 1991 .

[58]  Warren A. Whisenant,et al.  An Investigation of Job Satisfaction and Female Sports Journalists , 2003 .

[59]  Gregory B. Lewis,et al.  Who Wants to Work for the Government , 2002 .

[60]  Sim,et al.  Longitudinal Effects of Pay Increase on Teachers’ J ob Satisfaction: A Motivational Perspective , 2010 .

[61]  Billy Bai,et al.  Job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and turnover intent among food-service managers , 2001 .

[62]  Shinichiro Watanabe,et al.  Another Look at the Job Satisfaction-Life Satisfaction Relationship , 1993 .

[63]  A. Bevan-Dye,et al.  Perceived benefits and barriers to physical exercise participation of first year university students , 2011 .

[64]  Guangping Wang,et al.  Psychological Empowerment and Job Satisfaction , 2009 .

[65]  E. Hannum,et al.  Keeping Teachers Happy: Job Satisfaction among Primary School Teachers in Rural Northwest China , 2005, Comparative Education Review.

[66]  Graham Sewell,et al.  Doing what comes naturally? Why we need a practical ethics of teamwork , 2005 .

[67]  Juliana D. Lilly,et al.  The relationship between job satisfaction and demographic variables for healthcare professionals , 2006 .

[68]  Chockalingam Viswesvaran,et al.  Job Satisfaction as a Function of Top Management Support for Ethical Behavior: A Study of Indian Managers , 1998 .

[69]  Kasper Hornbæk,et al.  Current practice in measuring usability: Challenges to usability studies and research , 2006, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[70]  M. Sirgy,et al.  A New Measure of Quality of Work Life (QWL) Based on Need Satisfaction and Spillover Theories , 2001 .

[71]  J. Groothoff,et al.  Which work factors determine job satisfaction? , 2008, Work.

[72]  George M. Puia,et al.  "Yo Tengo La Camiseta (I Have the Shirt On)": An Exploration Of Job Satisfaction and Commitment Among Workers In Mexico , 2003 .

[73]  Robert R. Hirschfeld.  Does Revising the Intrinsic and Extrinsic Subscales of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire Short Form Make a Difference? , 2000 .

[74]  Teresa M. Amabile,et al.  Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation , 2015 .

[75]  Ahmad Usman,et al.  Promotion: A Predictor of Job Satisfaction A Study of Glass Industry of Lahore (Pakistan) , 2011 .

[76]  Daniel Heller,et al.  The confounding role of personality and trait affectivity in the relationship between job and life satisfaction , 2002 .

[77]  D. Moynihan,et al.  Finding Workable Levers Over Work Motivation , 2007 .

[78]  Gilbert A. Churchill,et al.  Marketing Research: Methodological Foundations , 1976 .

[79]  Paul E. Spector.  Measurement of human service staff satisfaction: Development of the Job Satisfaction Survey , 1985, American journal of community psychology.

[80]  Titus Oshagbemi,et al.  Job satisfaction and dissatisfaction in higher education , 1997 .

[81]  R. Kanungo.  The concepts of alienation and involvement revisited. , 1979 .

[82]  Ali Akbar Haddadi Koohsar,et al.  Relation between quality of attachment and life satisfaction in high school administrators , 2011 .

[83]  Konstantinos Pouliakas,et al.  Some are Punished and Some are Rewarded: A Study of the Impact of Performance Pay on Job Satisfaction , 2007 .

[84]  James L. Price,et al.  Reflections on the determinants of voluntary turnover , 2001 .

[85]  A. H. Brayfield,et al.  Interrelationships among measures of job satisfaction and general satisfaction. , 1957 .

[86]  A. Kebriaei,et al.  Job satisfaction among community health workers in Zahedan District, Islamic Republic of Iran. , 2009, Eastern Mediterranean health journal = La revue de sante de la Mediterranee orientale = al-Majallah al-sihhiyah li-sharq al-mutawassit.

[87]  Amanda B. Nickerson,et al.  Parent and Peer Attachment in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence , 2005 .

[88]  Charles L. Hulin,et al.  The measurement of satisfaction in work and retirement: A strategy for the study of attitudes. , 1969 .

[89]  Remus Ilies,et al.  THE SPILLOVER OF DAILY JOB SATISFACTION ONTO EMPLOYEES' FAMILY LIVES: THE FACILITATING ROLE OF WORK-FAMILY INTEGRATION , 2009 .

[90]  Christine E. Bose,et al.  Gender and job satisfaction in urban China : The early post-Mao period , 1998 .

[91]  R. Radhakrishna.  Tips for Developing and Testing Questionnaires/Instruments , 2007 .

[92]  Maynard Riveral Bagtasos.  Quality of Work Life: A Review of Literature , 2011 .

[93]  M. Marchington,et al.  Teamworking structures and worker perceptions: a cross-national study in pharmaceuticals , 2005 .

[94]  E. Thompson,et al.  A Brief Index of Affective Job Satisfaction , 2012 .

[95]  C. Schriesheim,et al.  Assessing the construct validity of the job descriptive index: a review and meta-analysis. , 2002, The Journal of applied psychology.

[96]  Taru Feldt,et al.  A mediational model of sense of coherence in the work context: a one‐year follow‐up study , 2000 .

[97]  Simon S. K. Lam,et al.  Quality management and job satisfaction: an empirical study , 1995 .

[98]  Ryan T. Howell,et al.  Do time perspectives predict unique variance in life satisfaction beyond personality traits , 2011 .

[99]  S. Green.  How Many Subjects Does It Take To Do A Regression Analysis. , 1991, Multivariate behavioral research.

[100]  Catherine Maguire,et al.  The Relationship between Job and Life Satisfaction: Evidence from a Remote Mining Community , 2000 .

[101]  Fabian Bernhard,et al.  Psychological Ownership in Small Family-Owned Businesses: Leadership Style and Nonfamily-Employees’ Work Attitudes and Behaviors , 2011 .

[102]  S. Giannikis,et al.  Modelling job satisfaction in low-level jobs: Differences between full-time and part-time employees in the Greek retail sector , 2011 .

[103]  Angelo J. Kinicki,et al.  Organizational Behavior: Key Concepts, Skills & Best Practices , 2002 .

[104]  C. R. Kothari,et al.  Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques , 2009 .

[105]  Ritu Agarwal,et al.  Crafting an HR strategy to meet the need for IT workers , 2001, CACM.

[106]  Akimichi Takemura,et al.  On connectivity of fibers with positive marginals in multiple logistic regression , 2010, J. Multivar. Anal..

[107]  Promotion of work ability among French health care workers—value of the work ability index , 2005 .