REASONS AND RISKS OF JOB DISSATISFACTION

Intro

In this essay we will teach you the reasons for job dissatisfaction, the risks of it and how we could solve this problem. Job dissatisfaction can lead to a lower job performance and that can lead to customer dissatisfaction. Customer dissatisfaction could also mean less sales, this problem is also considered causing high costs.

Job Dissatisfaction is very expensive, you pay for the performance of your workers but you don’t get it. An example for the expensiveness is, when a worker is dissatisfied for a longer time, the “exit response” will cause a  behavior toward leaving the organization by for example searching for a new job. If you are searching for a job while you already have a job, you will not search in a big hurry.

 At the end of the essay you will understand it better. That’s why it’s important to prevent dissatisfaction but also solve it. There will always be dissatisfaction or a few workers who are withdrawing and affecting other workers. We have a few solutions in our essay. First we will start to talk about the withdrawal in general and then we’ll talk about it more specifically. Then we will show you a perfect example called the “Bad-apple-effect”  of what withdrawal behavior can cause. 

Withdrawal

  Employees who avoid their work may be silently wishing it would just go away. Someone who is dissatisfied with their job may wait until the last minute to complete tasks and then make excuses for why they didn’t do it earlier. (Boatman, n.d.).

Some commonly noted withdrawal behaviors are physical such as: absenteeism, lateness/tardiness, and turnover. There are also psychological withdrawal behaviors. These include: passive compliance, minimal effort on the job, and lack of creativity. Psychological withdrawals often take the form of laziness or lack of intense thinking on the job (Pinder, 32, 2008). Possible reasons for removal can be for example Disappointment, Wrong distribution of tasks, Poor group classification. 

There are a few steps in Withdrawal, first it’s just the psychological withdrawal, but this first step is causing the withdrawal of other people, like in our example in the bad-apple-effect. We will tell you more about it next.

Bad-Apple-Effect

Bad-Apple-Effect means excluding one employee. The employee who is left out of the situation feels faded and the team will suffer and they are not in the same boat anymore.

Common defensive mechanisms employees use to cope with a “bad apple” include denial, social withdrawal, anger, anxiety and fear. 

Trust in the team will be bad and if the group loses its positive culture, members physically and psychologically will go far away from each other.

In this type of situation, a solution must be found. Otherwise, well-being at work and the strength of the team will suffer. Due to the “black apple” effect, some workers may suffer in the workplace and work will not work at all.

The Journal article, written by Robert Sutton, a professor at Stanford University, states that bad apples are “remarkably contagious,” and that leaders who ignore the fact that certain employees are rude, lazy or incompetent “are setting the stage for even their most skilled people to fail.” (The bad Apple Syndrome, 2011).

In a worst case

Risks that may happen if the situation will go on like this:

•   Motivation

Employees may change a little bit unmotivated and may lose a big part of their workforce and efficiency. The organizational climate has a major impact on work motivation and it affects the motivation of the entire organization. The atmosphere is particularly affected by job satisfaction through motivation and can also satisfy the needs of joining.

•   Disrespect

In a bad case, employees can start to disrespect each other. In a good organization there are always rules and good steps to respect each other. We have to accept the other as he or she is. 

When we encounter a person we think is different, we should decide to think of something positive about it, like for example

1.     Leave a good feeling behind
2.     Appreciate, don’t judge
3.     Be genuinely interested in another’s ideas
4.     Be present and listen
5.     Different personalities in the workplace

Studies show that human personality explains very little about adult behavior, up to eight percent. We have still raised personalities in work communities in a way that is not necessary. There have always been people in the workplace with different personalities. There has been no change in that. So how did we take different personalities into account in the past? Workplaces had clear rules and good manners, and they were followed.

Solving

Job dissatisfaction is a serious problem in every company. It affects productivity and like a disease, can reduce labor. However, this should not be a big problem, since most of the reasons for dissatisfaction are fixable.

1. First of all,

We must provide clear goals and instructions.

We need to set clear goals and instructions to employees.By giving them clear instructions, we can ensure that they have confidence in their performance and tasks.

1. Secondly

We need to give employees a variety of jobs.

Assigning repetitive jobs to an employee can be monotonous and result in low productivity.We must assign various tasks to employees.Thus, boredom and monotony do not occur.

1.  Third

Constant communication with employees should be maintained.

An open line of communication should be established with employees so that we can ensure that their ideas or skills are important and that they are seen as a valuable part of the team.

1.  Finally

We need to show employees that their hard work is fairly recognized and appreciated.We need to create a system where rewards are given to them.This system can be monetary rewards such as raises or bonuses.

As a result

The key to preventing the job dissatisfaction of their employees is to educate them well, treat them well and finally reward them well.

Conclusion

 “We can’t solve problems by thinking the same way we create them.”

(Einstein, Albert.) Follow this logic and ask yourself what strategies you use to solve the problem.

Conclusion of job dissatisfaction needs to be advancement for everyone. After the conclusion the workers can develop to do a better job and take more responsibility. They will also achieve much more than before. More opportunities and more recognition.  

Conclusion could be something simple. Perhaps the workers need to be re-educated and they have to learn new things. Organizational changes could be one of the options. One of the things is to always gather your employees’ feedback to make sure you’re using the right methods to combat job dissatisfaction.

 Sources:

Boatman, A. 8 Causes of Job Dissatisfaction & How to Combat It. Luettu 05.05.2022

https://www.aihr.com/blog/job-dissatisfaction/

The Bad Apple Syndrome. 2011. Luettu 05.05.2022

The Bad Apple Syndrome

Craig C. Pinder. 2015. Work Motivations in Organizational Behavior 

Julius Hirvonen & Verneri Halttula