'<i>Good</i>' Jobs and the '<i>Bad</i>' Jobs?: A Study of Job Satisfaction in an IT Unit

Abstract

Job satisfaction has been defined as a pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job; an affective reaction to one’s job; and an attitude towards one’s job distinguishing a good (satisfying) job from a bad (not so satisfying) job. The taxonomy of a good job allows a start to be made on such questions as ‘In what respects are employees at the lower order jobs better or worse off than those of executives?’, ‘Who has the good jobs?’ and ‘How are good jobs being different from bad jobs?’. These questions are in tune with the measures of job satisfaction quality that probably seem to be useful predictors of future labor market behavior, and are measured herein with reference to a public sector IT organization. Based on the analysis of 93 responses obtained from employees and executives, we find evidence that the job satisfaction among the employees and the executives is very high but no evidence that both such classes of human resources attach same rewards from work based on the levels at which they serve. We also find no support for our proposition that job satisfaction rises in a close linear association with level of job in the organization hierarchy rather; jobs enabling financial expectations at whatever level these were set to be met, are considered to be more important.