Job Satisfaction Survey - 2004

Copyright © 2004 Ethan A. Winning, All Rights Reserved

[Presented below are the findings for the total survey participants, without analytical comparison to previous surveys. The complete 2000, 2001, 2002 and the 2004 surveys are available to subscribers only.]

 

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Motivation and Job Satisfaction: The previous seven job satisfaction surveys that we've conducted have utilized "standardized" basic criteria for motivation, job satisfaction, and why employees stay and leave their companies. Those criteria are the same that were used from 1968 through the 1999. But many of us have been questioning whether Maslow and myriad of others who set the foundation for modern industrial psychology could remain relevant in 2000, and especially now in 2004 as we settle into a revolutionary period. (For a complete discussion of theories and realities of motivation, please see the 38-page 1998, 2002 Job Satisfaction Survey. in the subscriber's section.)

When it comes to basic motivation, the two basic premises of the Hierarchy of Needs remains incontrovertible: (1) we all have basic and higher level needs, and (2) we cannot move from one level of needs to the next until we have satisfied the needs at the current level. In a work context for example, we cannot be motivated by recognition or power or a title if we are having some sort of physical crisis. Put even more simply, I cannot be worried about a promotion when I've just found out I have cancer.

Has Motivation Changed? Though I have by no means dismissed Herzberg, Argyris, and others who dealt with 20th Century motivation, satisfaction. and corporate culture, their theories have certainly been undermined by a new corporate culture and the raising the intensity and level of basic needs which individual workers must satisfy (or overcome) in order to concentrate on careers. Again put simply, there are many more difficulties in meeting basic needs than there were five or ten years ago. Five years ago, few seemed concerned about health insurance, retirement funds, or being able to afford a home. What the hell happened?

Suppositions: What happened is that the joke of downsizing (it did start as an innocuous euphemism) became acceptable, then part of bottom line strategy, then a necessity for profitability. Just my opinion, but a very educated one. From wholesale firing (inappropriately called "layoffs") to reduction and even cancellation of benefits (today Sears announced that it would no longer have a retirement fund), so long as there was and is little or no regulation, it became acceptable that employees - from managers and blue-collar - would have to find new ways to find security, one of the most basic needs. As for job satisfaction, perhaps that was gone and people would have to satisfy their wants and needs outside of work.

The Survey: For the first time, I changed the criteria on a motivation and job satisfaction survey. I also used a control group of some 600 nonexempt employees, though their perceptions are only reported in the subscriber's section of this Web site. Some of the criteria dropped from this survey were the job itself, the possibility of growth, advancement, and real responsibility. There were two reasons why only one true motivator (recognition) was left on the survey: too many people taking these surveys know the "politically correct" answers. In fact, more than a dozen respondents commented, "You left out 'the work itself.'"

My response is that we'll take that as a given, though with few apologies to Herzberg, not as much a given as pre-1993. Yes, most of us want to be enlightened or self-actualized, and most of us want to have recognition in the form of titles, salary increases like free agent baseball players, and even real responsibility, but many more of us are wondering and worrying about health insurance, meeting mortgage payments, and job security. I want to reiterate and emphasize that "us" includes managers and all other employees. The MBA is no more secure today than the janitor, maybe even less so since the janitor provides a needed service at lower wages.

So I wanted to see what factors were important for the respondents' job satisfaction, and I took away the all too familiar work itself etc. If the world hadn't changed much, then "Recognition by management" should rank one or two in the results. Well, we obviously have more on our minds...

What follows are the individual questions and the results for the total responses of 517 individual companies. {A more complete discussion is provided for subscribers here}

The question was: Please select from the following three lists the three most important factors to you for job satisfaction, with a following question, Do you think employees' value these criteria differently than you?

There were 517 responses to the survey. In the following chart, the criteria are on the left. The "1st" means that the criterion was listed as first by the Number of people to the right. In other words, if you look at "Salary/Wages" as being the most important factor in job satisfaction, 153 of our managers (96% were managers or assistant managers) listed it as number 1. That is 30% of the 517, which places it first in the factor which is most important for job satisfaction for our managers. The 356 is the total who placed Salary/Wages as first, second, and third (153+138+65), and the 68% is the percentage of those who chose the criterion in the tope three.

Three most important factors to you for job satisfaction

N=517

 

Results: The criteria from most to least important are listed in the above chart in order of relative importance. It will always be relative importance since our needs change from day to day. If you happened to take the survey on a day when you were told that there would be 1,500 laid off in your company, then you probably would have been more concerned with job security ... especially if there are only 1,550 employees in your company.

Money, money, money. Let's face facts: money was the most important criterion for job satisfaction (second for our control group, and that's the last I'll mention about them in this report). However, as I've said in at least 20 other surveys and reports, money represents much, much more than case. It represents buying (or paying) power. It represents whether you can get into a house, or whether you can afford current mortgage rates, or whether you can pay off your credit cards.

Note that I listed this as "Salary/Wages" and not as "Salary Increase." The reason is simple...and often overlooked: a salary increase is a form of management or supervisory recognition which is something that lasts longer as a "warm fuzzy" than base salary or wage.

Is it surprising that "Recognition" came out sixth, and a clear sixth at that? I don't think so. Previous surveys certainly were pointing in this direction, and even I was loathe to admit that either motivation theory was crumbling or our needs had changed. I think it's quite clear that society and work have changed and our needs along with them. A full third of the respondents are concerned about job security, another third about insurance benefits or lake thereof, and more than two-thirds are concerned about money, plain and simple.

I cannot explain why "Relationship with immediate supervisor" is as important as it is or, for that matter, what it means. That's right, I don't know what it means. It could be that many in the initial group are having trouble getting things done because their immediate supervisor is a roadblock or that she/he/it takes credit for your ideas, or that your relationship is so good that you don't want to lose it, or that you're all dating your supervisors. (Hey, what do I know. I've been married to my supervisor for 40 years.) I do think that some of the "Friends and relationships at work" could be combined with this criterion because there can be no doubt that work, which consumes a third of our lives, has become a primary place in which we interact with peers. The candle can truly be burnt at both ends now: home and work. There may be less leisure time than we've had in the past 60 years.

I would have placed "Communications between management and employees" higher on the list, but only because the media makes it seem that there are few companies where management does communicate with employees and where senior management isn't trying to hide something from lower levels. But then, when one considers that half of the 517 are in HR, it's actually comforting to see that this is as important as it is - unless, of course, I'm misreading the results.

"Fair policies and procedures" was put into the survey just that way instead of a general "fairness" criterion. Being treated fairly I assume would have been much higher on the list, but fair policies are only important when they do not exist.

Summary: I cannot be certain about these results, nor can I statistically prove any opinion stated herein. But my gut feeling is that there have been major changes in many countries (not just the U.S.), that many are happy to have a job and have stopped asking for two month's paid vacation (a la Germany that I heard so much about just two years ago), and that true unemployment is around 10%. The news may be overblown, but we certainly seem to be in a transitional economy and society. We're a little edgy, and the security that most enjoyed 15 years ago is gone.

And we're confused, but that's why this is a transitional period. If you're not confused, you have nothing to do with the stock market. Greenspan says that we might have to raise interest rates, and the market goes down 141. Why? Did we think interest rates could be a minus? Then the employment picture looks bad, and the market goes up 42. So, if I'm wrong, s'plain it to me, Lucy.

 

All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2004. E. A. Winning Associates.