Workplace Behavior

Week One Articles Review

Workplace behavior and job satisfaction are two concepts that are closely related. One would think this is common sense; however you can witness these concepts on a daily basis regardless of the type of industry. The writer having worked in the federal public sector for a majority of his career has witnessed many different attitudes, levels of job satisfaction, and commitment to the organization. Identifying the underlying humanistic facets that contribute to both interpersonal and intrapersonal conflict (Robbins & Judge, 2012) appears a worthy undertaking.

When people speak about the attitudes of employees, they are most commonly referring to the level of job satisfaction of the employees. A person that is positive tends to have high job satisfaction and a person who is negative tends to have lower job satisfaction (Robbins & Judge, 2012). One would assume that these are easy to understand, but this article review will attempt to express the importance of the concepts discussed later. According to (Robbins & Judge, 2012)Job satisfaction is caused by control, training, variety, independence, social support, and although money does motivate some people it is not necessarily what makes an employee happy.

Article One

In the article The managers role in increasing happiness in the workplace, the author interviews Jessica Pryce-Jones a joint founder and partner of iOpener consultancy. Together while discussing the link between happiness in the workplace and the employee attitudes during the downward spiraling economy they make some very good arguments. First, many employees are concerned with the security of their jobs which brings high levels of stress and doubt which creates conflict. Moreover, the stressors placed on employees during these harsh economic times make it easier to acknowledge the signs of employees being unhappy and unsure of their job security from a management perspective. If managers are aware of the unhappy behavior they are more likely to have an impact on influencing employees to be happier and producing at their full potential (Scott, 2009).

In this article the author and the interviewee discuss the connection companies that succeed as well as companies that fail due to low morality. According to Jessica after extensive research a key factor relies on the happiness and the environment of the employees. A person with positive feelings has higher job satisfaction than a person with negative feelings and low job satisfaction (Robbins & Judge, 2012). Today managers are being tasked with increased production, job performance, and less staff so there is a positive relationship with managers that can maintain happiness in their employees to keep them on task and focused on the company mission (Scott, 2009).

The benefits of happy employees will often speak for themselves. Employees that are happy with their job are more inclined to "go above and beyond", come up with solutions to problems and ideas to create more efficiency (Scott, 2009). Have you seen employees in your industry that perform at this level because they are satisfied with their job? On the other side of the spectrum employees that are not happy with their jobs tend to be negative, replacing work with searching the internet, and spreading rumors. Employees that are unhappy are also more inclined to miss work or take sick days when they are not really sick. Other signs could be an employee that is normally confident and participates on a regular basis that all of a sudden appears tired, people that are normally social that stay to themselves, or someone that is normally well organized that suddenly has a cluttered appearance (Scott, 2009).

"Interesting jobs that provide training, variety, independence, and control satisfy most employees" (Scott, 2009 p.20). Pride and trust in an organization is the beginning of happiness in the workplace for many employees. Employees like to be decision makers and have their achievements acknowledged. Pride and trust make teams come together to solve issues which creates a cohesive team atmosphere that tends to give employees self-gratification as well as job satisfaction. Employees want to believe that they are doing the right thing legally and morally, so recognition is a major factor in keeping employees happy and content with the job they are performing (Scott, 2009). Employers are now offering benefits to employees such as flexible schedules, compressed work schedules, and even the ability to work from home through a secure network. This obviously depends on the type of job that offers the availability and how much work can be conducted from home. This also helps with maintaining a healthy work/family life that is motivation itself for many employees. Flexible schedules can create a variety of times that the employees can come to work as long as they put in a full week of work. Programs like this give employees

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