Introductory Chapter: Job Satisfaction and Career Development

Abstract

1. Job satisfaction and employee engagement Job satisfaction is considered as the amount or degree of gratification and contentment that an employee fosters towards his/her overall job, factoring into that equation his/her satisfaction with the job itself, the peers at the job, the supervisors , and the policies at work [1]. Various research studies have highlighted the importance of focusing on the issue of employee job satisfaction, as it plays a critical role in overall firm success or demise. Additionally, the importance of employee job satisfaction has been largely emphasized in the literature because of its positive affect on employee job performance. The productivity of the work force, in any organization, is a major driver which leads to achieving organizational goals. This stresses on the importance of further focusing on job satisfaction as an essential concern for family firms and large corporations equally [2]. Recently, organizations have focused on maximizing productivity in order to maintain their competitive stance and better deal with emerging trends such as globalization. Nowadays, the general direction which firms take when expanding is into international markets that reveal potentially rewarding new opportunities. However, whether it is answering to customer needs or developing and growing on its own, a company needs to ensure that its workforce is as productive as possible, and in order for the workforce to perform at its utmost productivity, employees must feel a satisfaction relating to the nature of the work they are performing. In order to achieve this ultimate productivity, it is suggested that organizations should define major issues that might actually affect the level of employee job satisfaction and attempt to tackle these occurrences which hinder an employee's level of satisfaction at work. For instance, Inuwa [2] discusses in his writings how job satisfaction is related to performance. The results of his analyses showed how an employee's motivation towards being productive at work will increase the more the employee is satisfied with the job, leading to the achievement of the overall organizational goals. If not, the employee will be demotivated, and in turn, this will impact the overall achievement of the predetermined organizational goals. Furthermore, whenever the factors in the organizations that affect employee's motivation are managed, better employee outcomes and performance are created. Therefore, the more the employee motivation, the better the outcome of employee performance. This sheds light on the highlighted relationship between job satisfaction and employee engagement. Results of multiple studies show that the more engaged the employees are, the higher their job satisfaction is. This is due to the fact that employees who feel engaged at work will have better, more efficient, and more productive working behaviors, attitudes, and motivations [3, 4]. On the other hand,