As I reported last week in my article “What is the truth about job satisfaction?” the more satisfied people are with their jobs, the less likely they are to withdraw (show up late, call in sick, turnover) and the more likely they are to engage and perform at work. Satisfaction also aggregates, such that a unit full of satisfied employees is very likely to outperform a unit of less satisfied employees.
The power of satisfaction at work has always been good news to me. Satisfaction is an attitude, and attitudes are subject to change. The trick is that even if you know you have a problem with satisfaction, most managers struggle with how to improve it. I firmly believe that the most powerful levers for change are in the work environment. Strategically changing something in the work environment that the evidence suggests improves satisfaction (e.g. job improvement, team building, and better supervision) is the advice I give managers.
A new study published in the Journal of Vocational Behavior suggests people with a more positive core self-evaluation are more satisfied with their work and more likely to engage in behaviors that will further enhance their satisfaction. Positive core self-evaluation is a personality trait that includes high self-esteem, high self-efficacy, internal locus of control, and low neuroticism. According to the study authors:
Our study implies that not only are people with more positive CSE more satisfied with their task/work, they are also likely to show greater interest and initiative in working on complex tasks, which might involve learning new skills. Considering that people with higher score on CSE view their jobs as more challenging, seek greater complexity on their current jobs, are more satisfied with their tasks/work, and based on some evidence (Judge & Bono, 2001) perform better, using CSE for selection could be beneficial…However, whenever possible, it would be beneficial for supervisors to provide opportunities to employees to work on complex tasks and also provide them the resources necessary to succeed on such tasks to increase their level of satisfaction.
Hiring people with high CSE is not as easy as it sounds. Most organizations do not administer a personality test to screen for CSE when hiring, and most organizations also do not train their managers how to interview to assess internal locus of control, not to mention a healthy self-esteem and low neuroticism. If your organization can do these things, they make a lot of sense to me.
But any improvements you make to the work environment will affect those with both high and low CSE, and they might be even more beneficial to the less positive folks in your unit. That too is not an easy fix since most organizations do little to help managers and supervisors at all levels understand how to identify and implement effective improvements.
I would never hire or promote a manager that did not have a positive CSE. Figuring out how to keep the employees they’ve been given the privilege to lead satisfied is a complex task, and this research suggests that positive CSE managers might do a better job at making things better for others.
The trick is knowing the difference between positive CSE and narcissism in the managers you hire and promote. Start the process of hiring and promoting for positive CSE at the lowest levels of management, then watch people over time see if narcissism shows its ugly face.
The proof will always be in the proverbial pudding, which is rarely instant.
Bret L. Simmons, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Management in the College of Business at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), where he teaches courses in organizational behavior, leadership, and personal branding to both undergraduate and MBA students. Bret blogs about leadership, followership, and social media at his website Positive Organizational Behavior. You can also find Bret on Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin.
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