ABSTRACT
The current study attempts to understand the influence of shift work on job satisfaction, and to check whether age, tenure of job and educational background affect the perception towards shift work. The tool used to collect the job satisfaction score was ESI (Employee Satisfaction Inventory), personal data form to collect demographic information, and personal interview to gather qualitative data. There were 80 workers who were given ESI and interview was conducted, out of which 42 were shift workers and 38 were non shift workers. The result indicates that there is significant difference between shift workers and non-shift workers. .
Key words: Shift work, Job satisfaction, Perception, Attribution, Bias and prejudice
Introduction
Shift work is a significant phenomenon in the occupational world. McNall, et. al., (2010), reports that shift work was introduced after the Industrial Revolution. Initially, shift work was implemented only in establishments such as military, security services and health care sectors. Due to expansion of the industries, shift work spread to commercial and technological organization (Inga, Akerstedt, Ekstedt & Kecklund, 2012). Today, the tendency to work round the clock has begun in most of the companies. As more businesses change their working time, the number of employees working during nonstandard schedules is likely to increase (Presser, 2003). Many studies have investigated shift work and its related variables (Jamal & Baba, 1992,), little research has examined about the relationship between age, tenure of job in the organization, and job satisfaction.
This research predicts that there will be differences among employees’ job satisfaction with respect to age, tenure of job in the organization and educational achievements. It is important to know how employees feel about their work schedules. Previous studies have identified that having dissatisfied employees in the organizations may, and often does, lead to negative personal and organizational consequences (Peters, Jackofsky, & Slater, 1981). Among the three shifts, day, evening and night, the job satisfaction among day workers is likely to be higher, but with the effect of certain variables. The variables of age, tenure of job and educational achievement affects the way the employee perceives the nonstandard shifts.
Review of literature
In the current research, we do not acknowledge that shift work can be the cause of dissatisfaction at work place or have negative effect on the psychological well-being of the shift worker. By applying the social psychological principles of attributional theories, halo effect, and prejudices, the research predicts that workers of different age, tenure and educational background will have different perceptions on the shift work thereby affecting the job satisfaction.
Work schedules
Traditional work hours are demarcated by a work day beginning from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and represent the most common pattern of work hours. The term shift work mean differently to different people. Shift work is popularly regarded as a work in which the employees work during non-regular hours i.e. evening or night time. Shift work is considered as working hours that are nontraditional, such as evenings or nights, and working days of the week that are considered as holidays, such as Saturdays and Sundays (Presser, 2003). Many researchers have defined shift work as an employment of two or more groups of workers engage in work in a span of 17-hour or 24-hours per day. In the present study, any work before or after the traditional working hours i.e. 9 am to 5 pm is considered as shift work.
Job Satisfaction
Different authors have different inclinations in defining job satisfaction, and in the present study a few of the definitions are adopted. According to some researchers, job satisfaction denotes a blend of positive or negative feelings that a worker has towards his or her work. Job satisfaction is the extent to which an employee’s expectations are matching with benefits received for working in the organization, and it is closely linked to that individual's behavior in the work place (Davis et al., 1985). A more recent approach defines job satisfaction as a collection of feelings and beliefs that people have about their holding job (George et al., 2008). The degree of extreme satisfaction and dissatisfaction from job varies for each employee. Satisfaction stems not only from the attitude towards the job as a whole, but also from the environment in which the job is performed such as the kind of work employee does, his or her co-workers, supervisors or subordinates and the pay. In the study, we intend to operationalize job satisfaction as attitude toward current job and satisfaction with the pay received, working conditions, coworkers, supervisors / managers and opportunities for promotions.
The definition provided by Mora, Aracil and Vila (2007) is more suitable to the present study. They suggested that job satisfaction is how employees value the whole bundle of monetary and non-monetary gains from the jobs based on their own preferences and expectations. One of the significant contributions by these researchers is the suggestion that job satisfaction, as a personal perception, is a relative matter closely related to comparison and expectation. Employees tend to compare their own current situation with the situation of comparable people around them and draw conclusions depending on their expectations and relative personal position, and there is a positive relationship between job satisfaction and life satisfaction Moderating variables of job satisfaction and shift work.
Perception of Shift Work
The direction of perception towards shift work was presented by Kaleque A and Rahman A (1984). Their study shows that the perpetual morning shift is the most preferred by the employees, and the rotating work schedules is preferred least by them. There is a correlation between the shift and the problems and complaints raised by the employees. Regular workers reported lesser problems than the shift workers. The observation implies that the shift workers' satisfaction with shift work may be lesser.
Methodology
Hypotheses
The current study proposes the following hypotheses.
• Older shift workers will perceive shift work unfavorably and will have lesser job satisfaction.
• Shift workers who have longer tenure in the organization will have lower job satisfaction.
• Shift workers who have higher educational achievement will have lower job satisfaction.
Research design
Current research is an attempt to compare the job satisfaction level of shift workers and non-shift workers. The study applies quasi experimental design. The purposive sampling method was used i.e. shift workers and non-shift workers. For qualifying to be a non-shift worker, the employee must not have worked in any shifts for six months. The shift and non-shift workers were administered a survey (Employee Satisfaction Inventory), and personal interviews were used to collect qualitative data. Along with the scores on ESI, the demographic data such as age, educational qualification and length of tenure were also gathered from the participating employees.
Operational Definition of Variables
Job satisfaction: The score of the ESI (Employee Satisfaction Inventory) and content of the personal interview.
Shift Work: The standard work day that is between 9 am to 5 pm Shift workers are those who work during nonstandard hours.
Procedure
Permission was taken from the authors of ESI (Employee Satisfaction Inventory) to use it for research. The sample of employees was selected form companies that had shift system. The sample was taken from six companies. Shift workers and non-shift workers were administered with ESI randomly, and a short interview was conducted about their perception about shift work. The required demographic data were also gathered. Sample of 80 employees was taken from 12 different organizations. The age range of the participants was 18 – 58 years, both men and women are present in the sample, though seventy five percent of the participants were males.
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