Job satisfaction is deduced and analyzed in different ways by a different set of scholars or thinkers. It refers to a favorable feeling of accomplishment of set goals at the workplace. Job satisfaction, however, is not all about individual happiness, contentment and satisfaction within self, but rather about job fulfillment. Generally, it could be believed that job discontent among employees may lead to a lack of motivation at work. According to Schultz, job satisfaction is primarily a psychological attitude toward one's work.   Job satisfaction is described by Lofquist and Davis as an individual's affirmative feeling towards the work environment as a consequence of the individual's appraisal of the amount to which the work environment fits his or her needs. In the fields of human resource management and organizational behavior, it is one of the most studied phenomena. Job satisfaction is described as a happy or positive emotional state arising from a positive evaluation of one's job or work experiences.

It refers to their complete dedication to the tasks at hand, their job satisfaction, their relationships with co-workers, strong leadership, a safe and affirmative work environment, and so on. Combining these factors will result in job satisfaction. One can judge an organization's capacity to keep its men engaged in the workplace based on this. Pleasure on the job, according to Aristotle, shows perfection in the task. In this view, it is self-evident that people who are dissatisfied with their jobs cannot perform better. As a result of lower employee satisfaction and negative workplace experiences, businesses and work organizations tend to lose people. As a result, it is solely the responsibility of these work organizations to determine a higher level of employee satisfaction in order to ensure a sense of loyalty, higher productivity, and lower absenteeism through direct measurements on the one hand, and to identify and resolve employee dissatisfaction on the other [1].

Work is an essential component in the life of every individual. The majority of the employees concentrate on their career development and this is referred to as human development activity. Thus, the employees must have the feeling of satisfaction, or else it may result in frustration, anger, or depression among the workers. Job satisfaction results in increased productivity, a better quality of work, and commitment towards the organization. The modern era is an ‘era of competition’ and the employees, as well as organizations, experience a lot of pressure. The organization expects better outcomes while employees expect better benefits. Because of the pressure the individuals experience anxiety and stress. That is, the pressure to perform best among the employees creates stress called ‘Job Stress’. This may lead to reduced productivity, accidents, and increased mistakes at work, promote     absenteeism, conflict with coworkers or management, lower morale, physical and emotional problems as well. This finally results in a low level of job satisfaction. 

HISTORICAL CONTEXT:

Since Taylor’s scientific management and Mayo’s Hawthorne studies, there has been an enormous out-put of the empirical literature on nature, causes, correlates, and consequences of job satisfaction. The scientific management of F.W. Taylor focuses mainly on the training of the employees to increase productivity, which is assumed to be a source of job satisfaction in work organization; whereas Hawthorne studies intensify the implications of observation and supervision for the tendencies and behavioral patterns of the employees. Thus, it emphasized the significance of teamwork and informal communication to derive satisfaction from their respective jobs. Elton Mayo was able to conclude that the level of job satisfaction could be enhanced by giving more freedom to workers in setting standards for their output and thereby determining the work environment. He also realized the good results of mutual interaction and co-operation among the employees would lead to a high level of social cohesion. This finding provided a strong platform for the understanding of a social reality that people not only consider monetary benefits but other purposes are also taken into account while researching the factors responsible for job satisfaction. 

Locke [2] estimated that the number of empirical studies focusing on various dimensions of job satisfaction might be around four thousand.  Since, then, for the last seven decades a great many more studies have been published rendering alienation and job satisfaction at work a happy hunting ground for social scientists, behavioral scientist and management scientists so much so, that these, particularly alienation has come to be viewed not as a concept but an independent perspective contemporary literature on job satisfaction is characterized by a plurality of theoretical perspectives. Despite this vast output of academic enterprise, the progress in understanding the intricate realities about alienation and job satisfaction among workers is painfully slow and far being satisfactory. Controversies, criticism, and polemics continue to exist and plague so applied an area of academics as this. While there is growing literature on the empirical measurement of different aspects of job satisfaction and alienation, very little has been done to develop an integrated empirical, scheme to answer causative queries about them. 

Still more varied and diverse are the studies on causes and correlates of job satisfaction. It would be impossible to catalog the number of times that job-enlargement, job enrichment self-pacing, autonomy, decision participation, fringe benefits, supervisor practices, pay level, and the like have been put forth as the features of work whose manipulation would increase employee satisfaction, commitment, and even productivity.  Up to the date of Hawthorne studies i.e., the 1920s, those engaged in industrial psychology and sociology had been interested in examining the implications of job conditions, physical conditions, and equipment design on job satisfaction.  Even the Hawthorne studies were conducted initially to know the effect of high-ting at place work as such they were also known as illumination studies.

There are, however, many conceptual, operational, and methodological bottlenecks in formulating a scientific theory of job satisfaction. Concerning methodology, there is no universal agreement or consensus among those who study job satisfaction about the methods and measures of job satisfaction.  So is the case even with the classification of job satisfaction as high and low? Thus, there are no universally accepted norms to follow in classifications in the study of job satisfaction.  Further, none of the several measures of job satisfaction is fully satisfactory as job satisfaction is a multidimensional phenomenon.  Many measures and conceptual schemes developed lack applicability beyond a specific organization. As such, all things considered, the general conceptual and methodological state of theory and research in job satisfaction must be considered as highly uncertain.

WHY STUDY JOB SATISFACTION:

Job satisfaction nowadays tends to be a regularly studied subject matter for scholars to investigate the related factors to the process of deriving satisfaction and opting for a comfortable life. Satisfaction is the most likable and preferable content for all individuals of all societies. The study of satisfaction on the job, nowadays, has attracted the ­­­­attention of social scientists, behavior scientists, and management scientists. Every worker, irrespective of the nature of work, engaged in work tends to contribute to his workplace by makings use of his experience, opportunities, and skills. Every work situation would enable an employee to establish new social relations with colleagues, supervisors, management, and other people. Furthermore, jobs certainly would help to impure financial conditions, shoulder responsibilities, and plan the future. Thus, an employee prefers to experience favorable feelings towards developing or updating skills, establishing better social relations, improving the financial status, and planning a better career. Such phenomena could be treated as a step towards deriving satisfaction on the job.

Furthermore, job satisfaction is seen to be an excellent predictor of employee intentions or decisions to leave a job, as well as a significant indicator of overall individual well-being. In everyday life, job satisfaction is also vital. As a result, job happiness is a major concern for both employers and employees. Financial matters, promotions, colleagues, supervision, the workload itself, appreciation, working environment, and organization and management are all aspects that contribute to job satisfaction [3]. To avoid the worst outcomes, such as loss of motivation, apathy, unhappiness, poor productivity, absenteeism, and even high turnover rates, poor working conditions, overwork, low compensation, no opportunity for progression or promotion, and a lack of recognition must all be addressed immediately. Thus, job satisfaction is becoming extremely important in the workplace. Employers have realized that the "successful and satisfied" their employees are, the better their attitudes about work, the stronger their motivation, and the higher their performance. The working environment has a significant impact on job satisfaction in every field of work. Employees who are dissatisfied with their jobs frequently show little interest in their jobs, which has a negative impact on business performance. 

To summarize, job satisfaction refers to an individual's level of happiness with his or her employment, as well as performing a job that one enjoys, doing it well, and being appropriately compensated for one's efforts. It can also refer to a person's enthusiasm for and enjoyment of their job. When an employee is given the option, he or she is more motivated to complete a task. A person is more likely to be satisfied with their employment if they are motivated to a greater extent to execute and complete a task [4]. Job satisfaction is believed to be essential in archiving life satisfaction. Hence, priority must be given to keeping employees satisfied and safe which could yield positive results like high productivity, increased level of loyalty, profits, work-life balance, and positivity among employees. The first and foremost advantage of job satisfaction is that employee retention and satisfied employees hardly think of leaving their current jobs. Thus, they must be treated well in the organization with ample opportunities for career development and better salaries. 

The salient features of satisfied employees are: they tend to compromise and adapt more and handle pressure situations with relative ease; accept challenges; willing to update new technology; participate in training program; more accomplished with better performances; happier and enjoyable; highly motivated; high morale; positive in approach; productive and committed. The best way of keeping away from stress, a source of dissatisfaction, is to get involved in the process of work which would enable individuals to feel a sense of gratification forgetting the bad experiences and feelings. Thus, employees satisfied with their job seldom find time to indulge in dirty politics and spoil their relations with their counterparts and employers. For such employee loyalty to an organization would be the first and foremost priority and the rest of the things could be considered later.

FACTORS INFLUENCING JOB SATISFACTION

Job satisfaction can be influenced by certain aspects like personal, job-oriented management related, and societal factors. Personal factors include employee’s age, gender, education, marital status, family background, socio-economic background, and so on. Whereas, job integrated factors such as the work and its nature, working conditions, the influence of internal and external environment on the job that is not under the control of management and the like are considered as Job oriented determinants. These determinants play an important role in the selection of jobs by the employees. Further, management-related factors consist of job security, nature of work team, supervision, rate of wages, promotion and transfer policies, timings and hours of work, and sense of responsibilities. These play a vital role in creating a sense of job satisfaction among the employees. Thus, it can be stated that job satisfaction is influenced by a different set of determinants that decide upon performance as well as job satisfaction. However, job satisfaction is considered as a result of performance rather and not vice-versa. And societal factors which are associated with corruption, decimation based on caste, color and creed, regional differences, etc will have implications for the job satisfaction of individuals. 

Job satisfaction is related to both organization and employee as well. It determines the productive efficiency of the organization while employee turnover, absenteeism, alcoholism, irresponsibility, non-commitment are considered as outcomes of job dissatisfaction. However, it can be said that satisfaction or dissatisfaction towards a job creates opinion towards the job as well as the organization which results in boosting up the morale of the employee. 

Achievement and responsibility, according to theorists, are the two significant motivating variables that can be employed to increase work satisfaction. Learning can be fostered, according to Noe [5], by providing staff with unique demanding goals and objectives more effectively. Managers must set clear and attainable goals for their personnel in this situation.

This will help to provide employees with a sense of accomplishment upon task completion, which may lead to increased satisfaction. Organizations must also empower and encourage their employees to take on more responsibility. Such strategies do help to increase employee satisfaction and make them more loyal, committed, and have shared interests in their jobs.

Coming to variables in the study of job satisfaction these are classified into two categories

• personal variables, 

• organizational variables. 

Personal variables include the personal characteristics of an individual like age, sex, and educational qualification which form the basis of the individual.  Irrespective of the organizational determinants these influence the job satisfaction of the employees. Organizational variables are occupational status, job content, considerate leadership, pay and promotional opportunities, and interaction within the work team. These variables determine the job satisfaction of an employee. Apart from these, there are several other variables too that have been considered by different researchers while researching the factors related to the job, employees, and needs of the research. 

Job satisfaction is measured in different methods. Many experts have derived models to measure job satisfaction. This includes

• Likert scale by Rensis Likert 

• Job Descriptive Index (JDI) method by Smith, Kendall, and Hulin

• Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ)

• Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS)

• Faces Scale

• Superior-subordinate Communication Model 

• Emotional Dissonance Model 

• Social Interaction Model 

Job satisfaction impacts mainly on productivity, absenteeism, and turnover. Thus, by conducting research efficiently one can find the reasons for both job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. This will result in the promotion of determinants for the former while taking appeasement measures for the latter. It will further support the work organization to increase the levels of job satisfaction among the employees by considering such aspects as grievance-handling procedures, support for creative suggestions, cordial analysis or evaluation of work performance, increase in wages, praise for good performance, promotion according to ability, the proper quantum of work, freedom to seek help in solving problems, equal wages for equal work, absence of unnecessary intervention and criticism, satisfactory hours of work, availability of leaves and rest, and so on. Hence, it can be concluded that research on job satisfaction is need of the hour in the present context which could help academicians, employees, and organizations to perform better. 

However, it is difficult to achieve complete satisfaction, as it is a relative term and one cannot be fully satisfied in a modest sense. He/she could still feel that something is missing with him/her. Keeping this point in view, it could be stated that employees cannot be satisfied by themselves and by the employers as the wants are unlimited and work situations are diverse. Hence experts must take this fact into account while measuring satisfaction levels. At the  same  time, one can think about teaching and learning to achieve satisfaction. How to be satisfied must be taught as a part of syllabi content at the elementary level itself, so that children can learn and get prepared to combat dissatisfaction situations at work phenomena in the near future.

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