A Research On Job Satisfaction in Different Countries Free Essay Example

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Job satisfaction Analysis

Job satisfaction can mean many things but in most cases it is the level of contentment someone feels towards his or her work. However, measuring job satisfaction can prove to be challenging as everyone has their own thoughts to what makes their job gratifying. In a broad generalization there are two types of jobs satisfaction. The first is intrinsic job satisfaction, which is how much a worker values the kind of work they do, and the tasks they must do.

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The second is extrinsic job satisfaction and this is when a worker values the conditions of his/her workplace, their salary or bonuses, and colleagues. Additionally, job satisfaction is influenced by expectations or what workers look for in their job. Some commonly desired expectations include working at a company that has a good reputation, ability to progress in their career, receiving a substantial salary, and to receive benefits such as extensive health insurance. All in all, one can conclude that many variables go into influencing a workers level of job satisfaction.

According to three different sources the majority of workers in the US are dissatisfied with their jobs. The Conference Board, a New York based company, created a survey that asked “workers how they [felt] about various parts of their experience, including job security, wages, promotion policy, vacation policy, sick leave, health plan and retirement plan” (Adams). After compiling the data from the survey the Conference Board published that 52.3% of Americans are dissatisfied at work (Adams). The high percent of dissatisfied workers is in part due to the lack of job security, inability to progress in their career, and decline in benefits.

Furthermore, if we look into America’s national work culture we could learn a lot more from this. For instance, nowadays females are progressively getting promoted and advancing in their respective field decreasing the difference in job satisfaction between males and females. Another aspect of American culture that improves job satisfaction is flexible work hours. Depending on occupation work hours are malleable in the sense that a worker does not need to work eight hours a day five days a week in order to fulfill a 40 hour week requirement. Even though American cultures are improving small aspects of job satisfaction there is still a downward trend correlating job satisfaction and the years to come.

Similar to Americans, Egyptians also have poor job satisfaction. On a scale of one to five, five being the happiest, Egyptians on average rated their job satisfaction level at a 2.53 (Job Satisfaction Survey). Egyptians are dissatisfied with their jobs for a multitude of reasons. For instance, they feel that they are not paid fairly, are overloaded with work, are stressed at work, and are not given promotions or raises. Once again Egyptian workers show similarities comparable to American workers as Egyptian and American workers are most dissatisfied in the same areas. There is always the fear of not knowing whether or not you will succeed in your field of work or be stuck with the same position with the same salary. However, because of Egyptian’s religious practices there are specific work hours exclusive to their culture making flexible work timing nearly impossible (Doing Business in Egypt). Other than the six-hour workday a change in their work schedule is that Egyptians do not conduct business on Fridays because Friday is considered to be a Muslim holy day. Between America and Egypt there are differences in national cultures, but nevertheless workers are similarly dissatisfied with their jobs.

Greece is commonly known for having the worst economic policy in the European Union. Having come to the brink of bankruptcy in the past couple of years the nation is undergoing a multitude of reforms in order to fix its inoperative pension and banking strategies. None of which would be possible if other nations in the European Union had not have bailed them out of debt. However being rescued actually worsened Grecian job satisfaction to all time low. A reason for the decline is in part because the workers feel that their government is being controlled by the European Union. These feelings of uncertainty rise from the fact that their country is in an economic crisis and because of how much Grecian’s now owe the European Union. Americans and Egyptians alike young Grecian’s are fearful of losing their job are the youth unemployment rate is at a staggering 55.3% being the third highest in the world (CIA World FactBook). A Grecian workplace integrates a high-context culture that is not seen in either American or Egyptian workplaces. A similarity between Grecian’s and Egyptians however, is that they are both easily offended by outsider criticism. For Egyptians it is for their religion being scrutinized and for the Grecian’s it can be anything from Greece’s failing economy to their daily life (Greek Business Culture). Once again these countries have their cultural differences but workers in each country still have low job satisfaction levels for similar reasons.

Unlike Greece, Chile has a very stable economy and is noted to be one of the best places to invest right now. Even with a stable economy and a bright future because of Chile’s free trade with the world Chilean’s still aren’t completely satisfied. However, on the scale of 1 to 5 they are the highest of the countries I researched as their level of job satisfaction was 2.88. This number only means that they are close to being indifferent in their job satisfaction even though workers in Chile live in a booming economy and on rich land. Nonetheless, Chilean’s rightfully have moderate job satisfaction levels because their work hours are more than any other countries. They were actually at 48 mandatory hours a week before the Chilean’s passed a law to decrease that amount to 45 hours a week. Still part of their culture is to work hard and long and to grind out the gritty hours in order to prove themselves. As different cultures find pride in different things Chilean’s pride themselves over work. Although having the highest job satisfaction level Chile still is undoubtedly in the same range as the other three countries.

According to these surveys it is safe to say that job satisfaction does not vary around the world, as people are just about equally dissatisfied with their work in America, Egypt, Greece, and Chile. In these four countries there wasn’t a great variation in cultural differences to sway job satisfaction by much. No matter the cultural differences, be that it was religious or because work values, job satisfaction in these countries remained in the same range. Additionally, it was seen that workers all over the world look for similar expectations when deciding if they are pleased with the work they do.