Job Satisfaction in the I.S. Industry
Mckenna Norland, Audrey Bacon, Catrinel Persa, Craig Schoolcraft, Emma McCracken
*All authors contributed equally to this paper
Management 311: Introduction to Management and Organizational Behavior
Dr. Meg Warren
February 11, 2020
Imagine you are a manager in the IT department of a developing company. You are managing a team that is working on the implementation of new cutting-edge software that is going to help the organization operate more smoothly. A specific employee has a particular skill set that makes them a quintessential part of this team and without that employee, the project may never see the light of day. Unfortunately, something about their job is interfering with their values and are considering leaving the company. What kind of position does this put you in? How are you supposed to respond? Situations like this can be difficult for managers to navigate, but handling them properly is crucial for the stability of the organization.
Voluntary turnover as a measure of job satisfaction in the IS industry reveals what conditions make IS employees leave their current jobs. It is important to consider expectancy theory and equity theory to explain the relationship between performance and voluntary turnover in companies. (Nyberg, 2010) Expectancy theory focuses on the presence of a reward for high performance while equity theory highlights high performers being less likely to leave when their outcomes are higher compared to lower performers (Nyberg, 2010). Putting this into context, expectancy theory displays that when the pay growth of a high performer is high they are less likely to leave. (Nyberg, 2010) In the IS industry, this means someone who works harder, is assigned harder tasks, obtains more computational skills expects to be paid more. Because the IS industry is focused on skills, the employees expect to be paid more for the more skills they obtain. From the looks of it, IS employees are satisfied when their compensation matches their performance. This translates to feeling satisfied in their career.
One challenge that management of tech companies face is that while focusing their efforts on increasing retention rates, they end up choosing incentive programs that decrease intrinsic motivation, which is found to be a better predictor of employee retention (AMSC, 1997). The long standing assumption has been that tangible incentive programs foster workplace motivation (AMSC, 1997). However, companies who put this into practice find that this extrinsic reward can act as a punishment when removed, placing the company in the tricky situation of ‘owing’ employees rewards (AMSC, 1997).
Another, perhaps more fundamental, challenge is simply deciding the right course of action to take for retention optimization. Employees have various motivations and goals that are unique to the individual, and are more likely to consider moving to another company if they can no longer reach these goals (Pflügler., Wiesche., Becker & Krcmar, 2018). This can prove to be difficult as each IT employee may have a set of retention actions that are more suited for them than others. As a result, employees might express their dissatisfaction about their current working situation and be motivated to quit for reasons different than originally planned for (Pflügler et al., 2018).
There are three psychological conditions that promote retention through engagement and satisfaction in employees. When a work environment takes care of employee’s needs and values, the more long-term satisfaction the employee will experience in their role.
- Meaningfulness is the worth wellness and value of peoples’ efforts.
Managers should be aware of work-role fit. It is where an employee’s self-concept fits their role and pay, which has a significant influence in improving enjoyment at work in a way that increases sense of meaning (Abu-Shamaa, 2015). Many IT professionals face career development issues as knowledge and skills of employees can go out of date. Training programs can be a way to prevent employees from becoming obsolete with their technical skills. You can support employees in achieving their goals by laying out a long-term career plan while decreasing any uncertainty the employee may have with the organization (Pflügler et al., 2018).
- Safety looks out for the comfort of people through interpersonal relationships, group and intergroup dynamics, management style and process and organizational norms.
Supervisors who listen to employee concerns, encourage them, develop their skills and solving conflict could enhance employee’s self-determination. Establishing close relationships can be a valuable retention strategy but proves to be difficult if the manager and employee are not co-located. With the ability to work from home being common amongst IT employees, it can be hard to observe employee behavior with colleagues and how they act during meetings (Pflügler et al., 2018). Strong coworker relations develop a sense of belonging and a stronger sense of social identity, correlating with meaningfulness and safety. It is worth investing time for team-building activities and building organizational culture. It is also important for supervisors to keep employees informed about shared values and goals (Abu-Shamaa, 2015). If these relationships are undesirable, assigning the employee to a different department with a different supervisor can give the employee a new start and prevent any conflict. The relationship between the IT manager and IT employee is important as the manager can be better equipped to identify those who might consider leaving (Pflügler et al., 2018).
- Availability is the accessibility of physical and psychological resources at work that help maintain physical and emotional energy and individual security (Abu-Shamaa, 2015).
Investing in resources such as reliable software programs and up-to-date equipment for IT employees help facilitate their work. It is also important to invest in health-related programs to support their well-being and outside lives. Promoting retention factors into recognizing value and providing support for your employees increases their satisfaction in their role in the work environment.
In the IS Industry the most difficult issues that will accelerate peoples tenure with the company are incentive programs that can be used as punishments, varying end goals between the company and the IS staff, and location between management and the developer. Going through the actions that will keep turnover at its lowest would be to pay salaries that employees deserve and to promote when their skills become more advanced amongst their peers could replace the incentive programs that can be used as punishments. Building a culture that promotes goals of the company that will also relate with the staff making it so that you have similar values and goals amongst employees in your company. Also focusing on team bonding once a month in person will help with the co-location to help create a relationship amongst the employees. Upper management will be the ones that will have to implement this throughout their teams.
References
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Pflügler, C., Wiesche, M., Becker, N., & Krcmar, H. (2018). Strategies for Retaining Key IT Professionals. MIS Quarterly Executive, 17(4), 297–314
Nyberg, Anthony (2010). Retaining your high performers: Moderators of the Performance-Job Satisfaction-Voluntary Turnover Relationship. Journal of Applied Psychology