Patterns of Job Satisfaction among Employees of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Administration, Manila

Abstract

Human behaviour have always been considered to be the moving force of all activities which occur between and among members of the organization. For this reason, human behaviour in organizations have been subjected to numerous and various studies in the past. Four schools of thought emerged from theses studies and they are: (1) the classical school which emphasizes scientific management; (2) the human relations school which focuses on the social aspect of the individual in the organization; (3) the system school which refers to the study of the individual as he works within a system and how he is affected by factors existing inside or outside the system; and (4) the technological school studies how technology, whether referring to equipment or ideas, plays a role in the individual’s communication behaviour in the organization. In this study on the concept on the individual's job satisfaction, the system school was picked from among the four schools thought. In this school, job satisfaction can be studied in the context of the system he is part of and the environment affecting that system. This limitation of the study to only one concept is seen as a means to further deepen the understanding about human organizational behaviour, particularly the individual’s job satisfaction. Studying the organization on the microlevel is hoped to contribute “to [the] understanding [of] the macro-nature of organizational communication” (Rogers, 1976:109). Although the concept of job satisfaction have been subjected to studies in the past, these were mostly conducted in the western setting. For this reason, job satisfaction is given sole attention in this paper since to study it in the Philippine context would proved useful to Filipino managers and Filipino communication researchers. It is in the local setting that workers’ unrest can be plainly seen via the labor strikes held and the “brain drain” of Filipino professionals. The body of this paper addresses the following: What is the pattern of job satisfaction existing among the members of the Finance Division of the Manila Philippines Administration Office of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? To substantiate the preceding main problem, the following sub-problems are posed: 1. What are the job satisfaction factors identified among the employees of the Finance Division of the Manila Philippines Administration Office of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? 2. How do these factors operate as job satisfiers among them? To limit this study, only the factors influence to job satisfaction were studied in the context of the Finance Division in the Manila Philippine Administration Office of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the month of February 1991. Being a descriptive study, this paper made use of qualitative data on the factors influential to job satisfaction in the subject group. Such data gathered through ethnographic interview were supplemented by quantitative data gathered through survey questionnaires. The research tools yielded the following findings: 1. There are fourteen job satisfaction factors identified in the subject group; ten of which are satisfiers and four are dissatisfiers. The ten satisfiers are: stability, voice, you feel needed, nature of job, compensation, all are church members, environment, harmonious relationships and conviction. The four dissatisfiers are: work-are, system-related, task-related and person-related. 2. These fourteen job satisfaction factors can be categorized into either personal factors or relational factors. The personal factors can be further classified into either satisfiers or dissatisfiers. The satisfiers are stability, professional growth, compensation, conviction. On the other hand, the dissatisfiers are work area, system related and task-related. Relational factors are composed of six satisfiers namely, voice, you fell needed, all are members, environment, nature of job and harmonious relationships and one dissatisfiers which is person-related. Based on the said findings, it is concluded that these categories can be further described as communication-related (relational factors) and not communication-related (personal factors). The basis of this description is that personal factors are identified as being results of the respondents’ personal value-systems, therefore they are not directly communication-related unlike the relational factors which deals directly with the relationships and interactions which take place between and among the respondents when communicating with one another. Basing on this study, it is concluded that there are particular patterns of job satisfaction which may exist in a particular group of people. It is further concluded that imposition of only “tried and tested” job satisfiers may prove to be detrimental to the group’s satisfaction since each organization, each group of people have different patterns of job satisfaction.