Seminar on Job Satisfaction

On 15^th February 2016, paper presentations were organized by the students of 1st M.A Applied Sociology, under the guidance of Dr. Sheila Matthew, Professor of Department of Sociology. The topic given to the class was ‘Concept of Job Satisfaction -Influence of Personality and Attitude’. The class was divided into three groups. In total, there were 19 papers presented over a week’s time.

The first group presented their papers on the definition and concept of Job Satisfaction along with the theories of Job Satisfaction. The presenters spoke about theories such as- Affect Theory, Dispositional Theory, and Equity theory to understand employee motivation. They also looked at Discrepancy Theory, Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory and Job Characteristic Theory of employee motivation.

The next set of presenters i.e. the second group spoke about the Influence of Personality on Job Satisfaction, where they focused on the relationship between job performance and job satisfaction; how people’s personalities influence organizational commitment and the major personality attributes which influence Organizational Behaviour. Members of the group also spoke about how motivation and personality go hand in hand and the role of values to build personality in order to promote job satisfaction.

The third set of presenters i.e. group three presented on the Influence of Attitude on Job Satisfaction. The presenters covered areas such as what constitutes attitude, its types. The major job attitudes were also spoken about along with its relationship with behaviour, the positive and negative attitudes of job satisfaction, how to measure and influence employee attitudes and how to minimize the gaps between attitudes and job satisfaction along with evaluating the effectiveness of practice.

These presentations have exposed us to how today’s competitive organizational environment thrive and survive on their human resources- which are formed by values, attitudes, perceptions and behaviours. These resources influence employee’s performance. This is where self-motivation and job satisfaction are key factors in realizing individual and organizational goals.

Nibedita Dutta
MA Applied Sociology