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EHSAN KARIM

MBA (Day)
Representing: Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Organizational Behavior (BP6903); Sec 56
Faculty: Dr. Ioan Voicu
Home Assignment-1
Date: September 21, 2015

Personal Reflection on Job Satisfaction


The most preferred elaboration of job satisfaction was described by Haque and
Tahir (2008) where they defined job satisfaction as a pleasing or positive emotional
state resulting from the evaluation of a persons job. Various factors such as
employees needs and desires, social relationships, style and quality of
management, job design, compensation, working conditions, perceived long range
opportunities and perceived opportunities elsewhere are considered to be the
determinants of job satisfaction (Absar et al., 2010). However, the concept job
satisfaction is quiet broad and there are several measures and mechanisms in order
to illustrate job satisfaction in daily working environment.
After finishing my undergraduate from North South University in Dhaka,
Bangladesh, I started my professional career at British American Tobacco
Bangladesh (BATB) as an Intern. The experience I gathered while working there was
fruitful yet I came across few obstacles that has a major impact on my job
satisfaction level. In this study I shall be highlighting my personal reflection on job
satisfaction and critically analyzing my perception by focusing on the methods, job
facets, job satisfaction parameters and models as well.
In order to elaborate my situation and reflection, I chose to study based on the
summation of job facets, as this method helps to understand more complex and
sophisticated situation likewise. For instance, it is not possible to measure the job
satisfaction only by mentioning my highest satisfaction and dissatisfaction level. As
multiple parameters are concerned for example working condition, compensation,
work-life balance, co-workers etc. that have direct and indirect effect on satisfaction
level (Schwarzwald et al., 2005).
I joined British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB) in order to complete my
three months internship program for my Bachelors with double majors in Marketing
and Human Resource Management. In my first day I was assigned at the
Environmental Health & Safety Department (EH&S), which is controlled and
monitored by Supply Chain. My job was to prepare policies for safe working
environment with zero accidents and communicate the policies with the first line
production workers. When I assigned I had very little theoretical knowledge on EH&S
and it was not covered in my curriculum of study, as I was interested working with
Marketing and HR department. So the work itself was not satisfied to me due to
lack of knowledge on supply chain and policies yet I was not dissatisfied at all. The
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EHSAN KARIM
MBA (Day)
Representing: Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Organizational Behavior (BP6903); Sec 56
Faculty: Dr. Ioan Voicu
Home Assignment-1
Date: September 21, 2015

day I joined I was introduced to the successful team behind supply chain and I was
trained by the EH&S coordinator and my supervisor as well. Besides, I was exposed
to the various production units and got a brief understanding on the ongoing working
condition. At that time, I was at my liberty to communicate with the factory
supervisors regarding working categories and working hazards and was also given
chance to focus on the current policies and provide feedback to my supervisor.
Although it was my internship and I was not part of the management team, I had
lesser control and authorities than others.
Work in many organizations is beginning to shift from an individual orientation,
where tasks are completed alone, to a more team-based orientation, where
individuals work with one another to complete projects (Purpora and Blegen, 2015).
During my internship period, I got complete support from my supervisor and coworkers likewise. The satisfaction level was higher as it helped me overcome my
obstacles with my work and within a month, I learned basic ideas about the health
and safety policies and communicated with the production supervisors very well. The
impact co-workers may have on each other is profound (Tang et al., 2014) and I had
the best example in my work environment. Their support influenced on my work
perception towards health and safety, work attitudes and my working effectiveness
and efficiency as well.
Research has shown that satisfaction with pay influence high job turnover in
employees (Carraher, 2009), but psychological studies on employees has shown
negative correlation. Compensation for internship program in Bangladesh has
different scenario. For instance, in some local organization, they provide
compensation to their interns and expect better outcome, but lacks motivation (Wali
et al., 2015). As money is not always the prime concern for happiness (Louvet,
2007), so it works similarly on the work efficiency of the interns likewise. They tend to
ignore, which results in increased amount of error in work activities. However, in the
multinationals, interns do not get paid at all, but get to learn and can engage
themselves in to various brand building activities that makes their work effective and
efficient, Wali et al. (2015) added. Furthermore, in my case I was Highly Satisfied
with my compensation, as I was paid well and got the chance to explore new
dimensions of work and face new challenges, which was a learning opportunity for
me.
Last but not the least, personality played an important role on my work. For
example, I am an optimistic and extrovert by nature and it reflected in my work
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EHSAN KARIM
MBA (Day)
Representing: Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Organizational Behavior (BP6903); Sec 56
Faculty: Dr. Ioan Voicu
Home Assignment-1
Date: September 21, 2015

likewise. Though I was not aware of the work I was assigned for but I took the
courage and took this task as a challenge and because of inner worth and
competencies, I got myself acquainted with the job and I was satisfied with it. It was
only possible due to positive thinking, core values and perseveration.
The basic concept of job satisfaction theoretical model is that members of
organizations will have two possible responses to organizational decline, exit or
voice, and that loyalty can have an effect on those responses (Hirschman, 1970).
From the very first day of my internship, I was loyal to my firm. I always wanted
become a brand manager of a consumer product which has the highest consumption
rate in Bangladesh. That is why I was very enthusiastic in my work and whenever I
see anything wrong or any violation of the safety measures, I got myself involved into
the findings and provided with possible solutions. I was less likely to exit and more
likely to use voice to change the relationship or wait patiently until the situation
improves.
Over the last three decades, there have been an increasing number of studies
analyzing the restructuring and/or transformation of workplace organizations
(Kashefi, 2009). From the overall understanding of my personal job satisfaction level,
I was satisfied and I got the chance to explore myself. As recent studies showed that
job satisfaction have direct relationship with job performance (Murrar and Hamad,
2013), the same thing happened to me likewise. Moreover, my productive activities
helped me to become more loyal to the firm, which resulted in less absenteeism and
lower turnover rate as well.

References
Absar, M.M.N., Azim, M.T., Balasundaram, N., & Akhter, S. (2010). Impact of human
resource practices on job satisfaction: Evidence from manufacturing firms in
Bangladesh. Economic Sciences Series, Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti
Bulletin, 12(2), 31-42.
Carraher, S.M. (2010). Turnover prediction using attitudes towards benefits, pay and
pay satisfaction among employees and entrepreneurs in Estonia, Latvia and
Lithuania, Baltic Journal of Management, 6(1), 25-52.
Haque, M.M. & Taher, M.A. (2008). Job Characteristics Model And Job Satisfaction:
Age, Gender And Marital Status Effect. Paper presented at the 7 th International

EHSAN KARIM
MBA (Day)
Representing: Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Organizational Behavior (BP6903); Sec 56
Faculty: Dr. Ioan Voicu
Home Assignment-1
Date: September 21, 2015

Conference on Ethics and Quality of Work-life for sustainable development,


Bangkok, Thailand.
Hirschman, A.O. (1970). Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms,
Organizations, and States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Kashefi, M. (2009). The psychological consequences of working in high
performance work organizations, Current Sociology, 57(6), 809-828.
Louvet, E. (2007). Social Judgment toward job applicants with disabilities: Perception
of personal qualities and competences, Rehabilitation Psychology, 52(3), 297303.
Murrar, A. & Hamad, A. (2013). Relationship between job satisfaction and turnover
intention: An empirical study on the IT firms in Palestine, Interdisciplinary
Journal of Research in Business, 2(8), 67-83.
Purpora, C., & Blegen, M. A. (2015). Job satisfaction and horizontal violence in
hospital staff registered nurses: the mediating role of peer relationships.
Journal of clinical nursing.
Schwarzwald, J., Koslowsky, M., & Allouf, M. (2005). Group membership, status, and
social power preference, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 35(3), 644-665.
Tang, S. W., Siu, O. L., & Cheung, F. (2014). A study of workfamily enrichment
among Chinese employees: The mediating role between work support and job
satisfaction. Applied Psychology, 63(1), 130-150.
Wali, M.F.I., Miah, M.K., Wali, M.M.I. & Karim, E. (2015). Human resource
management practices: Foreign fast moving consumer goods companies vs.
local companies, Australian Journal of Business and Economic Studies, 1(1),
2015.

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