Research Journal of Commerce & Behavioural Science - RJCBS

Determinants of Job Satisfaction: A Study on
Bangladesh Perspective
Fazlul Kabir Rabbanee, Graduate School of Business Curtin University, Perth Australia
Sanoara Yasmin, University of Information Technology and Science
Chittagong Campus, Bangladesh
Abdullah Al Mamun, Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences
International Islamic University, Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur
Abstract:
Job satisfaction as an attitude resulting from a balancing and
summation of many specific likes and dislikes experienced
in connection with the job. Extant literature mostly focused
on job satisfaction in developed world context.
Determinants of job satisfaction in developing world context
are largely ignored whereas there are significant difference
among the nature, personality and culture of the employees
of developed and developing countries. This paper attempts
to explore the determinants of job satisfaction in Bangladesh
perspective. It focused on six factors – Job, Pay, Promotion,
Supervision, Colleagues and Environment as the key
determinants of job satisfaction based on the extant
literature. The study conducted a survey based on structured
questionnaire, which revealed that job, pay, promotion,
supervision have significant impact on job satisfaction while
other two factors – colleagues and environment are not
found to have significant impact on job satisfaction of
Bangladeshi employees. At the end, this paper suggest that,
in order to attain the job satisfaction of the employees, the
human resource managers of Bangladesh should concentrate
more on the nature of the job, promotion, payment and
supervision more than colleagues and the environment of
the office / job.
Prologue
Specific employee attitude relating to job satisfaction is of
major interest in the field of organizational behavior and the
practice of human resources management now (Tett and
Meyer 1993). The interest steamed from the belief that the
satisfied employees are more productive than dissatisfied
employees are. This interest induces the management
academics to conduct many researches regarding different
issues in the field of job satisfaction. However, most of
these researches had been conducted in the organizations
operating in developed countries. A very little number of
researches were conducted in the organizations owned by
third world countries and operating there. It is undeniable
that the characteristics of the environment where the
organizations operate vary from country to country;
especially they vary significantly from developed to
underdeveloped countries. In addition, the characteristics of
members of those organizations in developed countries vary
significantly from those of developing countries due to
difference in cultures, norms, values, ethos and other issues.
The bundle of variables that gains plaudit from employees’
point of view for igniting job satisfaction in a country may
not work out in similar way and to the same extent in
another country. A bundle with different combination of
variables may be required. In this article, the authors have
selected 6 variables that play significant role in determining
job satisfaction and tried to figure out the latent
relationships, if any exist and which are unnoticeable in
ordinary view, among them in context of Bangladesh. The
authors believe that the disclosure of such latent
relationships will make practicing manager more
knowledgeable to determine effective package of motivating
variables to make the employees more satisfied in their job.
Job Satisfaction
Literature Review
Job satisfaction has been widely studied over the last four
decades of organizational research (Currivan, 1999).
However, defining job satisfaction with a single definition is
impossible (Abdulla, Djebarni and Mellahi, 2011). In
general, job satisfaction has been defined as “a function of
the perceived relationship between what one wants from
one’s job and what one perceives it as offering” (Locke,
1969 as cited in Daulatram, 2003). According to Spector,
job satisfaction refers to “the degree to which people like
their jobs” (Spector, 1997, p. 7).
Job satisfaction is defined as “a pleasurable or
positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s
job or job experience” (Locke 1976, p.1300). It refers to an
individual’s general attitude towards his/her job (Robins
2003, p.78). According to Bullock (1952), job satisfaction is
an attitude that results from a balancing and summation of
many specific likes and dislikes experienced in connection
with the job. Smith (1955, p.322) has defined job
satisfaction as an employee’s judgment of how well his job
has satisfied his various needs. Blum & Naylor (1968) have
defined job satisfaction as a general attitude formed because
of specific job factors, individual characteristics, and
relationships outside the job.
A person with high level of job satisfaction holds
positive attitude towards the job, while a person who is
dissatisfied with his or her job holds negative attitude about
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