Knowledge Center: 07/17/11

Saturday, July 23, 2011

10 Psychological Keys To Job Satisfaction

Do you get a pleasant satisfied feeling after a hard day at work?

If some job satisfaction surveys are to be believed then as many as a third of us are considering a change of job. Clearly many are finding it hard to get that feeling of satisfaction from work.

Job satisfaction is important not just because it boosts work performance but also because it increases our quality of life. Many people spend so much time at work that when it becomes dissatisfying, the rest of their life soon follows.

Everyone's job is different but here are 10 factors that psychologists regularly find are important in how satisfied people are with their jobs.

1. Little Hassles

If you ask doctors what is the worst part of their jobs, what do you think they say? Carrying out difficult, painful procedures? Telling people they've only got months to live? No, it's something that might seem much less stressful: administration.

We tend to downplay day-to-day irritations, thinking we've got bigger fish to fry. But actually people's job satisfaction is surprisingly sensitive to daily hassles. It might not seem like much but when it happens almost every day and it's beyond our control, it hits job satisfaction hard.

This category is one of the easiest wins for boosting employee satisfaction. Managers should find out about those little daily hassles and address them—your employees will love you for it.

2. Perception Of Fair Pay

Whatever your job, for you to be satisfied the pay should be fair. The bigger the difference between what you think you should earn and what you do earn, the less satisfied you'll be.

The important point here is it's all about perception. If you perceive that other people doing a similar job get paid about the same as you then you're more likely to be satisfied with your job than if you think they're getting more than you.

3. Achievement

People feel more satisfied with their job if they've achieved something. In some jobs achievements are obvious, but for others they're not. As smaller cogs in larger machines it may be difficult to tell what we're contributing. That's why the next factor can be so important...

4. Feedback

There's nothing worse than not knowing whether or not you're doing a good job. When it comes to job satisfaction, no news is bad news. Getting negative feedback can be painful but at least it tells you where improvements can be made. On the other hand positive feedback can make all the difference to how satisfied people feel.

5. Complexity And Variety

People generally find jobs more satisfying if they are more complex and offer more variety. People seem to like complex (but not impossible) jobs, perhaps because it pushes them more. Too easy and people get bored.

To be satisfied people need to be challenged a little and they need some variety in the tasks they carry out. It sounds easy when put like that but many jobs offer neither complexity nor variety.

6. Control

You may have certain tasks you have to do, but how you do them should be up to you. The more control people perceive in how they carry out their job, the more satisfaction they experience.

If people aren't given some control, they will attempt to retake it by cutting corners, stealing small amounts or finding other ways to undermine the system. Psychologists have found that people who work in jobs where they have little latitude—at every level—find their work very stressful and consequently unsatisfying.

7. Organizational Support

Workers want to know their organization cares about them: that they are getting something back for what they are putting in. This is primarily communicated through things like how bosses treat us, the kinds of fringe benefits we get and other subtle messages. If people perceive more organizational support, they experience higher job satisfaction.

Remember: it's not just whether the organization is actually being supportive; it's whether it appears that way. The point being that appearances are really important here. If people don't perceive it, then for them it might as well not exist. That's why great managers need a politician's touch.

8. Work-Home Overflow

Low job satisfaction isn't only the boss' or organization’s fault, sometimes it's down to home-life. Trouble at home breeds trouble at the office.

Some research, though, suggests that trouble at the office is more likely to spill over into the family domain compared with the other way around (Ford et al., 2007). Either way finding ways of distancing yourself from work while at home are likely to protect you against job stressors (Sonnentag et al., 2010).

9. Honeymoons And Hangovers

Job honeymoons and hangovers are often forgotten by psychologists but well-known to employees. People experience honeymoon periods after a month or two in a new job when their satisfaction shoots up. But then it normally begins to tail off after six months or so.

The honeymoon period at the start of a new job tends to be stronger when people were particularly dissatisfied with their previous job (Boswell et al., 2009). So hangovers from the last job tend to produce more intense honeymoons in the next job.

10. Easily Pleased?

Some of us are more easily satisfied (or dissatisfied) than others, no matter how good (or bad) the job is. To misquote a famous cliché: You can't satisfy all the people all the time.

Still, some jobs do seem better suited to certain types of people. A lot of work has been done on person-environment fit but because jobs vary so much it's difficult to summarize.

One generalization we can make, though, is that people get more satisfied with their jobs as they get older. Perhaps this is because the older people are; the more likely they are to have found the right work for them. There's little evidence for this but I'd certainly like to think it was true.

On my darker days, though, I tend to think it's because young people have sky-high expectations (which are soon dashed) and older people have learned to live with their lot, however uninspiring it is.

Why can't we all be satisfied?

When you look at this list of what makes for a satisfying job, you might wonder why everyone can't have one. With a little thought, most of the predictors of satisfaction can be provided.

The answer is probably quite simple. Organizations pay lip-service to keeping their employees satisfied, but many don't really believe it makes a difference. What this research shows is that it can make a huge difference.

If you're a manager looking to improve satisfaction at your workplace then start with point number 1: find out about people's little hassles and address them. It might not look like much but people will really appreciate it.

Thanks to PsyBlog
http://www.spring.org.uk/2011/07/10-psychological-keys-to-job-satisfaction.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PsychologyBlog+%28PsyBlog%29

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Great CEOs Are Born, Not Made

Bob Lutz in his recent book Car Guys vs. Bean Counters makes the point that GM was doing fine until in the mid 1970s the MBA-trained finance guys took control of product development from the "car guys," who were engineers and designers. The result, he says, was inferior cars and a decline in the firm. He believes that CEOs and the top management should not be bean counters but rather should be a "product guys."

The poster child for his view was Roger Smith who was an MBA-trained accounting and finance specialist. During his ten year tenure as GE's CEO during the 80s, Smith made breathtaking strategic and operating blunders. He invested in robotics that did not work, created a disastrous reorganization that resulted in cars so similar they were a joke (remember the Cadillac Cimarron?), mismanaged some ill-conceived acquisitions, built up enormous debt, and on and on. GM's share went from 45% to 36% under his watch. A role model, on the other hand, was Steve Jobs, with no degree but deep computer expertise, who spawned a string of product successes brilliantly executed.

I think Bob is an impressive executive (ironically he does have an MBA although it was in the pre-quant MBA era; Berkeley-Haas is proud to claim him), but I disagree with his suggestion that background, product knowledge, or management style (he advocates an autocratic style) are predictors of CEO performance and behavior. Lou Gerstner did not know anything about computers when he brought IBM back from the near dead and Allan Mulally had no background in automobiles when he took over Ford. And I don't believe that having an MBA or being in finance necessarily means that you are short-term focused or insensitive to customer demands.

Instead, in my view, a gifted CEO needs two qualities, and I believe that these come with birth, and not training. They are executive talent and strategic judgment.

Executive talent. Executives need a broad range of talent; excelling on a few dimensions is rarely enough. A truly gifted CEO should have a good feel for selecting, motivating, and evaluating people; developing and selling a strategy; creating an inspiring culture; developing an organizational structure and management process that work for the strategy; fostering cooperation across silos; understanding and using financial measures; and an understanding of how marketing, branding, finance, production, distribution contribute to strategy. With the right talent and DNA, a CEO who is missing background in some of these areas will quickly pick it up.

Strategic judgment. Some people just have a flare for good judgment — whether it is an ability to identify issues, distill facts, or develop instincts to make sound strategic decisions — and others simply do not. This too, in my opinion, is something you are born with. In my field, I see many who have deep experience in branding but relatively few that have a strategic flare. It can be improved but it cannot be created.

There are many with the talent and judgment to be successful CEOs that never get the opportunity to learn, to have the right experience, or to prove themselves. But, in my view, those that lack those qualities will not be successful no matter what background, training, experience, or mentoring they might have.

Thanks to David Aaker / Blogs HBR / Harvard Business Publishing

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/07/what_makes_a_great_ceo.html

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4 Inside Secrets To Writing A Great Cover Letter

Let’s agree you should always send a cover letter, it’s just the professional thing to do. Nonetheless, statistics show 50% of employers don’t read them and the others scan it in 5-10 seconds. That being said, how do you craft a cover letter that quickly captures their attention?

First of all, let’s agree the ONLY purpose of the cover letter is to get someone to want to read your resume. It is NOT a recap of your resume or a short story of how you moved from job to job. Since employers spend only a few seconds glancing at your letter, it should be short, easy to read (using bullets) and compelling.

Here’s a typical scenario: an employer has over 700 resumes to weed through, each with a cover letter. They pick up the next letter and it says, “I am writing in response to your advertisement #5444 regarding your Project Manager position.” Pretty boring…and you just missed your chance to grab their attention. So let’s look at how you can instantly make them want to know more.

Trick #1

A great trick is to start by thinking what the best candidate in the world would deliver. For example, for sales people, employers want to hear about setting sales records (overachieving quota), expanding the customer base, and earning customer loyalty. For project managers, employers want to see a consistent track record of delivering projects on time and with a high level of quality. For manufacturing, the key metrics are productivity, safety, quality and cost improvements. So tell them in your first sentence you can deliver these things.

I have over 15 years of experience leading manufacturing operations to new heights in productivity, profitability and safety.

Setting new sales records, growing market share and turning mediocre performers into superstars briefly describes what I can do for your firm.

I have over 10 years of experience leading highly visible, complex projects and have earned a solid reputation for meeting aggressive deadlines and bringing internal/external customer satisfaction to new heights.

Get the idea? You just told them you can deliver exactly the results they are looking for.

Trick #2

Most people send the same basic cover letter to all firms. Employers are really impressed when you show that you know something about their organization. So demonstrate your knowledge and put in a line that shows you’ve done your homework.

Example:

I’ve followed your company for a number of years and I imagine that with your opening a new plant in Atlanta, you will need someone who is experienced in plant startups.

With your recent acquisition of XYZ, I’m sure you can benefit from someone who has extensive HR experience managing the integration of new personnel and corporate cultures.

Wow! So far, you’ve told them you are a star performer who can deliver exactly what they want and that you are experienced in meeting some of the specific challenges that their organization faces. Now prove it.

Trick #3

Here is where you put in 2 to 5 bullets that prove you can deliver results. Bullets make the letter easy to read and simple for you to customize by swapping some bullets in for others depending on what they want. Here, you’ll want to quantify your accomplishments as much as possible.

Example:

I have been assigned to numerous turnarounds and surpassed expectations in each instance. As Plant Manager at 1 of the largest component manufacturers in the United States, I reduced overtime 30%, increased productivity 18%, grew quality 11% and slashed accidents by 33%.

I have 12+ years of solid sales experience at such firms as IBM, Oracle and Sun Microsystems, and achieved top ranked performance in every position. My achievements include delivering as much as 440% of sales targets and ranking in the Top 5 every year for the past 8 years.

Trick #4

You’ve proved you are a superstar (and even if you’re not, you should think like one), so now is the time to bring it home. Your closing paragraph should indicate that they should read your resume, that there is a lot more to know, and you will be calling them in a few days to find out more about the position.

There are a lot of important concepts here – yes, you will call them and no, you will not just ask them if they got your resume, but instead will demonstrate your strengths and knowledge by asking insightful questions that indicate you are truly interested in this position. Employers notice people who call and this is your opportunity to build rapport with the decision makers who hold the key to your dream job.

Follow these simple tips and you will definitely make yourself stand out.

Don Goodman, president of About Jobs is a nationally recognized career expert.

Thanks to Don Goodman / Careerealism
http://www.careerealism.com/4-secrets-writing-great-cover-letter/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+careerealism+%28CAREEREALISM%29

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Down With Resumes: How To Create An Online Profile That Wows

How you appear on the Internet is a huge part of your personal brand. Sure, there are some things you don’t have control over. But much of your online brand relies on you creating an accurate representation of yourself on social networking sites.

The most important piece of signing up for a social networking site is completing your profile—which many people neglect to do.

Here are a few ways to ensure your online profile will receive a second glance:

Add as much detail as possible. Fill in your experience, employers, volunteer work and skills. Include any keywords that are relevant to your field or industry. When recruiters or hiring managers are searching for potential candidates, they will be searching for specific position-related keywords—the only way you’ll be found is if those are included in your profile. It’s okay to list these somewhere near the bottom of your profile (on LinkedIn, take advantage of the “interests” section or place several keywords in your title or summary). Also, utilize applications to share other professional information, such as portfolio pieces, presentations, photos, or books you’ve read.

Ask for recommendations and reference letters. Throughout your career, ask your supervisors and colleagues to write recommendations about your work. On LinkedIn, request recommendations for the various positions you’ve held. Ask them to be specific about what you accomplished at the organization and why someone should hire you in the future.

Maintain consistency across multiple networking sites. If you maintain several online profiles, they all need to be consistent. That’s not to say they have to be the exactly the same. Each site will be slightly different in layout and emphasis. However, your dates of employment, job titles, and accomplishments should match up.

Include links to relevant websites and resources. If you have a resume on your online profile, make sure to include links to each organization’s website. If you’ve been published online, include those links to showcase your writing skills. Do you have favorite blogs or news sites that you follow? List those to show your interest in and dedication to your industry.

Show you’re a real person. Include a recent picture on your online profile. Interact with others on the platform by commenting on what they share, congratulating them on new ventures, and building relationships. Show you have a personality, interests, and a life outside of work.

What do you include in your online profile to impress potential employers?

[This article was originally posted on an earlier date]

Heather R. Huhman, founder & president of Come Recommended, is passionate about helping students and recent college graduates pursue their dream careers.

Thanks to Heather Huhman / Careerealism
http://www.careerealism.com/resumes-create-online-profile-wows/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+careerealism+%28CAREEREALISM%29

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