The relationship between job characteristics and job satisfaction: a case of senior staff at Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Head Office, Accra

Abstract

The relationship between job characteristics and job satisfaction is well established in the literature. Although job satisfaction contributes to employee performance, it is unclear how job characteristics affect employee satisfaction. Anecdotal evidence shows that the ECG workers in Accra Headquarters do not stay on the job as expected and show tendencies of dissatisfaction. The hypothesis is that this may be due to factors beyond incomes levels. The overall characteristics of the job therefore become important for investigation. The study sought to examine the relationship between job characteristics and job satisfaction of employee’s using senior staff workers at ECG Head Office, Accra, as the case study. Based on Likert Scale, a survey questionnaire was designed to collect data from a total of 147 respondents by using census sampling technique. The data was analyzed quantitatively using factor analysis based on Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure (KMO) of Sampling Adequacy and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity. Spearman’s rank correlation was then used to examine the nature of the relationship between satisfaction and facets of job characteristics. The study revealed that the senior staff of ECG, Accra, placed more premium on pay and promotion potential. Also, the senior staff was more satisfied with the people they work. Generally, the members of senior staff were satisfied with their work at the ECG head office, Accra. Moreover, the latent factor of the indicators of satisfaction level of senior staff was found to be highly related to the overall satisfaction of senior staff. There was also a positive correlation between the facets of job characteristics and level of satisfaction of senior staff, although only communication was significantly related to level of satisfaction of senior staff. The study concluded that Senior Staff of ECG Head Office, Accra, see pay and promotion potential as the most important issue to consider when dealing with job characteristics but work activities as the least important variable. Based on a positive correlation between the facets of job characteristics and level of satisfaction of senior staff, it was concluded that an improvement in the facets of job characteristics would motivate the Senior Staff and increase their level of satisfaction to the work they do at ECG Head Office, Accra. The study therefore recommends that the management of ECG, Accra Head Office, should take issues of staff pay and promotion seriously by maintaining credibility in the implementation of the various measures to enhance senior staff satisfaction on the job.