Today’s Best Managers Help Employees Make Important Job Transitions

Work is an important part of society. At an early age, children are asked what they want to be when they grow up. Adults get-to-know each other by asking what someone does for a living. Having a satisfying and fulfilling job can help employees have better mental and physical health. On the other hand, not having a job, or being underemployed, can lead to poor mental and physical health. Today’s best managers know that employees make many decisions about their work, both voluntarily and involuntarily, and they help employees transition successfully from one job opportunity to another.

Source: Fouad, N. A., & Bynner, J. 2008, May-June. Work transitions. American Psychologist, 63, 241-251.

Job Satisfaction Goes Up For Some Employees, But Not For Others, When They Help Other Employees

Some employees go beyond their job description and actively help other employees, which is called organizational citizenship behavior. These employees help others because they expect that those other employees will help them later in return. For these employees, their job satisfaction improves when they help others. Today’s best managers know that some employees may not help other employees solely because they believe they will be helped in return. Instead, these employees naturally have a high concern for others that enables them to be good corporate citizens without expecting reciprocal help in response. Unfortunately, job satisfaction for these employees may not go up as a result of helping others.

Source: Lester, S. W., Meglino, B. M., & Korsgaard, M. A. 2008. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29, 829-841.

Invest In Employee Engagement, Health, and Well-Being, To Help The Organization Flourish

Employees who are engaged in their work feel energetic, dedicated, and are absorbed in their jobs. Employees who are engaged are also happier and healthier, which makes having engaged employees a sensible goal for managers. However, today’s best managers believe that having happier and healthier employees is a goal in and of itself, regardless of the impact on the organization. Improving employee health and well-being is no longer seen as a cost. Instead, it is seen as an investment in employees that will directly help improve the bottom line of the organization.

Source: Bakker, A. B., & Schaufeli, W. B. 2008. Positive organizational behavior: Engaged employees in flourishing organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29, 147-154.

Help Employees Recognize and Avoid Burnout Before It Sets In

Burnout means feeling exhausted, overextended, and depleted. Employees who feel burnt out tend to have low job satisfaction, low organizational commitment, high absenteeism, high intentions to leave, and are more likely to quit their job. Today’s best managers know the warning signs of burnout. When employees start feeling hostile and angry about unfair organizational practices, and begin to lack faith that the organization will solve their problems, then employee burnout can set in. Today’s best managers help stop burnout from happening before it takes hold of employees.

Source: Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P. 2008. Early predictors of job burnout and engagement. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 498-512.

Employees Who Are Passionate About Their Job Would Take A Pay Cut

Today’s best managers know that the best job performance comes from employees who are passionate about the work that they do. Most employees in the United States and around the world, about 80%, say that they would take a pay cut if they could pursue their dream job. More and more employees are willing to forego pay in order to have more fulfilling and meaningful careers, instead of getting higher pay. This is especially interesting in that even with a struggling economy, employees are willing to get paid less in order to have a job that they are really passionate about.

Source: Many workers would take pay cut for the ‘dream job’. HRfocus. 2008, July. Page 9.

Work Helps Employees Maintain Their Health And Well-Being

Today’s best managers know that work is important and plays a big role in determining employees’ psychological health and well-being. When large numbers of employees lose jobs, the result is neighborhood decline, increased crime, and declines in family relationships, and even increases in substance abuse, violence, and apathy. Work helps employees: have access to resources that help ensure survival, have access to social support and personal relationships, and determine their own course and direction in life. Today’s best managers know that work is more than just a job. Work helps in the development, expression, and maintenance of employee health and well-being.

Source: Blustein, D. L. 2008, May-June. The role of work in psychological health and well-being. American Psychologist, 63, 228-240.

Sharing Expectations About Communication Can Improve Employee Satisfaction

Today’s best managers know that effective communication is important for employee satisfaction. When employees have similar expectations about the communication process, then they tend to have higher levels of satisfaction. For example, when employees understand how polite and how efficient communication should be, then they tend to be more satisfied on the job. Polite communication refers to being considerate and respectful of one’s co-workers. Efficient communication refers to how truthful, clear, and relevant someone is when they communicate.

Source: Park, H. S. 2008, February. Communication Research, 35, 88-108.

Pay Satisfaction Can Be Low For Employees Who Compare Themselves to the Highest Paid Employees

Employees tend to compare their pay levels to other individuals in order to decide whether they are satisfied with their pay or not. Employees tend to be dissatisfied when they are paid less than the highest paid individuals in their same field with the same level of skill and experience. Interestingly, employees also tend to be dissatisfied when they are paid more than the lowest paid individuals in their same line of work who have similar skills and experience. However, the level of pay dissatisfaction was much lower when compared to the lowest paid employees versus comparison to the highest paid employees.

Source: Harris, M. M., & Anseel, F., & Lievens, F. 2008. Keeping up with the Joneses: A field study of the relationships among upward, lateral, and downward comparisons and pay level satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 665-673.

Not Meeting Employee Expectations May Not Be As Bad For Organizations As Was Thought

Managers know that unmet employee expectations on the job can negatively affect: organizational commitment, job performance, absenteeism, motivation, job satisfaction, and turnover. However, today’s best managers know that the influence of unmet employee expectations on job attitudes and behaviors may be less powerful than was once thought. Instead, actual experiences may play a more important role than meeting or not meeting employees’ expectations. Although meeting employee expectations is still important, today’s best managers can worry less about the negative results that doing so might have on employees’ behaviors and attitudes on the job.

Source: Brown, S. A., Venkatesh, V., Kuruzovich, J., Massey, A. P. 2008. Expectation confirmation: An examination of three competing models. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 105, 52-66.

Agreeable, Conscientious, and Emotionally Stable Employees May Quit Less Frequently

Today’s best managers know that most organizations use job applicant information to predict future job performance. However, they also know that personality information, measured during the application process, may also be important for improving job satisfaction and lowering turnover. Employees who are more conscientious and agreeable are more likely not to quit. An agreeable employee is warm, likeable, and caring. A conscientious employee is dependable, prepared, and detail oriented. Employees who are less emotionally stable may be more likely to quit. Employees who are low in emotional stability tend to be unsure about their ability to perform their job. Using personality information in your hiring process may help lower employee turnover.

Source: Zimmerman, R. D. 2008. Understanding the impact of personality traits on individuals’ turnover decisions: A meta-analytic path model. Personnel Psychology, 61, 309-348.

Develop Employee Psychological Capital To Improve Employee Attitudes and Performance

Today’s best managers know that employees have psychological capital when they: 1) have confidence that they can succeed at challenging tasks, 2) are optimistic about being successful now and in the future, 3) work hard to reach goals, but change their goals if necessary, and 4) are resilient and can bounce back from adversity. Having psychological capital can lead to higher levels of performance, job satisfaction, and commitment, and lower levels of absenteeism for employees. Managers used to believe that people were just born with a certain level of psychological capital. However, today’s best managers know that employees can develop and improve their psychological capital.

Source: Luthans, F., Avey, J. B., & Patera, J. L. 2008. Experimental analysis of a web-based training intervention to develop positive psychological capital. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 7, 209-221.

Valuing Your Family Can Improve Your Job Performance

Managers used to believe that an employee being overly concerned about family issues would have a negative effect on job performance. However, today’s best managers know that valuing your family can lead to more time spent at work. Additionally, caring for one’s family concerns can help employees reduce the negative effects of conflict in the workplace. These desirable organizational outcomes might be enhanced if organizations had even more family-friendly policies. Rather than viewing family identity as a liability, organizations might want to view caring for one’s family as a way to help improve employee job performance.

Source: Bagger, J., Li, A., & Gutek, B. A. 2008. How much do you value your family and does it matter? The joint effects of family identity salience, family-interference-with-work, and gender. Human Relations, 61, 187-211.

Employee Thoughts and Feelings Influence Many Job Attitudes and Behaviors

Today’s best managers know that the feelings and moods that employees experience on the job influence many aspects of employee thoughts and behaviors. These feelings and moods are called “affect” and they can be positive or negative. Employee thoughts can shape feelings, and feelings can shape thoughts. Employee affect can influence decision-making, performance appraisal scores, ratings of job applicants, job satisfaction, employee job performance, and the willingness to help other employees. Today’s best managers monitor employee affect since employee thoughts and feelings influence so much of employee performance.

Source: Baron, R. 2008. The role of affect in the entrepreneurial process. Academy of Management Review, 33, 328-340.