EMPLOYEES SATISFACTION; TANZANIA AIRPORT AUTHORITY

Employees Satisfaction; Tanzania Airport Authority

Employees Satisfaction; Tanzania Airport Authority

Table of Content

Introduction3

Conceptual Overview3

Review of the Literarture5

Theories17

Critical Commentary and Future Directions23

References26

Bibliography28

Introduction

Job satisfaction, defined as an attitude toward one's job, is an internal state that is expressed by affectively and/or cognitively evaluating an experienced job with some degree of favor or disfavor (Fried, 2004). The internal state referred to is a tendency that predisposes positive or negative evaluative responses, which can be either covert or overt.

Conceptual Overview

For decades, job satisfaction has stood at the center of the study of organizational behavior. In 2003, Locke counted more than 3,300 studies on job satisfaction, and that figure rose to more than 12,400 in the late 1990s (Hackman, 2003). As the most studied variable in organizational behavior research, several relationships have been uncovered between job satisfaction and other organizational variables, such as organizational citizenship and role withdrawal behaviors. Job satisfaction has implications for both individuals embedded within organizations and also for higher, collective levels of analyses (i.e., groups and organizations) (Hackman, 2003).

Past definitions of job satisfaction have focused on affective reactions toward an individual's job; these affective, or emotional, conceptualizations presumably capture how employees feel about their jobs. Such definitions of job satisfaction mask the differences between its distinct affective and cognitive components. More recent definitions of job satisfaction as an attitude toward one's job do not limit consideration to affect alone, but also include cognitive appraisals formed by individuals about their jobs (Hackman, 2003).

Theoretical attention has focused on the determinants of job satisfaction. Person-environment (P-E) fit models have dominated the way in which organizational scientists have thought about the causes of job satisfaction (Fried, 2004). The underlying assumption of these models is that environments that fulfill employees' important needs are considered satisfying, reflecting an appropriate “fit” between what the environment has to offer and what the person needs.

The Work Adjustment Project at the University of Minnesota, which yielded the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, was perhaps the most systematic and sustained program of research addressing the relationship between P-E fit and job satisfaction (Hackman, 2003).

The findings of the study provide an interesting basis for discussion on the overall current status of Tanzania's airline industry, particularly, as pertains to the decline in the number of customers to the country's national airports and reserves. The study indicates that Tanzania airport provides a relatively high-quality wildlife-based employee product. This is shown by the overwhelming majority of the employees (77%) who stated that they were satisfied by the quality of the airport's nature attractions and the services that are provided by the airport's employees (Fried, 2004). Thus ideally, from the business perspective, it should therefore be expected that the volume of employees visiting the airport should not be falling as the case is currently.

Review of the Literarture

In the case of Tanzania (based on the findings of the study) it may be argued that the country's employee attractions, particularly the unique and diverse wildlife attractions, are still quite appealing to ...