ISSN: 2278-3369

International Journal of Advances in Management and Economics

Available online at: www.managementjournal.info

REVIEW ARTICLE

Job Performance, Job Satisfaction, and Motivation: A Critical

Review of their Relationship
Revenio Jalagat Jr.

Al-Zahra College for Women, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between these three variables namely: Job
performance, job satisfaction and motivation with the help of theoretical models and literatures. Although
many studies had already been conducted on job satisfaction and job performance, its relationship is still
subject to much hated debates to specifically determine the extent of its relationship. With regards to
motivation, results showed that, monetary consideration is by far more important than other motivation
strategies which emphasized the aspect of addressing the economic needs of the individuals. However
motivation like that of Herzberg had proven that pay is not the sole indicator of employee motivation.
Furthermore, it was also proven that job satisfaction, job performance and motivation interact with each
other and functioned interdependently such that the process is circular rather than linear. When job
satisfaction and performance is linked with group performance, the outcome revealed that higher job
satisfaction leads to higher performance although it is not always the case. Working together is the key to
achieve desirable outcomes which means that employees should not be kept in isolation but should be
encouraged to work together to effectively achieve the goals and success whether in group or the
organization as a whole.

Keywords: Job Satisfaction, Motivation, Job Performance, Group Performance.

Introduction
Several studies had been conducted to work teams. As an example, many researchers
investigate the relationship between job investigated the relationship between job
satisfaction and performance whether satisfaction and productivity while other
individually, in work groups and assumptions focused on the negative
organizations. According to Locke, there are correlation between job satisfaction and
about 3,000 researches and related studies absenteeism or turnover [1]. Even though this
that focus on job satisfaction since 1976 and it topic was already the forefront of discussion
remains to be of significance until today. This for the past decades, it is still relevant and an
indicates that the importance of continuous urgent concern for companies nowadays and
investigation on this topic is still relevant and its importance is directed towards highly
interesting in the field of science. The motivated, productive, and loyal workforce as
significance of establishing the relationship ingredients of the company’s competitive
between job satisfaction, motivation and job advantage and landscape [2]. Kirchler
performance according to many scholars are confirmed in his study that employees who are
evident in addressing the problems and issues highly satisfied with their jobs led to healthier
in Human Resource Departments thereby and happier lives.
making it highly interesting for many Relative to this, the main thrust of this paper
organizations, employees-employer is to give valuable ideas and perspectives on
relationships and in
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how job satisfaction influence work definitions and perceptions to different

performance of both the individual level and individuals [5]. Aziri [6] opined that, job
the organizational level. The questions that satisfaction represents a feeling that appears
needed to be addressed are the following: as a result of the perception that the job
meaning and importance of job satisfaction; enables the material and psychological needs
how job satisfaction influence the job [6]. Job satisfaction can be viewed on one
performance of individuals and the side as the person’s state of positive and
organization; and to what extent the job negative feeling towards his job and to some
satisfaction and performance relates to extent the person’s feeling of whether he
motivation. To attain these, this paper starts likes or dislikes his work [7]. So, it is likely to
with defining job satisfaction and discussing happen that people can either be satisfied or
its importance to individuals, groups and the dissatisfied with their job or work. Job
organization. satisfaction can be positively meet when ones
expectations are matched with the real
The integrated model was used to determine outcome.
the extent of interaction of variables including
job satisfaction, performance and motivation Job satisfaction is undeniably considered as
in relation to work. From the information, one of the major considerations in assessing
related theories will be established to develop the efficiency and effectiveness of any
justifiable basis on defining individual job business organizations. As a matter of fact,
satisfaction and address the significance of businesses nowadays under modern
peers and groups to individual satisfaction. management perspective duly takes into
Apart from this, presentation of underlying consideration the employees’ personal needs,
assumptions were formulated to define an wants and desires to be a very good
effective group through the use of a model indicators for achieving job satisfaction [8].
that demonstrates the open system of Ideally, logic commands that when an
converting resource inputs to product outputs. employee is satisfied with his job, that will
Finally, summary of key findings and make him happy and when he is happy he
conclusions were offered to conclude this will likely become a successful employee.
paper.
Meaning and Importance of Job Furthermore, the essentiality of job
Satisfaction satisfaction had been noticed thus far
because of the negative consequences
Various authors and researchers differ in
brought about by job dissatisfaction cause by
their definition of job satisfaction. One of the
growing cases of absenteeism, non-loyalty,
old definitions of job satisfaction described it
increasing cases of accidents and others.
as an “effective orientations on the part of
the individuals towards work roles which According to Spector [9], there are three vital
they are presently occupying” [3].
features of job satisfaction. Firstly, to achieve
job satisfaction requires that organizations
It also portrays on how the employees feel
should be guided by human values
about their jobs as influenced by many particularly in the aspect of respect and fair
external factors. Hoppock [4] also defined job treatment of the employees regardless of
satisfaction as any combination of
positions. By doing this, the evaluation of job
psychological, physiological and satisfaction will serve as good indicator of
environmental circumstances that cause a employees’ effectiveness which would mean
person to truthfully say that he is satisfied that, high level of job satisfaction will
with his job. Moreover, there is no
eventually lead to good emotional and mental
universally accepted definition of job
state of employees. Secondly, how the
satisfaction because it is a complex and employees behave is a result of the level of
multifaceted concept that provides different
satisfaction they have attained which in
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general affects the business activities and the advancement and (5) pay - adequacy of pay
functioning of the organization. Therefore, it and perceived fairness compared to peers.
can be safe to assume that job satisfaction
leads to positive behavior while job As applied to many studies, pay satisfaction
dissatisfaction will result to negative was perceived as the major determinants of
behaviors of employees. Thirdly, job job satisfaction [20]. Consequently,
satisfaction is one of the determinants of employees are more expressive in a sense
successful organizations. that, while they appreciate non-monetary
considerations, monetary benefits become a
Ideally, job satisfaction starts within the necessity rather than an opportunity. In
individual employees. When the individual other words, employees are more interested
employees are satisfied, it follow that they on satisfying their economic needs. The
will perform at their best in individual employers in response, allocate majority of
capacity and extends to group efforts that the budget on salaries and wages thereby
lead to organizational performance [10]. creating a balance between spending and the
return of their investment.
According to McBride [11], the importance of Motivation, performance, and job
job satisfaction is likened to a health care satisfaction
industry. It is the primary responsibility of
the companies in a sense to ascertain that, Peeter’s, et. al. [21] research outcome
employees are satisfied with their present concluded that, job satisfaction relates to both
jobs and find out the causes if these performance and absenteeism rate. To
employees are not satisfied. demonstrate these behaviors, it is necessary
for employees to come up with two decisions
regarding their job. One of these is to make
Determinants of Job Satisfaction decision on their choice of the workplace to
Various authors have identified the different work with. This encourage the employees to
factors that influenced job satisfaction. This establish the state of belongingness to the
includes but not limited to: Salaries and organization, the place of work. Studies
benefits, organizational climate, autonomy, showed that employees who are satisfied with
achievement, recognition, job security, the company where they work with are less
workplace flexibility, degree of likely to commit absences than those that are
professionalism, communication, working not satisfied [22-23]. Moreover, dissatisfied
conditions, interpersonal relationships, job employees tend to resign from their jobs thus,
importance and others. [12-18]. increases the incidence of absenteeism, a
condition that causes the company’s increased
However, it cannot also be denied that in overhead costs and poor performance.
leadership style has also great role in the Therefore, job satisfaction positively
employee’s level of job satisfaction and it is influenced the company’s absenteeism rate.
also a driver in attaining the organization’s
goals and objectives. The second important decision to consider is
the employees work performance. According to
Accordingly, Schermerhorn, [19] introduced Meyer & Peng [10], job performance refers to
the five facets of job satisfaction as also the output that a person has contributed to
measured by the Job Descriptive Index, a the organization concerning his behavior to
popular questionnaire: (1) The work itself- engage in, and which the organization may
responsibility, interest and growth, (2) the perceive it as productive or counterproductive.
quality of supervision - technical help and Good performance can be achieved when the
social support, (3) the relationship with employees meet the expectation of the
coworkers - social harmony and respect, (4) employer and are attributable to company’s
promotion opportunities - chances for further success. Furthermore, every organization is
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interested on finding out how the workforce rewards given to individuals as a result of the
perform positively in relation to productivity accomplishment of certain goals and can
and accordingly, how job satisfaction impacts usually be done through monetary
performance. However, it is more interesting considerations such as bonuses, incentives,
to know that, there is still an ongoing debate and promotions. While intrinsic motivation
on whether there is significant relationship refers to feeling of getting the job well done
between job satisfaction and performance as it thus, the activity is the motivation itself. It is
is very complex phenomenon. Based from this worth noted that job satisfaction, performance
point of view, there can be two points that can and motivation can be used interchangeably
be derived and stated in this manner: but they are separate in context and
Satisfaction causes performance; performance application as they are interrelated. It only
causes satisfaction. The first point stressed shows that job satisfaction is not affected by
that, there is no direct link between job performance of individuals only but also
satisfaction and performance. This argument motivation. Summing up, job satisfaction and
further assumes that, when employees are performance are two different terms but
satisfied with their jobs do not mean that they interrelated which also affected by motivation.
can perform better than those who are not. In [19].
other words, it is not reliable to say that job
satisfaction is the main predictor of individual To demonstrate the significance of the
job performance. relationship of these three terms, a model
The second assumption on the hand, suggests introduced by Schermerhorn et al. [19] known
that performance is the cause of job as the “integrated model of individual
satisfaction. Researches positively relates motivation to work” provided the details of the
between individual performance and job interaction and interdependence of the three
satisfaction only on the account that, given variables as indicated hereunder.
proper monetary reward mechanisms lead to
job satisfaction. This further mean that
proper motivation should be in place to ensure Amount & Schedule
good performance. So, motivation should be Individual
of contingent
given co-equal importance with job Attribute
satisfaction and performance. s extrinsic reward
Motivatio Wor effort
According to Latham [2], motivation is "a n k neede
Performance Equity Comparison Satisfactio

cognitive resource allocation process in which n ion

d Net amoun of
a person makes choices as to the time and Organizationa t intrinsic
valent
energy are to be allocated to an array of l
rewards
motives or tasks" or "the process that account Support

for an individual intensity, direction, and

persistence of effort toward attaining a goal"
[24]. According to the definition, three
important points to consider: the arousal, the
direction, and the maintenance of certain
activity. Figure 1: An integrated model of individual
motivation to work. [19]
Arousal is the stimuli that allows activity to
occur. Direction is the action needed to decide From the diagram, it can be clearly
which goal to pursue and maintenance understood that the job satisfaction,
encompasses the forces that continuous to performance and motivation is a circular
manifest until the goal is achieved. Motivation process rather than a linear process because of
can be classified into intrinsic and extrinsic. the interdependence and interaction of the
Extrinsic motivation refers to external variables. In other words, one variable does
not triggers the other variable.
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Theories on Motivation and its It is clear from this point that pay is not the
Applicability only indicator of motivating employees but
According to many researchers, motivation other factors are also relevant such as policies
theories are generally divided into three parts: and supervision that are perceived to be
reinforcement, content und process theories motivators for employees’ high level of
[25-27]. Reinforcement theories dealt with the performance. For instance, good
ways in which individual’s behaviors will be organizational policies related to employee
shaped through controlling the consequence of development and enhancements provide
such behavior. Content theories on the other opportunity for them to grow, advance and
hand, focused on satisfying the needs of climb the job ladder that likely results to
employees for them to perform. While process feeling of achievement. Herzberg once quoted
theories emphasized on the cognitive that, “"If you want someone to do a good job,
processes that takes place with the minds of you need to give them a good job to do" [3].
people and influence their behavior. While Very notable factor that provides strong
there many underlying theories built upon argument on Herzberg theory is the human
these theories, this paper prefers to consider relations considering specifically the
those theories that direct relates to the relationship to peers or subordinates that can
objective of this study. One of the important be causes of either satisfaction or
theory belonging to the content theories is the dissatisfaction. Hence, human relations are
two-factor theory of Herzberg which posits vital to achieving job satisfaction.
that job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are Another relevant theory is the expectancy
two different dimensions. theory by Vroom. According to this theory, the
The first dimensions consider the high job performance of the individuals are directly
dissatisfaction and no satisfaction and the associated with the possible rewards that they
other dimension is no dissatisfaction and high will likely received [2]. In other words, the
job satisfaction. Furthermore, these two higher the expected rewards, the more likely
dimensions impacts the two group of factors: the employees work harder to achieve the goal
the hygiene factors and the motivator factors. or objective whether individual or
These two groups are best described in a organizational. This theory illustrates the
diagram in figure 2. three key variables: expectancy,
instrumentality, and the valence. Expectancy
is the probability that any efforts or
performance is going to be rewarded;
instrumentality is the probability that the
performance will lead to various work
outcomes and valence is the value attached to
the outcome [19]. The important implication of
these three variables is evident, that is
creating a balance between these three
variables on higher level to ensure that higher
motivation level will also be achieved. In
addition, it also confirms that human relation
is important to the extent that management
should take into consideration the blend of
work expectancies, instrumentalities and
valence that support organizational objectives
High Job dissatisfaction 0 Job satisfaction High
in the workplace.
Figure 2: Sources of dissatisfaction and
satisfaction of Herzberg’s two-factor theory Lastly, the importance of the equity theory of
[19] Adams. This theory is popularized with the
importance of social comparison. It further
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claimed that, people’s actions are influenced from this perspective, employees should not be
by perceived inequality and, evaluating kept in isolation but should be encouraged by
information sources in terms of personal management to work together.
relevance as well as using others for Collaborative efforts will pave the way
comparison. Perceived inequality is the state towards organizational success, working
or condition when people believed that what together for favorable outcomes whether in
they have received as rewards are unfavorable group capacity or organizational level.
compared to what others received [2]. Furthermore, taking into consideration the
Further, this theory assumes that people feel statement that says “two heads are better
uncomfortable because they always feel that than one”, working together as a group having
others are receiving more over the other and one goal in mind are likely to achieve higher
the only way to solve it is to restore the felt level of success over a certain period of time.
equity. However, it is also explained that felt Schermerhorn, et. al. [19] emphasized that, to
equity can be negative or positive. Positive felt be an effective group it should attain higher
equity occurs when people feel that they level of task performance that is, achieving
received more rewards than their expectations the set of performance goals as a group. To be
and are perceived to be more than others called an effective group, there should be
received. Otte’s [28] research concluded in his higher level of member satisfaction where
study that, people who feel they are overpaid, members have to believe that their
which is a perceived positive inequity, participation and experience counts and are
increase the quantity or quality of their work, able to meet both their personal and
whereas those who feel they are underpaid,
organizational needs.
equals perceived negative inequity, are likely
to decrease the quantity and quality of their Moreover, for groups to effectively perform
work. This finding provides practical and achieved the goal, certain inputs have to
implications to managers by considering that be considered by the top management. First
it is more important for managers to institute input to consider is the nature of the task
fair rewards rather than thinking how much where management should consider the
to give. difficulty to achieve group effectiveness when
the task is more complex. So, the more
However; critics suggest different views exposure the group will experience in highly
against these theories on the assumption that complex tasks, higher satisfaction level is also
these lack precision. Moreover, they opined met. Second input reflects the importance of
that a number of current theories counteracts goals, rewards and resources.
such claim where they suggest that it is very
difficult for these theories to predict its The combination of having appropriate goals,
outcome. On the other side, these theories can very good reward system and adequate
be a good source or starting point for more resources will sustain the long-term needs of
reflective analysis towards sensitive the organization as well as ascertain future
management [2]. successes. Unclear goals are detrimental to
the performance of the organization so, when
Work Team Performance tools and resources are insufficient, desired
Central to the success of any organization are tasks will not be achieved. Finally, the third
the people whom other authors define as the input considers diversity as a potential source
best assets. For organization to operate of conflict within the group. This therefore
primarily needs the interaction of people to requires that diversity should be managed
ascertain organizational success. According to accordingly to allow group to work together
Hatch [29], the basic elements of an and achieve desirable outcomes. When the
organization are people and their group is growing in size, the more tendencies
relationships with one another. Borrowing of conflicts that might result to low

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performance. However, given the right motivation required for the organization to be
motivation the problem can be addressed successful and the people involved whether in
resulting to higher performance levels. individual capacity or in group. Different
theories as mentioned vary in the degree of
Conclusion influence between motivation, performance
It sounds clear that there is no single and job satisfaction. In fact, Herzberg’s two-
definition of job satisfaction hence, it is a factor theory claimed that human relations as
multifaceted phenomenon where it is subject the strongest factor of influence, while Adam’s
to differing definitions and perspectives. theory considers mainly the social comparison.
Although studies proved that motivation, job
satisfaction and job performance are On the other hand, when analyzed in terms of
interrelated and interdependent, its the group member’s satisfaction and group
relationship is not linear but rather circular. performance, it is prevalent that work groups
Moreover, it cannot be determined reliably served as open systems where member
that work performance is directly caused by satisfaction is its main output. So, member
job satisfaction. Based on the integrated satisfaction has been the main reasons for
model of individual motivation to work, it is achieving sustainable work groups which is
evident that holistically, the three variables vital to gain long-term performance. Many
namely: motivation, job satisfaction and job inputs are to be considered to meet the
performance interacts with each other and requirement of higher job satisfaction and
interconnected. In addition, motivation performance which includes task definition,
theories affirm the assumption that job clear goals, and membership diversity. These
satisfaction has something to do with the help the manager figuring out that these
inputs are necessary for the group to attain
desirable outcomes.

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