The _____ has the authority for certifying or decertifying a union through an election.

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©iStockphoto.com/Jacob Wackerhausen

10

Employee and Labor Relations

Media Library

CHAPTER 10 Media Library

PREMIUM VIDEO

HRM in Action Video

The No Tips Rule

LICENSED VIDEO Video

Importance of Unions

Unions and the Global Economy

image LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter, you should be able to do the following:

10-1. Discuss the value of trust and communication in organizations. How do the message-sending and the message-receiving processes help improve trust? PAGE 344

10-2. Discuss the primary reason why measuring job satisfaction is so difficult, identify the best tool for getting employees to tell the truth about their level of satisfaction, and list the major determinants of job satisfaction. PAGE 350

10-3. Identify the major labor laws in the United States and the other legal issues in labor relations. PAGE 353

10-4. Briefly discuss the union certification process, the NO TIPS rules for labor elections, and the concept of collective bargaining. PAGE 361

10-5. Briefly discuss what management can do to limit union organizing efforts. PAGE 365

10-6. Identify the five conflict management styles. How is each described in terms of win or lose? PAGE 366

10-7. Describe the negotiation process. Briefly explain the processes of mediation and arbitration and the major difference between the two. PAGE 371

10-8. Discuss recent NLRB rulings dealing with the employer/employee relationship and briefly discuss the issue of union avoidance and suppression. PAGE 375

image CHAPTER OUTLINE

Labor Relations: A Function of Trust and Communication

Trust and Communication

Sending Messages

Receiving Messages

Job Satisfaction

Job Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction and Performance

Measuring Job Satisfaction

Determinants of Job Satisfaction

Legal Issues in Labor Relations

The Railway Labor Act (RLA) of 1926

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935 (Wagner Act)

The Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) of 1947 (Taft-Hartley Act)

The Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (Landrum-Griffin Act or LMRDA)

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 (WARN Act)

Labor Laws Vary Significantly From Country to Country

Other Legal Issues in Labor Relations

Unions and Labor Rights

Union Organizing

Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining

Grievances

Management Rights and Decertification Elections

Limiting Union Organizing Efforts

Lockouts and Replacement Workers

Decertification Elections

Managing Conflict

Conflict

Conflict Management Styles

Initiating Conflict Resolution

Negotiations

The Negotiation Process

Planning the Negotiation

Negotiate

Alternative Dispute Resolution: Mediation and Arbitration

Trends and Issues in HRM

The NLRB Is Redefining the Employer/Employee Relationship

Are Union Avoidance or Suppression Policies Ethical?

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Practitioner’s Perspective

Cindy says: Few issues bring HR professionals out in force to voice their opinion like labor relations. The divide between management and labor may be wide, yet there is a very fine line separating management rights from unacceptable labor practices. Cindy’s good friend Leah’s company was facing a labor organization drive. IT reported that one of the employees had been posting complaints about her job on her Facebook page. At the weekly executive meeting, one director demanded that the employee be told to remove the offensive comments immediately or face being discharged from the company. Fortunately, Leah’s boss listened to her suggestion that they consult professional legal counsel before reacting to the posts.

Why wasn’t the ultimatum to the employee a good idea? Are there restrictions on the actions a company may take to counter a labor organization campaign? Chapter 10 takes on another critical legal liability portion of HR management—labor relations.

SHRM HR CONTENT

See Appendix: SHRM 2016 Curriculum Guidebook for the complete list

A. Employee and Labor Relations (required)

  2. Alternative dispute resolution

  8. Union membership

  9. Union-related labor laws

10. Union/management relations

11. Union decertification and deauthorization

12. Collective bargaining issues

13. Collective bargaining process

14. Negotiation skills

15. Conflict management

16. Grievance management

17. Strikes, boycotts, and work stoppages

18. Unfair labor practices

19. Managing union organizing policies and handbooks

21. Attitude surveys

B. Employment Law (required)

11. Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA)

12. National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (NLRA)

13. Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 (LMRA)

14. Railway Labor Act of 1926 (RLA)

16. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 (WARN Act)

18. Contractual and tort theories

20. Employer unfair labor practices

22. Agency relationships/quasi-contracts

23. Employment contracts

28. Whistle-blowing/retaliation

C. Ethics (required)

15. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX)

16. False Claims Act

M. Workforce Planning and Talent Management (required)

  4. Retention: Voluntary turnover, job satisfaction, withdrawal, alternatives

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LABOR RELATIONS: A FUNCTION OF TRUST AND COMMUNICATION

LO 10-1

Discuss the value of trust and communication in organizations. How do the message-sending and the message-receiving processes help improve trust?

Managers and labor have to work together to accomplish goals.1 For this to happen successfully, people in organizations must be able to communicate with each other.2 Both companywide and individual communications are vital.3 Communications is the foundation of human relations skills4 (Chapter 1), and it is a transferable skill.5 HR professionals rated interpersonal-communication skills as the most valuable knowledge, skill, or ability for career success.6 However, companies say that communication and other soft skills are difficult to find in job applicants.7

Whenever people communicate to accomplish a goal, the sender and receiver must establish trust to avoid creating barriers in the communication process.8 In this section, we begin with an overview of trust and communications and then provide details of sending and receiving messages when communicating.

Trust and Communication

Trust is simply faith in the character and actions of another. In other words, it is a belief that another person will do what they say they will do, and not take advantage of us—every time. There is evidence of a “crisis of trust” in business today.9 So how do we get others to trust us? We must do what we say we will do consistently, over a period of time.

Happiness and success in our personal and professional lives are based on our relationships. Good relationships are based on trust.10 Do you have good relationships with people you can’t trust? Employees’ trust in managers affects their motivation to engage in organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).11 A survey revealed that 74% of engaged employees trust their manager, while only 14% don’t trust their boss.12 Would you go above and beyond what is expected (work harder) for a boss you don’t trust?

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In turn, managers need to be able to trust employees.13 Trust is absolutely necessary to strong management–labor relations. It engenders respect between all of the individuals in the organization; and research shows that companies that have the trust of their employees have “lower turnover [and] higher revenue, profitability, and shareholder returns.”14 As soon as trust goes, loyalty to the company goes with it.15

Since a person must consistently do what they say they will over a period of time, trust isn’t created immediately. But ask yourself a slightly different question: How quickly can we lose trust in another person? This can happen almost immediately—as soon as the other person fails to do something that we trusted them to do. So, trust takes a while to create but takes only an instant to lose. So, the bottom line is this: If we want to improve others’ level of trust in us, we need to be open and honest with people.16 If people catch you in a lie, they may never trust you again. To gain and maintain trust and credibility, always get the facts straight before you communicate; and send clear, complete messages.17

WORK APPLICATION 10-1

Select a present or past boss and describe how much you trust that person. Be sure to give specific examples of things your boss did, or didn’t do, that created or destroyed your trust.

Good managers are good communicators.18Communication is the process of transmitting information and meaning. Communication involves successfully providing information to others as a sender and as a receiver of messages. As managers, we need our employees to trust us when we communicate with them. In any communication, receivers consider the trust they have in the senders, as well as the senders’ credibility.19 When receivers do not trust senders, or do not believe senders know what they are talking about, then the receivers are reluctant to accept the message.20

You can send your messages verbally, nonverbally, or in writing. We are expected to work well in groups and communicate with ease.21 But if asked, “Are you a good communicator?” most people would likely say “yes.” However, the truth is that most people have lots of miscommunications,22which can result in damaging trust. Let’s take a look at some tips that can help us be better communicators, as both senders and receivers.

Sending Messages

Every time we talk, we are sending messages.23 We are constantly pitching our ideas.24 The vast majority of messages you send and receive in the workplace are simple, straightforward messages like “Please copy this document,” “I’ll call you when I’ve reviewed these specifications,” and “I put the report you requested on your desk.” You transmit many such messages face-to-face or in a brief memo, email, or fax. Such straightforward messages need minimal planning, because they are routine.

However, sometimes the message you need to transmit is difficult, unusual, or especially important. For example, you may have the difficult task of communicating to someone that they are to be laid off. Or perhaps you need to communicate to workers at one plant about the changes that will be occurring there as a result of closing a second plant and moving its processes to that one—an unusual situation and an important communication.

So before sending a message, we should answer five basic questions: What, who, how, when, and where? What is the goal of our communication, and what is the desired end result? Who is affected by the communication? How are we sending the message—in verbal or written form? When does the message need to be sent? And where should we send it—your office, mine, or a neutral site? When sending messages, be careful in the vocabulary you use to convey your message because words make a difference,25 as poor wording drains money due to miscommunication.26

THE MESSAGE-SENDING PROCESS. Oral communication channels (channels where we speak to others directly) are richer than other channels, and face-to-face oral communication is the best channel to use when the message you must transmit is a difficult or complex one. When sending a face-to-face message, you can follow the steps in the message-sending process shown in Model 10-1.

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MODEL 10-1 THE MESSAGE-SENDING PROCESS MODEL

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WORK APPLICATION 10-2

Select a present or past boss and describe how well that person sent messages. Did the boss essentially follow the steps in the message-sending process described here?

Step 1: Develop rapport. Begin by putting the receiver at ease by creating a harmonious relationship. It is usually appropriate to begin communication by making a connection with the receiver through an opening conversation that’s related to the message you’re trying to convey.27

Step 2: State your communication objective. It is helpful for the receiver if you explain the objective (end result) of the communication before you explain the details.

Step 3: Transmit your message. Calmly and with respect, tell the receiver(s) whatever you want them to know. It may be helpful to also provide written directives and/or to ask the receiver to take some notes.

Step 4: Check the receiver’s understanding. When giving information, ask direct questions and/or paraphrase. Simply asking, “Do you have any questions?” does not check understanding. (The next subsection describes how to check understanding.)

Step 5: Get a commitment and follow up. If the message involves assigning a task, make sure that the message recipient can do the task and have it done by a certain time or date. Finally, follow up to ensure that the necessary action has been taken.

WORK APPLICATION 10-3

Select a present or past boss and describe how effective that person is at getting feedback and paraphrasing. How often did you get the task done right the first time versus having to redo it?

CHECKING UNDERSTANDING: FEEDBACK.Feedback is information provided by the receiver that verifies that a message was transmitted successfully. We tend to assume we are good communicators and that if no one asks a question, the communication is complete.28 But as senders of messages, we need to get feedback from the receiver to make sure they “really” understand the message. The best way to get feedback is to ask for it.29Questioning, paraphrasing, and inviting comments and suggestions are all means of obtaining feedback that check understanding.30 So, we should get feedback by paraphrasing and asking questions, and inviting questions.

PARAPHRASING. Paraphrasing is the process of restating a message back to the original sender in the receiver’s own words. Paraphrasing can often avoid the problem of the sender saying things like, “This isn’t what I asked for.” So taking a minute to get feedback to ensure understanding can help ensure that the task will get done right the first time. You have to ask good questions to get good answers.31How we ask for feedback is important because we don’t want to make the receiver defensive, so we should say something like this: “Would you tell me what you are going to do so that I can be sure that I explained myself clearly?”

Receiving Messages

We need to be as effective at receiving messages as we are at sending them. Successfully receiving and interpreting messages is harder than most of us think.32 First you have to listen,33 as it is an important part of communications.34 Ever hear the advice that we should “listen more and talk less?”35 that “you learn more when your mouth is closed and your ears are open.”36 Putting it bluntly: “Shut up and listen.”37 Here we discuss listening skills and the message-receiving process so we can round out our communication skills.

LISTENING SKILLS. If someone were to ask us if we are good listeners, most of us would say yes. However, unfortunately, we are naturally poor listeners,38 because we don’t remember what was said. How’s your memory?39 A recent survey found that the number one thing lacking in new college grads is listening skills.40 Find out how good a listener you are by completing the listening skills self-assessment. By using the message-receiving process, you can learn to become a better listener.

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©iStockphoto.com/Geber86

With mobile technology, employees are constantly connected and communicating.

THE MESSAGE-RECEIVING PROCESS. The message-receiving process includes active listening, analyzing, and then checking for understanding. Recall that active listening is the intention and ability to listen to others, use the content and context of the communication, and respond appropriately. If you apply the following tips, you can improve your listening skills. The message-receiving process is illustrated in Model 10-2.

Step 1: Active listening. Active listening (sometimes called empathetic listening), is about giving your full attention (meaning 100% of it) to the message sender for the entire time of the message sending.41 Constant multitasking is degrading our ability to pay attention and listen for very long.42Multitasking causes us to become distracted, whether we realize it or not, and to miss the message being communicated. So, put the phone away and stop multitasking.43 As the speaker sends the message, you should be doing the eight things listed in the first column of Model 10-2. If you find your mind wandering by thinking of other things (something that happens to all of us), bring it back to pay attention. One way to pay attention is to repeat in your mind what the sender is saying.

Business communications usually require taking appropriate action based on the message. How can we take action if we don’t understand or remember the message? Frank Felberbaum, president of Memory Training Systems, says that to understand and remember the message, we have to concentrate. We remember what we see better than what we hear. The primary reason we get distracted and lose our ability to pay attention and remember things is the separation of the use of our eyes and mind. When they are not working together as a team, we cannot concentrate at all.44Think about this. If you are listening to someone talking as you check your phone (or look somewhere else), what happens? Loss of concentration. Can you see how multitasking kills concentration and memory? So, to maximize listening, you need to look the person (including professors in class) in the eye and concentrate with your mind to what they say. If your eyes are looking but your mind is wondering, bring it back. Try repeating what the person is saying word for word in your mind as they speak. Active listening can help you concentrate and remember messages.

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10-1 SELF ASSESSMENT

Listening Skills

For each statement, select the response that best describes how often you actually behave in the way described. Place the letter A, U, F, O, or S on the line before each statement to indicate your response.

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_____ 1. I like to listen to people talk. I encourage others to talk by showing interest, smiling, nodding, and so forth.

_____ 2. I pay closer attention to people who are similar to me than to people who are different from me.

_____ 3. I evaluate people’s words and nonverbal communication ability as they talk.

_____ 4. I avoid distractions; if it’s noisy, I suggest moving to a quiet spot.

_____ 5. When people interrupt me when I’m doing something, I put what I was doing out of my mind and give them my complete attention.

_____ 6. When people are talking, I allow them time to finish. I do not interrupt, anticipate what they are going to say, or jump to conclusions.

_____ 7. I tune out people who do not agree with my views.

_____ 8. While another person is talking or a professor is lecturing, my mind wanders to personal topics.

_____ 9. While another person is talking, I pay close attention to that person’s nonverbal communication so I can fully understand what they are trying to communicate.

_____ 10. I tune out and pretend to understand when the topic is difficult for me to understand.

_____ 11. When another person is talking, I think about and prepare what I am going to say in reply.

_____ 12. When I think there is something missing from or contradictory in what someone says, I ask direct questions to get the person to explain the idea more fully.

_____ 13. When I don’t understand something, I let the other person know I don’t understand.

_____ 14. When listening to other people, I try to put myself in their position and see things from their perspective.

_____ 15. During conversations, I repeat back to the other person, in my own words, what the other person says; I do this to be sure I understand what has been said.

If people you talk to regularly answered these questions about you, would they have the same responses that you selected? To find out, have friends answer the questions using your name rather than “I.” Then compare answers.

To determine your score, do the following:

For statements 1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 12, 13, 14, and 15, give yourself 5 points for each A, 4 for each U, 3 for each F, 2 for each O, and 1 for each S.

For statements 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, and 11, give yourself 5 points for each S, 4 for each O, 3 for each F, 2 for each U, and 1 for each A.

Write your score for each letter response on the line next to the letter. Now add up your total number of points. Your score should be between 15 and 75. Note where your score falls on the continuum below. Generally, the higher your score, the better your listening skills.

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Step 2: Analyzing. Analyzing is the process of thinking about, decoding, and evaluating the message. Poor listening is caused in part by the fact that we speak at an average rate of 120 words per minute, but we are capable of listening at a rate of 600 words per minute.45 The ability to comprehend words more than five times faster than the speaker can talk allows our mind to wander. As the speaker sends the message, we should be doing the three things listed in the second column of Model 10-2. So while active thinking involves mental paraphrasing, empathy involves putting yourself in the other person’s position to understand where they are coming from.

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MODEL 10-2 THE MESSAGE-RECEIVING PROCESS MODEL

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WORK APPLICATION 10-4

Select a present or past boss and assess that person’s listening skills. Be sure to give specific examples of when your boss was not listening effectively.

Step 3: Checking understanding by responding when appropriate. Checking understanding by responding when appropriate is the process of giving feedback to the sender. Although the sender is responsible for conveying the message, it is our job to help by giving them feedback, whether they ask for it or not.

After you have listened to the message (or while listening to it, if it’s a long message), check your understanding of the message by paraphrasing it. When we can repeat back a sender’s message correctly, we convey that we have listened to and understood the sender.46 Now we are ready to offer our ideas, advice, solutions, decisions, or whatever else is relevant to the sender’s message. As you speak, pay attention to the other person’s nonverbal communication. If the person does not seem to understand what you are talking about, clarify the message before finishing the conversation. The sender and receiver roles can continue to alternate throughout the conversation.

IMPROVING LISTENING SKILLS. Do you talk more than you listen? Ask people who will give you an honest answer—perhaps your boss, your coworkers, or your friends. Regardless of how much you listen, if you follow the guidelines discussed in this section, you will become a better listener. Review items 1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 12, 13, 14, and 15 in Self-Assessment 10-1, which are the statements that describe good listening skills; the other numbered statements are things not to do. Select a couple of your weaker areas, the ones with lower numbers, and work to improve them.

10-1 APPLYING THE CONCEPT

Communications

Identify whether each strategy listed below is an effective or ineffective aid to communications.

a. effective

b. ineffective

____ 1. When listening to instructions, if you don’t understand something being said, you should not do or say anything until you have received the entire set of instructions.

____ 2. You should repeat back what the other person said word-for-word when you paraphrase.

____ 3. After you finish giving instructions, you should ensure understanding by asking the person, “Do you have any questions?”

____ 4. When giving instructions, you should tell the receiver your communication objective before giving the details of what is to be done to complete the task.

____ 5. We should multitask while receiving messages face-to-face so that we can get more than one thing done at a time.

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JOB SATISFACTION

LO 10-2

Discuss the primary reason why measuring job satisfaction is so difficult, identify the best tool for getting employees to tell the truth about their level of satisfaction, and list the major determinants of job satisfaction.

Job satisfaction, as we first noted in Chapter 1, is a feeling of well-being and acceptance of our place in the organization, and it is generally measured along a continuum from satisfied/positive/high to dissatisfied/negative/low. Remember that job satisfaction is important to us because it affects many other factors at work.47 It can have a direct effect on all of our other dependent variables discussed in Chapter 1—productivity, absenteeism, and turnover—so high job satisfaction is beneficial for firm value.48 Studies have also found that dissatisfied employees are more apt to break the rules and sabotage coworker performance.49 In a 2017 SHRM survey,50 the greatest contributors to job satisfaction were: Respectful treatment of all employee at all levels (65% said this was very important); Trust between employees and senior management (61%); tied with Compensation (61%).

WORK APPLICATION 10-5

Review your answers to the Listening Skills, 10-1 Self-Assessment. What are your two weakest areas, and how will you improve them?

Notice that two of the top three contributors to job satisfaction were trust and respect—two things we have already mentioned in this chapter. In addition, recalling the information on communication and especially the section on active listening and empathy, you can easily see that without successful communication we can’t maintain trust and respect between employees and management.

Job Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction and Performance

It is very difficult to have good employee/labor relations when employees don’t like their jobs, and there are many other potential consequences of poor job satisfaction, including lower levels of health and wellness, higher levels of alcohol and other substance abuse, physical or psychological withdrawal on the part of the employee, and high levels of theft and sabotage.51 Even attempts to unionize a workforce could be the result of collective job dissatisfaction, so managers are wise to pay attention to employee satisfaction levels. So, organizations do strive for employee job satisfaction.52

SHRM

M:4

Retention: Voluntary Turnover, Job Satisfaction, Withdrawal, Alternatives

It is known that employees with the personality traits of optimism and positive self-esteem tend to have greater job satisfaction.53 Although there has long been a debate over the expression, “A happy worker is a productive worker,” there is some support for the idea of a positive relationship between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), employee efforts that go above and beyond the call of duty,54 which can then lead to high-level results.55 In fact, in US companies ranked in the 100 best to work for, total annual stock returns were also 2–3% higher than peer companies,56 so there is evidence of direct financial benefit to the organization. However, there is also some support for the assertion that lower job satisfaction (or higher job dissatisfaction levels) can lead to lower productivity.57

WORK APPLICATION 10-6

Select a present or past job. Pick a person who had low job satisfaction and another who had high job satisfaction. How did their different levels of job satisfaction affect their job performance?

Also, low job satisfaction is a prominent indicator of a desire to leave the firm.58 In fact, in the SHRM survey noted above, two out of five employees were considering leaving their organization within the year due to low satisfaction with one or more factors.59 Women are more likely than men to be satisfied with their entry-level career, but the opposite is true at senior levels, as women hit the glass ceiling.60 Job satisfaction can also affect an individual’s satisfaction away from the job, as people tend to take their jobs home with them.61

Gary Vaynerchuk of New York–based digital media agency Vaynermedia notes that62 “I’ve learned that employee happiness and well-being come before everything else—including signing on new clients.” And he may be on to something—he has “taken two businesses from $3 million to $60 million in revenue, each in less than five years. . . .”

Measuring Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction can be measured through an organizational development survey, but we have to remember that a survey is an indirect measurement. Since job satisfaction is an attitude, we can’t directly see or measure it. We can experience only behaviors directly, not attitudes. We have to indirectly evaluate attitudes—we have to ask people about their attitudes. This is the primary reason why job satisfaction is so difficult to measure accurately. As a result of the inability to observe job satisfaction, we must rely on individuals to self-report their level of satisfaction. However, this brings up a big question: Will employees tell us whether or not they are satisfied with their job?

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SHRM

A:21

Attitude Surveys

As with so many management questions, the answer is that it depends. If managers and employees trust each other, then the employees may tell their managers the truth. However, as noted earlier in this chapter, if there isn’t strong trust between the two, then employees may think that if they say they are dissatisfied, their manager will get rid of them because they are “disgruntled workers.”

Because of this question of trust, it’s always a good idea to ensure that any job satisfaction surveys that are done within the organization remain completely anonymous. If the surveys are anonymous, and if the employees know that is the case, then they are much more likely to tell the truth when they take the survey.

There are two common types of job satisfaction surveys or questionnaires, with a fairly new method that can be used for either of the two. Let’s briefly review each of them now.

THE FACES SCALE OF JOB SATISFACTION MEASUREMENT. The first and simpler survey is called the “faces scale.”63 It’s pretty much what it sounds like: a series of pictures of several faces on a sheet of paper, with the face at one end of the scale looking very happy and the face at the other end of the scale looking unhappy or angry. All that the employee is asked to do is circle the face that most closely matches their satisfaction with their job. Exhibit 10-1 shows an example of the faces scale.

THE QUESTIONNAIRE JOB SATISFACTION MEASUREMENT. The second type of survey or questionnaire—the organizational development survey—is more complex and more comprehensive. An example of this type of survey is the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS). Take a look at Exhibit 10-2, which shows some of the questions from the JSS.64 There are many different surveys of this type, and this is one of only a few that have been shown to be valid and reliable when used to measure job satisfaction in a work environment.65 The JSS includes nine factors: pay, promotion, supervision, benefits, contingent rewards, operating procedures, coworkers, nature of work, and communication.

PULSE SURVEYS. This type of short survey method—sometimes as short as a single question—is now being used by many companies.66 We can use a pulse survey to gain either a general picture of employee satisfaction or to spot problem areas so it can supplement either the faces scale or a job satisfaction survey. A single question pulse survey might be used to gauge general employee satisfaction on a recurring basis—as often as several times per week. If we see indications that there is an increase in dissatisfaction, we may want to change the pulse questions to try to determine in what areas our employees are dissatisfied.

These pulse questions may pop up on the employee’s computer screen at random times during the work day, where they can be quickly answered and the worker can move on with what they are doing. Because millennial and post-millennial employees are used to continual feedback, pulse surveys are catching on with companies that need to routinely engage these employees. Since the employee doesn’t think much about the single question, we may get a more generalizable idea of their satisfaction levels. Qualtrics—a survey company—notes that organizations may run full-scale employee engagement or satisfaction surveys every year or so, but that the pulse survey can complement those long evaluations on a more frequent basis so that we don’t miss a change in employee sentiment.67

Exhibit 10-1 FEMALE FACES SCALE

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Source: “Development of a female faces scale for measuring job satisfaction” by Randall B. Dunham and Jeanne B. Herman, Journal of Applied Psychology, 60(5), October 1975, 629–631.

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Exhibit 10-2 SAMPLE OF JOB SATISFACTION SURVEY (JSS) QUESTIONS

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Source: P. Spector (1985), “Measurement of human service staff satisfaction: Development of the job satisfaction survey,” American Journal of Community Psychology 13(6), pp. 693–713.

WORK APPLICATION 10-7

Select an organization where you work now or where you worked in the past. Does the organization measure job satisfaction? If yes, state how it is measured and the level of job satisfaction. If not, what level of satisfaction do employees feel on a scale of 1 (low) to 6 (high)?

WHICH JOB SATISFACTION MEASUREMENT SHOULD WE USE? Since there are two types of measurement options here, which one should we use? Again, it depends. If we want a quick analysis of the basic level of job satisfaction in our organization, the faces scale has been shown to be quite accurate, and the pulse survey can be used for this purpose while being even faster.68 However, if we need a more in-depth analysis of job satisfaction, including what aspects of the job our employees may be dissatisfied with, the more complex and comprehensive JSS (or another longer survey instrument) would be the appropriate choice. Each tool has its value, and in combination, they can help us keep track of organizational job satisfaction levels over time.