Job Satisfacation and Work Redesign in Telecommunications

Abstract

On the basis of a survey of 1300 employees from the Australian Telecommunications Industry, this paper examines the relative impacts of demography, job/task characteristics; structural aspects; computerization; and perceived work-group performance on job satisfaction. In support of previous research, the results revealed that job satisfaction is strongly influenced by the extent of task variety and the degree of participation in decisions. These results also indicated that satisfaction increases when greater certainty about future directions/outcomes of the organization is experienced and when job incumbents perceive positive work-group performance. Further analysis divulged that task variety; certainty about future directions and perceived work-group performance explained a substantial amount of the variance (of job satisfaction) amongst non-managerial employees. In contrast, structural characteristics (i.e participation and formalization) together with certainty and perceived work-group performance provided the most significant explanations of that variance in the case of managerial employees. These results illuminate some of the contemporary issues and challenges that organizations engaged in work redesign (or multi-skilling) endeavours may need to address. Relevance to Australian Public Service organizations are highlighted and discussed.