Gender Differences and Job Satisfaction - Essay Example

Women are more satisfied at work than man Introduction Job satisfaction is how content a person is with his or her job. The happy person stay within the particular job for long since it is arguable that the more satisfied one is said to be in a particular job, the less the motives of quitting the same (Cranny and Stone 2002, p.174). Satisfaction at work is not similar to motivation as many scholars would want it put, although it has a close link. Job design aspires to enhance job satisfaction as well as performance in the workers with methods including job enlargement, job enrichment and job rotation but this does not mean that it improve satisfaction at the work place (John 2006, p.224-240). Gender is one key issue when it comes to looking into satisfaction at the work place, and HR of any given organization should give this a close look. Although there are other influences on work satisfaction including the management culture and style, empowerment, autonomous work groups and employee involvement, Gender still holds central to the level of satisfaction at the work place (Mount and Johnson 2006, p. 591-622). This means that women and men have different levels of satisfaction in any destined work place. Job satisfaction is a particularly critical attribute that frequently measures the success of an organization. This paper discusses the argument that “women are more satisfied at work than men.” I tend to agree with this argument that women are satisfied with their work than men. However, this is subject to a huge discussion because there are other issues underlying this argument (John 2006, p.224-240). Looking at it from this perspective is just having a narrow point of view. What is of essence is to look broadly into issues of the work rather than the gender itself and incorporating them in the discussion as to what gender is more satisfied at the work place (Cranny and Stone 2002, p.174). It is arguable from many perspectives that by most standards, women's jobs are even worse than men's, and yet the earlier seem to report higher levels of satisfaction in these jobs than men do (Mount and Johnson 2006, p. 591-622). Neither the jobs that men or women do, nor their diverse work values, or the sample selection is accountable for the gender deference in the satisfaction level (Ronald, Burke, and Berge 2008, p. 137-147). Satisfaction not only for the work is subject to the individual’s biological make up and this is why the difference persists in women, and men (Mount and Johnson 2006, p. 591-622). Scientists came to accept the fact that a few fundamental variations between men and women existing at the work place are biological (John 2006, p.224-240). Rom principal studies carried out in different gender, it is clear that woman’s, and men's brains, for instance are different and on the same note, they are used differently. Women have larger connections with frequent interaction between their left and right brain hemispheres. This is accountable for women's ability to having better intuition and verbal skills. For Men, they have greater separations in their brain hemisphere explaining their skills for visual-spatial intelligence and abstract reasoning (Javier, Ana and Mercedes 2005, p. 279-288). Coming back to the issue of satisfaction, men biologically tend to retain a strong sense of direction with an urge to trace the game and catch it. On the other hand, women have an improved peripheral vision helping them see what’s happening around, spot an approaching danger, regularly notice changes and appearance (Cranny and Stone 2002, p.174). It is out of this that creates curiosity in men and, therefore, they are not always satisfied with the positions they have. The zeal in men is to move forward and go for me while women tend to be contented with what they have for the moment. The women may not be fully satisfied, but at least they are not as insecure as men when it comes to their work. These supports why the women may be satisfied with their work than me are (John 2006, p.224-240). Judge and Patton (2001, p. 376-407) had the assertion that men grasp a situation wholly and think globally, while for women, they think locally and rely on nuances and details. Men are creators and builders taking risks and experimenting, while for women, they select the most valuable knowledge passing it over to the coming generation. It is out of this than women are more contented in learning something new within a work place and mastering the same while men care less of skill and go for higher aspirations (John 2006, p.224-240). A job at a work place may be a low job but women develop an attachment with the same and have the zeal to keep it, but men and turned down in the first instance and are unsafe and not stable in that particular type of job. Schmidt and Dick (2007, p. 77-89) argued that men are more independent especially in their actions and thoughts, while for women, they are more willing to follow what others suggest. This means that they are good learners and listeners and can concentrate on a particular work if stabilized. For men, they tend to argue differently and cannot sustain in a given environment without the thought of moving out. Women also have a lower self-appraisal than men, which is why they tend to give detail to their work but men explore wider and quit jobs when necessary to appraise themselves regardless of the previous Job. Cranny and Stone (2002, p.174) argued that men and women have varying sources of satisfaction. For men, their main satisfaction lies in their career and prosperity. On the other hand, women value their family the most and would do anything to keep them satisfied (Ronald, Mustafa and Lisa 2009, p. 70-91). This withstanding, it is the reason why men run around looking for prosperity in their career and would not value any job, therefore, degrading their satisfaction in a Job (John 2006, p.224-240). For women, they would be willing to keep a Job regardless of the low pay of the career prosperity only to keep sustaining their family and providing for them. Men have a pronounced an urge to fulfill their goals, while for women, they rank relationships with others being first (Morgan 2002, p. 947–962). Any dissatisfaction in a job for a woman would be held lightly and she would be willing to hold back and wait for things to straighten up, but in the case of men, they are easy quitters and move from one job to another very fast (Javier, Ana and Mercedes 2005, p. 279-288). However, there is a different approach to this issue. The biological differences in men and women highlight the level of satisfaction at work on levels of depression (Larson and Grayson 1999, p. 1061 -1072). The depression is one factor that reduces the satisfaction at work (Weiss and Nicholas 1999, p. 11-24). This is because when a job is stressful and low paying, it creates some level of depression in humans. The degree to which natural factors impinge on the stern susceptibility of depression particularly in women over men is trivial (Lutz 2007, p. 75-94). However, this provides an explanation for the work satisfaction difference in both genders. Hormones and heredity account and provide evidence of comparing depression susceptibility commonly between women and men (Javier, Ana and Mercedes 2005, p. 279-288). In this case, women endure a higher level of depression especially because of the hormonal regulation largely affecting the rate of depression (Morgan 2002, p. 947–962). Estrogen depletion, referred to as menopausal symptoms, show increased rates of depression in women (Larson and Grayson 1999, p. 1061 -1072). The increase in rates of depression also attributes to, a women feeling precisely less womanly. It might not be darned tangible, but such issues lower the motivation of working in a particular place and women in this case are fast quitters (Cranny and Stone 2002, p.174). All said, however, the satisfaction in women or men varies with the type of work. There are certain jobs no matter what feel the women or men have or the biological determination, which they feel satisfied doing than for others (Weiss and Nicholas 1999, p. 11-24). Women will be more satisfied in works that provide them palatable annual income and job security as well as convenient working hours (John 2006, p.224-240). However, for men, they look into these factors but give a more deep thought into personal growth as well as career development (Lutz 2007, p. 75-94). The men are more contented in the case where they are involved in decision making, but women care less of the participation they have at the work place (Oyesoji 2003, p. 377-385). Convenience in hours would also be a factor regardless of all other legitimate factors sustaining (Ronald, Mustafa and Lisa 2009, p. 70-91). Women are not as flexible as men where by they would be satisfied at the work only if they are comfortable with hours of work of which for men, it might not matter as the career development issue would (John 2006, p.224-240). Conclusion Satisfaction at the work place is a broad issue and, therefore, requires an in-depth discussion. As discussed in the paper, women might have a deeper satisfaction at work than men, but it is worth noting that this is subject to the many factors discussed above including biological factors, career development, pay, working hours among many others. Therefore, there is no wrong approach to the statement “women are more satisfied at work than men” whether supporting it or negating the same. References Cranny, S., and Stone, M 2002, deconstructing job satisfaction: separating evaluations, beliefs and affective experiences, Human Resource Management Review, 12, 173-194, p.174 John, O 2006, Gender and the relationship between perceived fairness in pay, promotion, and job satisfaction in a sub-Saharan African economy, Women in Management Review, Vol. 21(3), pp.224 – 240 John, O., Michael, S. and Emmanuel, E 2005, Gender differences and job satisfaction: a study of university teachers in the United States, Women in Management Review, 20 (3) pp.177-190 (John 2006, p.224-240) Lutz, C 2007, Gender-job satisfaction differences across Europe: An indicator for labor market modernization, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 28(1) pp.75-94 Larson, J., and Grayson, C 1999, explaining the gender difference in depressive symptoms, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1061 -1072 Morgan, L 2002, a longitudinal analysis of the association between emotion regulation, job satisfaction, and intentions to quit, Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23, 947–962 Mount, M., and Johnson, E 2006, Relationship of personality traits and counterproductive work behaviors: The mediating effects of job satisfaction, Personnel Psychology, 59, 591-622 Oyesoji, A 2003, Job commitment, job satisfaction and gender as predictors of mentoring in the Nigeria Police, Policing: an International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, Vol. 26(3), pp.377-385 Ronald, B., Mustafa, K., and Lisa, F 2009, Gender differences in work experiences, satisfactions and wellbeing among physicians in Turkey, Gender in Management: an International Journal, Vol. 24(2) pp.70-91 Ronald, J., Burke, S., and Berge, M 2008, Gender differences in work experiences and satisfactions of Norwegian oil rig workers, Gender in Management: An International Journal, Vol. 23(2) pp.137-147 Javier, G., Ana, G., and Mercedes, M 2005, Job satisfaction: empirical evidence of gender differences, Women in Management Review, Vol. 20(4), pp. 279-288 Schmidt, K., and Dick, K 2007, ‘Taking a sickie’: Job satisfaction and job involvement as interactive predictors of absenteeism in a public organization, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 80, 77-89 Weiss, H., and Nicholas, J 1999, an examination of the joint effects of affective experiences and job beliefs on job satisfaction and variations in affective experiences over time, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 78: 11-24 Read More