Abstract

Employee attitudes are very significant to management and organisations since they determine the behavior of employees in an organisation. It is believed that employees who are satisfied are normally productive than their counterparts who are dissatisfied.

Satisfied employees are not only creators of a pleasant atmosphere within organisations to perform well but ensure quality gain and show loyalty as well. Therefore, job satisfaction has been the topic of many studies. Although some researches focused on job satisfaction and employee performance, empirical work on the determinants of job satisfaction and its effect on performance especially in SMEs (Credit Unions) is scanty.

This research attempts to fill the gap by using SMEs (credit Unions) in Buea. The study adopted questionnaires as main tool of data collection and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Questionnaires were administered to 50 employees of about 10 Credit Unions in Buea Municipality.

It has emerged from the study that employees viewed compensation/pay, promotion, relationship with management, training and development, recognition as their main determinant of job satisfaction. Overall job satisfaction is found to contribute about   18% on the employees’ performance of credit unions.

However, there were no sufficient evidence to conclude that employee’s job satisfaction affects employees performance. Finally, the study revealed that inadequate training, changing or varying need of employees, communication problem, cultural and individual differences was a major challenge to the job satisfaction of employees in Credit unions in Buea.

It is recommended that management should not relent their effort in adopting employee’s satisfaction as a determinant of performance but should consider other factors when trying to improve on employee’s performance.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background Of The Study

Job dissatisfaction among workers has been a bone of contention. The world is a global village, job seekers expect to be engaged in an organization that provide adequate work environment, free of environmental hazards, well ventilated, and secured thereby leading to job satisfaction. Tella, Ayeni, and Popoola (2007) stated that job satisfaction is an outcome of the employee’s opinion about the degree of doing the job well.

Essentially, researchers in the fields of organizational behavior and management opion that the conceptual framework of the phenomena (satisfaction) is complex, indescribable and mythical (Malik, 2011). It has been argued that organizations cannot be at their best until workers are committed to the organizational goals and objectives (Dixit and Bhati, 2012).

An organization is a collection of individual employees who are gathered to attain and accomplish a common goal/ objectives. Therefore, an effective and efficient contribution of each individual employee is energetic to an organization in order to attain its goal. An employee’s satisfaction towards their job is essential to the organizational productivity.

However, the degree to which workers are satisfied with their jobs vary and subject to factors such as job environment, work hours and schedules, reward system, (Osibanjo, Abiodun, and Fadugba, 2012).

In other words, workers’ commitment can be described as a function of job satisfaction, which implies that workers could be committed in delivering their services when they are satisfied with their jobs and this may be influenced by job environment. Job environment include workers’ immediate vicinity where they carry out their assignments (Chapins, 1995); achieve management perceived and expected results (Shikdar, 2002, Mike, 2010).

Job environment entails some basic features that tend to make workers satisfy on their job amongst which include; easy accessibility, ventilation, cooling system, (Humphries, 2005; Veitch, Charles, Newsham, Marquardt & Geerts, 2004); and these have positive impact on workers’ health (Dilani, 2004; Milton, Glencross & Walters, 2000).

With the understanding that job formed an integral part of workers’ life, it is therefore essential for workers to seek its satisfaction in order to be able to render their services without reservation, which tends to increase productivity at both employee and organizational levels. Job satisfaction as an independent variable can be influenced by other variables such as wages, benefits, job security, work type, family and so on.

Workers plight in the country today has left many well-meaning Cameroonians with many questions, some of these questions are how to satisfy our workers in their various establishments. Job satisfaction describes how content an individual is with his or her job.

The happier people are with their job, the more satisfied they are said to be. Job satisfaction is not the same as motivation, although it is clearly linked. Job design aims to enhance job satisfaction and performance; methods include job rotation, job enlargement and job enrichment. Other influences on satisfaction include the management style and culture, employee involvement, empowerment and autonomous work groups. Job satisfaction is a very important attribute which is frequently measured by organizations.

The most common way of measurement is the use of rating scaled where employees report their reactions to their jobs. Questions relate to rate of pay, work responsibilities, variety of tasks, promotional opportunity the work itself and co-workers.

However, this study is based on the first three human needs theory propounded by Maslow. These are the physiological needs, safety needs, esteem need, belonging need of Abraham Maslow. It is important to hold a constant factor other than the nature of work in company device, from job varying in level of skills and complexity.  Based on these backgrounds, this study is intended to investigate the relationship between Job satisfaction and workers’ productivity in small and medium size enterprises in BUEA Municipality.

1.2 Statement Of Problem

Job satisfactions have played significant roles in the growth, development and industrialization of many economies the world over. In the case of Cameroon, job satisfaction has performed below expectation due to a combination of problems which ranges from attitude and habits of companies themselves through environmental related factors like frequent government policy changes and most especially poor satisfaction of workers in their job place.

Poor job satisfaction coupled with low employee effects productivity in an organization. Again, we have basic human nature at workplace. When employees are unhappy, they do not focus well and they do not pay attention to their tasks. They find hundreds of other things to do that could give them satisfaction. When one member of a team displays low productivity, it is only natural for other members of the team to feel dissatisfied as a result, and their productivity will begin to decline as well. It is a vicious cycle that is common in most organizations.

Organizations always have the intention of hiring of and retaining the most suitable employees. In order to accomplish this purpose, performance evaluation has become a strong necessity for both the employees and employers in different senses.

On evaluating employees in consonance with their professional and social aspects, numerous psychological and behavioral features are also to be accounted into. In a competitive business environment prevails all over the globe, this process of evaluation has emerged into a superior dimension of assisting and managing the performance of employees.

This approach invariably estimates the worthy contributions of an employee on the whole and thereby acknowledges the imperative relationship of performance with employees’ psychological factors like job satisfaction, emotional intelligence, organizational citizenship behavior, work motivation, professional integrity, etc.

This research tries to identify the impacts of job satisfaction dimensions on job performance of employees of small and medium size enterprises with the case of Buea municipality. It investigates the relationship between the dimensions of job satisfaction and the job performance of the respondents and thereby to cross check whether the former influences the latter in a positive sense or not.

Low job satisfaction also creates high turnover rates with employees. Sooner or later, the employee is going to quit so that they can find a job that gives them much satisfaction. Many industries such as banks industry and small and medium size enterprises suffer from high turnover rates and the inability to retain qualified workers. It is up to small business owners and managers to find a way to increase job satisfaction, particularly in difficult industries in which the jobs are tough and the pay is low.

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Main Question

What are the effects of employee’s job satisfaction on organizational productivity?

The study sought to analyse the following research questions in order to achieve the

Study objectives:

1. What are the various job satisfaction methods?
2. Is there any relationship between job satisfaction and employees’ performance?
3. What are the problems related with employee satisfaction?

1.4 Research Objectives

1.4.1 Main Objective

The main objective of this study is designed to investigate the extent to which employee job satisfaction affects organizational productivity of small and medium size enterprises of BUEA Municipality. (case study) Credit Union

1.4.2 Specific Objectives

The research focused on the following specific objectives:

1. To identify the various job satisfaction methods.
2. To find out the relationship between job satisfaction and employees performance.
3. To find out problems related with employees’ performance.

1.5 Research Hypothesis

The hypothesis of this study is stated as follows:

Ho: Job satisfaction does not affect employees’ performance.

Hi: There is a relationship between job satisfaction and employees’ performance.