Impact of Stress on Job Performance & Commitment

The Impact of Job Satisfaction, Stress and Motivation on

Job Performance and Commitment

October 25, 2011

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine how job satisfaction, stress, and motivation can possibly impact performance and commitment in the workplace. The situation I will analyze is a real life situation that I personally experienced. Based on my analysis, the result would be evident that job satisfaction, stress, and motivation can actually have an impact on performance and commitment in the workplace.

Introduction

Since job is an essential part of our lives, being and staying employed is directly associated to our livelihood, employees are mostly engaged with their job and tend to ignore the stressor. The objective of my paper is to analyze and examine a situation in my career path, where job satisfaction, stress, and motivation have impacted my performance and my commitment in my former workplace. In addition, the five core job characteristics would be analyzed alongside job satisfaction, stress, and motivation; also, employees experience low to high levels of job satisfaction is determined based on the five core job characteristics.

Context/Situation

In the midst of unemployment, came a phone call that changed my life. I have been unemployed for almost eight months, when suddenly I received a call for a job offer. My response was quite obvious, I accepted the offer! On my first day in the office, as a Budget Analyst, I was anxious and nervous at the same time. Although I was thrilled that I was selected for the job; however, there was no additional training on what to do and no instructions on how tasks are expected to be completed.

In addition to the above, my supervisor instructed me to fill in for her administrative assistant who resigned two weeks before my start date; this was due to the notion that I was new and could not perform budget related assignment. I had no choice but to accept this temporary reassignment; I was just too happy that I was then employed. My new assignment includes, answering the department's 10-line phone, schedule meetings, filling, making copying, and other duties as assigned. There and then, I knew I would not be satisfied.

Discussions and Analysis

According to Colquitt et al. (2011), "job satisfaction is a pleasurable emotional state from the appraisal of one's job experience" (p. 105), which was actually how I felt regarding my new employment at that particular time? The situation had a negative impact on my job satisfaction; and the whole atmosphere was very unpleasant. Colquitt et al. (2011) further explained "why some employees are more satisfied with their job than others" (p. 105). In addition, Colquitt et al. (2011) categorized the "commonly assessed work values" by "pay satisfaction, promotion satisfaction, supervisor satisfaction, coworker satisfaction, and satisfaction with work itself." (p. 106).

I immediately realized that my salary was less compared to my coworkers; the agency's promotion policy was neither frequent nor based on ability, but purely based on unfair practices. Also, supervision satisfaction is another area that concerned me the most; my supervisor was unprofessional in her dealings with her staff.

According to Colquitt et al. (2011), "coworker satisfaction refers to employees' feelings about their fellow employees" (p. 109); I enjoyed working with my coworkers as we got along pretty well. In contrast to coworker satisfaction, I was dissatisfied with my work itself; this was due to the fact that I had to perform clerical duties instead of performing budget related issues. I also got bored easily performing my clerical duties; I was hired as a budget analyst to manage the company's budget as stated on my offer letter and my Individual Personal Plan (IPP), and I realized that I was on the verge of losing my accounting skills as well.

To begin with, job characteristics, as explained by Colquitt et al. (2011), "describes the central characteristics of intrinsically satisfying jobs" (p. 111); the five core job characteristics are: "variety, identity, significance, autonomy, and feedback." Furthermore, my job revolves around these five core job characteristics, and it further explained why I was dissatisfied with my job. My job does not involve variety of activities and I continually felt a sense of repetition, which made my job really boring. Filling and copying documents all day do not necessarily identify me with any piece of work, neither was answering phone nor scheduling meetings; which ultimately resulted in a low identity level.

In addition, there was no significance associated with my job. According to Colquitt et al. (2011), "significance is the degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the lives of other people." (p. 114). I believe that both my significance and autonomy levels were low; my job does not require a specialized skilled individual. Also, Colquitt et al. (2011) stated that feedback, which is the last core job characteristics, "is the degree to which carrying out the activities required by the job provides employees with clear information about how well they're performing" (p. 115). The only feedback I got was from the company's customers on how professional and pleasant I was towards them.

Furthermore, Colquitt et al. (2011) defines "job performance as the value of the set of employee behaviors that contribute, either positively or negatively, to organizational goal accomplishments" (p.35). My work performance and the level of commitment were greatly affected because I realized that there was a correlation between my job satisfaction and my job performance; thus, my work performance deteriorated to its lowest in seven years, and my level of commitment to the organization was equally impacted. In addition to the above, Colquitt et al. (2011), defines "organizational commitment as the desire on the part of an employee