The effect of job design on job satisfaction among sales representatives of soft drink industry in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Job satisfaction is an important parameter for organizations due to its impact on various outcomes of employees, such as performance, motivation, commitment, absenteeism, etc.. Therefore, it is important for mangers to identify the factors influencing job satisfaction. Job design has been noted as one of the factors that may influence employee job satisfaction and most of the research in this area, has found a moderate relationship between the two variables. Thus, job satisfaction of the sales force of a company is more important as they are the frontline employees who directly involve with customers. With ever increasing market competition among organizations to satisfy customers more and thereby increase their sales volume, organizations have an opportunity to increase sales volume by leveraging the factors that influence job satisfaction of the sales force. Despite the importance of investigating job satisfaction level of the sales force, there had been only limited research carried out in this area, particularly in the Sri Lankan context. The aim of the present research was therefore, to find out the effect of job design on job satisfaction among the sales representatives in the soft drink industry in Sri Lanka. Accordingly, fifty one (51) sales representatives, accounting for nearly 28 % of population, completed the questionnaire prepared to identify the respondents‟ biographical data, the nature of job design and levels of job satisfaction. Job design was measured through five job characteristics (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback) while job satisfaction was measured through five antecedents/consequences of job satisfaction (absenteeism, intention of quitting, performance, pay and general satisfaction). As data analysis instruments mean, standard deviation, correlation and multiple regressions were used.Results indicate that, job design significantly explains the variation of the sales representatives‟ job satisfaction. However the variance accounted by job design was only moderate. The relationship between job satisfaction and each job characteristic shows a positive significant correlation. Based on the research findings, job redesigning techniques are recommended with the basis of short term, medium term and long term strategies.