What is the difference between job satisfaction and motivation

Like most psychological conditions, motivation can remain elusive and unknowable. In addition, satisfaction can be difficult to measure, because the term is relative. However, many managers believe that employees are better motivated by the prospect of job satisfaction than they are by other types of motivation, whether this job satisfaction is achieved or not. Michael Wolfe has been writing and editing since , with a background including both business and creative writing.

He has worked as a reporter for a community newspaper in New York City and a federal policy newsletter in Washington, D. Wolfe holds a B.

By making them feel their impact on the organization, they are further encouraged to do more. Finally, if your employees can see themselves fully as a part of the corporate culture, they will be more inspired to be more productive for the sake of their friends and colleagues.

If their goals align with those of the company, then they will strive to work harder. Is there a scientific basis for job satisfaction? Motivation-Hygiene Theory found that there are different factors causing job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction.

The top 6 factors for job satisfaction are:. The top 6 factors for job dissatisfaction are:. Is there evidence that employees focus more on job satisfaction rather than on employee engagement? However, when asked to rate their engagement on a scale of 1 to 5, the average score was only 3.

Christmas is that time of year when folks unpack their old Christmas ornaments and Sending out emails and resumes is often an arduous task. Skip to content. External and Internal Motivation Understanding what exactly motivates your employees is key to determining whether you are engaging them enough.

External Motivation Many office workers readily admit that material resources motivate them. Internal Motivation True engagement occurs when employees are driven by more intrinsic factors.

Determining If Your Employees are Satisfied and Engaged The most straightforward way to determine the levels of job satisfaction and employee engagement is to ask your employees. Why did your employees apply to your company?

What pushes your employees to do their work? Do your employees relate to the corporate vision? Do your employees feel a higher sense of purpose when working? Do you cover the basics of job satisfaction? Do you offer generous benefits, a good salary, and a nice place to work in?

Do you foster a collaborative environment where everyone can feel a collective sense of purpose? Promoting Employee Engagement As mentioned before, it is significantly harder to make people tap into their internal motivations.

Meaning Employees can only become engaged with their work when they feel a sense of purpose in accomplishing tasks. Autonomy When employees are allowed to forge their own paths, they can attribute any results they gain from the actions they took, empowering them to perform at their best.

Need an account? Click here to sign up. Download Free PDF. Tan Shen Kian. Chief Editor. Wan Fauziah Wan Yusoff. A short summary of this paper. Both these two factors have been proven as main have contribution factors towards effectiveness and efficiency of business organizations.

Although most of empirical researches have concluded their finding with positive relationships between Motivation and Job Satisfaction, as well as complement relationship between Motivation and Job Satisfaction towards other organizational variables. However, conclusion cannot simply draw that Job Satisfaction equal to Motivation or vice versa.

As such, this article literally declares separate treatments for the two Motivation and Job Satisfaction so that factors under these two categories of studies that may affect organizational variable can be more identifiable. Among variety of organizational success factors resulted from individual attitudes and behaviour introduced by various researchers, Job Satisfaction and Motivation were found as the most discussed topic.

Further studies on these two factors have contributed in-depth definitions and empirical evidences in enhancing its practicability. Furthermore, since most of the Motivation theories are developed based on the idea of Job Satisfactions as well as high appearance of Job Satisfaction in most of Motivation theories, distinction between Job Satisfaction and Motivation may be mistakenly taken as unanimous in terms of its meanings and purpose.

It is important for corporates and graduates to understand that Motivation and Job Satisfaction are different to each other. Following part will further explain the similarities and differences between Job Satisfaction and Motivation. Literature Review Motivation The term motivation has being discussed and conceptualized by various researchers. In early years Whiseand and Rush explained motivation as the willingness of an individual to do something and conditioned by actions to satisfy needs.

Later Wregner and Miller described motivation as something that energized individuals to take action and which is concerned with the choices the individual makes as part of his or her goal-oriented behaviour. Following the recent definition contributed by Fuller et. From the statement provided, intensity as further elaborated is how hard an individual tries to attain the specific objective while direction is the channel to intensity towards the correct objective; whereas persistence refers to how long someone maintains an effort to attain the specific objective.

Three key elements in the definition are further provided as effort, organization goal, and need. Definitions of motivation contributed by various researchers above are apparently in similar meaning as drive, energize and action. Motivation theories that are categorized under content theories regards motivations as the product of internal drives that compels individuals to act or move toward their satisfactions. The content theories of motivation are based in large part on early theories of motivation that traced the paths of action backward to their perceived origin in internal drives.

In short, content theories are based on various factors which will influence job satisfactions. Motivation theories classified under Content theory undertake that all employees in the organization have the same set of needs, therefore allowing organizations to predict the characteristics that should be present in the job Lynne, Employees will gain their motivation when their expectations and values are met in their job.

It concerned with determining how individual behaviour is motivated and maintained in the self-directed human cognitive processes. Job Satisfactions The concept of Job Satisfactions was widely discussed by various researchers. It is the extent of pleasurable emotional feelings individuals have about their jobs overall The positive emotional of feeling may include feeling good about the job individual being delegated, and the particular felling is experienced from their appraised work performance, recognised professions, and even completion of work task Megginson et.

On the other hand, the Cognitive Job Satisfaction is tied to the expectations and standards of comparison in terms of which current circumstances are being evaluated. Therefore, individuals will evaluate their jobs against aspects that are important to their dispositions Sempane et. In fact, most of the Motivation theories have used Job Satisfaction as groundwork in practice. For example, well-known Maslow Hierarchy of Need as fundamental for most of Motivation theories has used Job Satisfaction as foundation of theory development.

The theory builds up from satisfactions on hierarchical ladders of human needs as motivation factors. The major distinct of ERG towards Hierarchy of Needs is that it does not suggest that lower-level needs must be completely satisfied before upper-level needs become motivational.

Blog How important are job satisfaction and motivation at the workplace? A perspective from evidence-based management. Job satisfaction can increase productivity. What are the negative factors affecting job satisfaction? A lack of empowerment has a negative impact on job satisfaction. Satisfaction and motivation are inter-dependent and inter-linked.

Two different types of motivation can be distinguished. Why are job satisfaction and motivation important? References und further reading. Management skills newsletter Join our monthly newsletter to receive management tips, tricks and insights directly into your inbox! By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from CQ Net - Management skills for everyone! You can unsubscribe at any time.

References und further reading Fernandez, S. Top Rated. Social systems theory for management practitioners: Organizations as network of decisions.

About the Author. Mauro has a genuine passion and interest in Psychology which dates back 20 years, during his late teens. Leave this field blank. Most Read Articles. Ten things you need to consider when building a high-performance team in business, science and administration. Management incentive plans from an Evidence-based Management point of view: Controversies and innovations. Blog Categories. Career Management. Change Management.