The Influence of Work Context and Employee Cognitions to Job Satisfaction: A Case of a Greek Public Sector
Dimitris Mardas1, Phaidon Theofanidis2, Sophia Philippidou3
Abstract
The present study presents the results of a descriptive analysis, completed in a public organization (ministry), showing how the work context and the employee cognitions might influence the employee job satisfaction. Using the framework provided by job characteristics and personal cognitions, this model of job satisfaction assesses whether aspects of the organizational work context, such as procedural constraints and bureaucratic structures may have an important effect on job satisfaction through the influence of employee’s cognitions. The findings of the analysis indicated that the framework could identify specific leverage points that can increase job satisfaction.
Keywords: Work context, cognitions, job satisfaction, Greek public sector
1. INTRODUCTION
Within today’s global and deregulated environment, major reforms are taking place in the Public, focusing on improving flexibility and competitiveness. Public administration scholars have highlighted a need for an improved understanding of job satisfaction in public organizations (Behn 1995; Perry and Porter 1982) in order to achieve efficient outcomes towards the citizens. Admittedly, job satisfaction is a difficult concept to define or study in public organizations where different issues encounter. Nevertheless, theoretical advances have been made that can assist our efforts in understanding satisfactory work context. In particular, there is a growing consensus that any model of job satisfaction should include the underlying process variables that explain how cognitions and working context affect job satisfaction (Kanfer et.al., 2001).
The observation regarding the cognitions is not new. According to the cognition perspective of McCall & Kaplan (1985), employees are assumed to be "information workers", which means that...