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MENTAL HEALTH, SELF-EFFICACY AND JOB SATISFACTION Hanae Errhouni Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department: Adult and Continuing Education, University of Madras, Chepauk, Chennai 5 Abstract Job satisfaction refers to the extent to which employees like their jobs, it has been one of the most widely researched constructs in the organizational behavior literature. Despite its popularity and importance, very few studies have examined its relationship with self-efficacy and mental health of the employees. The present study attempts to investigate the relationship that job satisfaction shares with self-efficacy and mental health. Keywords: Job satisfaction, efficiency, self-efficacy, mental health, work attitudes. Scholarly Research Journal's is licensed Based on a work at www.srjis.com
INTRODUCTION Job satisfaction is the degree to which people like their jobs (Spector, 1997). Job satisfaction is generally defined as an employee’s affective reactions to a job based on a comparison of desired outcomes and actual outcomes (Cranny, Smith, & Stone 1992). Job satisfaction leads to employee behaviors that affect organization functioning and performance (Rowden, 2002). Spector (1997) considers job satisfaction as constellation of attitudes about various aspects or facets of the job or as a global feeling about the job, whereas (Locke, 1969) defined job satisfaction and dissatisfaction as complex emotional reactions to the job. Job satisfaction has been the most extensively researched work attitude in the organizational behavior literature (Blau 1999), despite this fact, scant empirical evidence exist that has examined the influence of self-efficacy and mental health on job satisfaction of executives. The present study intends to investigate and highlight the direct relationship between selfefficacy and job satisfaction, and between mental health and job satisfaction. SELF-EFFICACY Bandura (1977) introduced the concept of self-efficacy in the literature of Psychology. He explained the concept of self-efficacy from his social learning theory. Self-efficacy basically JUNE-JULY, 2017, VOL. 4/22
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refers to the perceived ability of capability for performing a specific task. Wood and Bandura (1989) defined self-efficacy as beliefs in one’s capability to mobilize the motivation, cognitive resources and courses of action needed to meet given situational demands. Thus in self-efficacy the perceived ability of the individual is emphasized rather than the actual ability or possessed ability in executing a task. Research on self-efficacy has been carried out extensively in the area of organization behavior (Bandura, 1997; Gist & Mitchell, 1992; Stajkovic & Luthans 1998). Wood and Bandura (1989) observed that individuals, who demonstrate strong self-efficacy beliefs are more likely to undertake challenging tasks, persist longer and perform more successfully that those with lower self-efficacy beliefs. Thus individual with high self-efficacy beliefs would be more valued assets to the organization than less self-efficacy members. Therefore, it is hypothesized that self-efficacy will have a positive relationship with job satisfaction of executives. MENTAL HEALTH Mental health is a global state of wellbeing. It includes freedom from distressing symptoms and positive feelings of wellbeing (Veit & Ware, 1983). Employee health and well-being has recently gained increased attention in management research. Several researchers have suggested that organizations should adopt healthy workplace practices that focus not only on profitability and productivity of the organization but also contribute to enhance the mental health of its employees (Grawitch, Gottschalk & Munz 2006; Grawitch, Trares & Kohler 2007; Russell 2008). It is observed in the literature that happy worker is a productive worker. Research has demonstrated that mental health is related to a variety of organizational outcomes, such as enhanced job performance, job satisfaction, work involvement, increased profitability and competitiveness of the organization and reduced employee turnover (Grawitch, Gottshalk & Munz 2006; Keyes, Hyson & Lupo 2000; Russell 2008; Spector 1997; Warr 2005; Wright & Bonner 2007). Much of the research on mental health and job satisfaction has been carried out in the North American and European context. Very little research has been carried out in the Indian context. Hence the present study attempts to investigate the relationship between mental health and job satisfaction of executives working in Indian organizations. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Globalization has placed increased demand on organizations to increase productivity and customer satisfaction, at the same time trying to reduce costs. These goals can only be accomplished when organizations have employees with high self-efficacy beliefs, with sound mental health and are also satisfied with their jobs. Mental health of employees in today’s JUNE-JULY, 2017, VOL. 4/22
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rapid changing fast paced technological world assumes importance. The present study attempts to investigate the relationship between mental health and job satisfaction of executives working in Indian organizations. Further individuals with high self-efficacy beliefs experience continuous positive thoughts and feelings that generate higher levels of satisfaction compared to individuals having low self-efficacy beliefs. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research Design The present study is designed on quantitative research framework which utilized a descriptive research perspective. No variables were manipulated in this study, and is a non-experimental research study in nature. This study adopted a survey research methodology in which psychometrically sound instruments were used to collect data from the executives working in different organizations. SAMPLE The sample for the present study comprised of 290 employees drawn from different organizations. Their age range was from 32 to 40 years. Most of the executives were holding middle level managerial position. MEASURES General self-efficacy scale: The General Self-Efficacy Scale developed by Chen, Gully and Eden (2001) was used in the study. This scale has 8 items having a five point Likert-type response format ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Chen, Gully and Eden have developed this scale after finding inadequacies in the existing scales to measure generalized self-efficacy. They have established that this scale has higher reliability and construct validity. High scores on this scale indicate higher generalized self-efficacy. Mental Health Inventory: Mental health inventory developed by Veit and Ware (1983) was used in the present study. This scale consists of 38 items, each answered on a five to six choice response format ranging from complete confirmation to complete rejection of the applicability of the item to the respondents’ life over the past one month. The response format in the inventory varies from item to item. High scores on the inventory indicate better mental health. The possible scores on this scale vary from 38 to 226. Job satisfaction scale: For measuring job satisfaction, the job satisfaction survey developed by Spector (1997) was used in this study. This scale is a 36 item scale, having a response format ranging from 1= strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree. The minimum and maximum possible scores on this scale range from 36 to 180. High scores on this scale indicate high job satisfaction. This scale measures job satisfaction on nine different facets, however for the JUNE-JULY, 2017, VOL. 4/22
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purpose of the present study, the total score on all the 36 items was taken as the measure of job satisfaction. Several studies have employed this job satisfaction scale and have obtained satisfactory internal consistency-reliability coefficients. This scale has also demonstrated construct validity and reliability. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION To examine the relationship between self-efficacy and job satisfaction and mental health, the correlation coefficients were computed and presented as below specified. Table 1 – Correlation Coefficients of Self-efficacy and Mental health with Job Satisfaction Variable Self-Efficacy Mental Health
Correlation Coefficient 0.427 0.568
Significance .000 .000
From Table 1, it can be observed that the correlation coefficient computed between selfefficacy and job satisfaction, and mental health and job satisfaction is positive and found to be significant (p=0.000). This indicates that there is significant positive relationship between self-efficacy and job satisfaction, as well as between mental health and job satisfaction. The significant and positive correlation found between self-efficacy and job satisfaction, and between mental health and job satisfaction indicates that self-efficacy and mental health of employees influences their job satisfactions. CONCLUSION Organization comprises of knowledge workers, proper management of these knowledge workers becomes pertinent in these days of increased global competitiveness among industries. Organizations invest substantially on their employees in the form of training, development and other work related aspects of job. The results of the present study suggest that self-efficacy and mental health have a positive relationship with job satisfaction of the employees. This demonstrates the importance of self-efficacy and mental health for enhancing job satisfaction among the employees. This suggests the need for self-efficacy and mental health intervention of employees. Basic training in self-efficacy and mental health would enable employees to develop their psychological capacities and would result in increased job satisfaction. Human resource managers may also assess the self-efficacy and may include it as selection strategy of employees during the selection process of the personnel. Further studies may be carried out by conducting an intervention, to enhance the self-efficacy and mental health of employees. Longitudinal studies may also be carried out to
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examine how self-efficacy and mental health would have an influence on job satisfaction of executives over a period of time. REFERENCES Bandura,A (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Bandura,A (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman. Chen.G, Gully, S.M & Eden (2001) Validation of a New General Self-Efficacy Scale. Organizational Research Methods, 4, (1), 62-83. Locke, E.A (1969). What is job satisfaction? Organization Behavior and Human Performance, Vol.4 pp 309-336. Meyer, J.P and Allen N.J (1997). Commitment in the Workplace: Theory, Research and Application. California: Sage Publications, Morrow, P.C (1993). The Theory and Measurement of Work Commitment, JAI Press, Greenwitch, CT. Stajkovic, A.D & Luthans. F (1998). Self-efficacy and work related performance: A meta-analysis, Psychological Bulletin, 124,240-261.
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