The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between communication satisfaction of employees with co-workers, supervisors, and upper management, job satisfaction and self reported absenteeism. It is hypothesized that communication satisfaction has a positive influence on job satisfaction. Job satisfaction and self-reported absenteeism were explored as well as the relationship of job satisfaction playing a mediating role between communication satisfaction and absenteeism. Results would be analyzed with correlations, multiple regressions and t-tests. It is to be cleared that communication satisfaction with co-workers, supervisors and upper management have

significant positive relationships with job satisfaction. The study finds job satisfaction had no significant relationship to performing the mediating role between communication satisfaction and absenteeism. This paper also presents limitations and directions for further research.

Naveed Akhtar Javinda (091221)

MS (HR)

Air University

Introduction

Job is single word that brings many words in our minds. Maybe money, long working hours, co-workers, breaks. People mostly indentify themselves from their jobs and invest their lives to get polished. People work in different organizations like structured/vertical organizations that sometimes do not take into consideration the feelings of the employees. Limited feedback and communication to the lower side cause the employees to feel like they have no voice and are unimportant. Many employees within an organization such as this do not like working and find it hard to attend. Employees are not going to work because they want to do things in life that are more satisfying, so absenteeism is an issue in many of many workplaces (“Study: Non-ill Sick”, 2002).

However, on the other side of the coin there are organizations that do take into

consideration the employees’ feelings and thoughts. Maister (2001) mentioned that an

organization that professionally work to satisfy and care about employees will have employees that work hard and profitable for that organization. Employees might prefer that job on any other organization job because that organization is concerned more with their thoughts and it might the better place to work in conducive environment. Interestingly, satisfaction is a core concept that has been perceived by organizational communication scholars because. Satisfied employees will attend work more often. Relationship between employee’s communication satisfaction, job satisfaction and absenteeism is very important thing that captures one’s attention because organizations have to explore especially with the environment of work that they are more concerned about their employees. This would help the organizations to get more retention from employees and to get their loyalty in working long term.

Literature View

Job satisfaction and performance have been issues of concentration and concern in communication literature for a longer time. Many scholars of Management and communication have interest because quality performance and satisfaction of employees can lead to a greater effectiveness in the organization and corporate culture (Gruneberg, 1979; Nemiroff & Ford, 1976; Pettit, Goris, & Vaught, 1997; Steers, 1977). While, many studies have been observed looking at job satisfaction and performance, the focus is job satisfaction. Prior research has illustrated a weak to moderate relationship between job satisfaction and job performance (Brayfield & Crockett, 1955; Pettit et al. 1997; Vroom 1964). Prior studies have been covered the broad definitions of Job satisfaction and Performances but actual meaning of these two definitions is more than it.

Job Satisfaction

Relationship of Job satisfaction with different variables has been studied and illustrated mixed results as to the real relationship between them because of the lack of firmness and consistency about the real definition of job satisfaction encompasses. Numerous studies have looked at job satisfaction and commitment (e.g., Lodahl & Kejner, 1965; Mowday, Steers & Porter, 1979), fairness or devotion to company (Trombetta & Rogers, 1988), the effect of positive / negative relation to absenteeism and sluggishness (Iverson & Deery, 2001) and communication anticipations (Richmond, McCroskey, & Davis, 1982). Some scholars found positive relationship between employee satisfaction and generativity (Dunnette, Campbell, & Jaastad, 1976; King, 1970). Other researchers argue the connection and association do not exist between these two variables (Brayfield & Crockett, 1955; Vroom, 1964). As prior studies (Brayfield & Crockett, 1955; Dunnette, et al., 1976; King, 1970; Vroom, 1964) exemplify, job satisfaction has been inquired for some time yet the productive results are still not deciding or convincing as to the association between job satisfaction and certain variables. The interpretation of job satisfaction will be directed further into the study.

Communication Satisfaction

Communication satisfaction in the organizational goals and setting has been important since beginning. Studies conducted in the late 1970s to early 1980s sorted to recognize the significance of communication satisfaction (Faicione et al., 1977; Goldhaber, Porter, Yates, & Lesniak, 1978;Richmond & McCroskey, 1979). Communication satisfaction is observed in the workplace because employers effective and efficient employees as communicators, so they can perform their jobs. Also, communication satisfaction should be analyzed and investigated because employees should ideally be fulfilled with their working desires or needs. At the most basic end, better communicators create the most favourite or optimum workplace. Goldhaber et al. (1978) performed a valuable work to the field of organizational communication. Goldhaber et al. (1978) explained the information flow and attitudes perspectives as two major research perspectives for communication within organizations. As stated previously, regularly away from work withour any good reason (absenteeism) is a growing problem within the United States and it is creating hurdles and costing more each year (“Study: Non-ill Sick”,2002)..The purpose of this study is to concentrate thoroughly that whether job satisfaction is a intervening factor between communication satisfaction and self-reported job absenteeism. Past studies (Alder & Golan, 1981; Blau 1985; Sagie, 1998; Ulleberg & Rundmo, 1997) observed that job satisfaction to have weightage in perceived absenteeism rates. The present study is helpful to excavate the communication satisfaction and job satisfaction variables so that we can grasp an actual relationship between communication satisfaction, job satisfaction and self-reported absenteeism. It is considered or hypothized that communication satisfaction play a vital role in job satisfaction for employees. Job satisfaction plays a vital role in the absenteeism of employees. This section will be discussing literature involved with co-workers. Co-workers are companions of any employee who work or spent most of the time with an employee. After discussing literature with co-workers, the study will explain supervisors and their roles in the communication and job satisfaction of employees.

Co-workers

Co-workers are work place partners that an employee must interact with on a daily basis. The employee approaches their co-workers with minor concerns before questioning them to their supervisors because they are mostly considered equal to the counterparts.Co-workers are considered to be the most franked and near workers because hey share their lunches, socializing and even sometimes good friends for the employee. Examining some research, when it is for co-workers than important to study with them job and communication. Job and communication satisfaction when applicable to co-workers is inspected in the Downs and Hazen (1977) study. Downs and Hazen (1977) elaborated a test that measures the employee’s institutions about the communication occurring within the organization. An analytic test illustrated an individual’s satisfaction with information flow and relationship variables. The Downs and Hazen (1977) Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ) consisted of eight distinct dimensions:

(1) Communication climate (general response to the workplace on both organizational

and personal levels).

(2) Supervisor satisfaction (employee’s attitude about communication with immediate

supervisor, including both upward and downward communication, openness to communication as well as listening by supervisor).

(3) Media quality (refers to items such as whether meetings are well organized and whether written communications are clear).

(4) horizontal informal communication (employee’s perceptions of grapevine, extent to which informal communication is accurate and free flowing).

(5) organizational integration (employee’s thoughts about information they receive about their job tasks and department policies).

(6) personal feedback (refers to what an employee knows about his or her performance at the workplace)

(7) organizational perspective (refers to the organization functioning as a whole).

(8) subordinate communication (this section of the measure is only for the supervisory positions, it looks at communication both upward and downward for the supervisors with employees).

The Downs and Hazen (1977) CSQ has many varieties of aspects that it considers. The

upper management potentially plays a role in the communication satisfaction of the employee communication. This fastidious study examines too many variables that are closely linked. High inter-correlations were examined between the CSQ variables in Rubin, et al. (1994) study. Since the CSQ (1977) has been seen to have high inter-correlations it will not be utilized for this study. Instead, the present study’s scales will focus on communication satisfaction and job satisfaction.

Supervisors

Supervisors is an important factor for the employees whose satisfaction with them is make jobs more comfortable and attending or vice-versa. But unsatisfied supervisor can make the job meaningless to the employees. Communication satisfaction with the supervisor was studied in a study by Wheeless, et al. (1984). The particular study considered the relationship between four communication variables and their influence on employee satisfaction. The communication variables in the study were employee communication satisfaction with supervisor, perceived receptivity with supervisor to ideas and/or information, employee participation in decision-making, and participation level. Communication satisfaction was observed by Hecht’s (1978) with the supervisor interpersonal communication satisfaction inventory. This scale examines the relationship between the employee and the supervisor. Employee satisfaction was measured by their satisfaction with the following: pay, promotion, type of work, supervisor, and co-workers. Employee satisfaction was measured with the Job Description Index (JDI) developed by Smith, Kenall, and Hulin (1969). The study surveyed 158 employees at an Eastern university. The result from the study was that the communication related variables accounted for 76% variance in the employee job satisfaction.

H1 (a) : communication satisfaction with co-workers would be positively

related to job satisfaction.

H1b: Communication satisfaction with immediate supervisors will be positively related

to job satisfaction.

H1c: Communication satisfaction with upper management (boss’s boss) will be

positively related to job satisfaction.

H2: Job satisfaction will be a mediating factor between communication satisfaction

and self-reported absenteeism

One more study that dealt with communication satisfaction and job satisfaction is

performed by Miles, Patrick, and King (1996). This study measured “whether job level

fastidiously intermediates the relationship between superior-subordinate communication and job satisfaction” (p. 276)

RQ1: Is there a difference in co-worker communication satisfaction when looking at

salaried vs. hourly employees?

RQ2: Is there a difference in supervisor communication satisfaction when looking at

salaried vs. hourly employees?

Upper Management

Pincus (1986) defined whether upper management played a vital role in communication

and job satisfaction. The study observed the perceived communication satisfaction in contact with job satisfaction through queries included about upper management positions. The survey also quantified employees about their communication satisfaction with their jobs. Pincus (1986) surveyed 327 hospital nurses and found communication satisfaction and job satisfaction had a stronger link than the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance and relationship with the boss’s boss means upper management played an important role in satisfaction of Job.

Self-reported absenteeism with employees

When we think about absent employees a questions comes to our minds that why employees do not want to perfrom their work wholehearted .The reasons behind the absent employees No absent employees are of two types whether from minds or physically but in both situations they cost the organizations. Numerous studies were to be performed on absenteeism and the main objective of the studies was to answer the question, why do people not want to come to work? Alder and Golan (1981) examined that nonattendance behavior of employees are due to low morale and job satisfaction. The authors presented study of 131 female telephone operators and found their absenteeism records of over the period of 2 years with or without any medical excuse. Participants in this study responded to an attitude questionnaire that included measures of job and life satisfaction, work tedium, and work needs. It was found that lateness was a consistent pattern of behavior for the participants that were dissatisfied. Results also indicated job satisfaction and work tedium were generally significant predictors of lateness and to a smaller degree to absenteeism. Alder and Golan studied that the findings consisted of unsatisfied employees may begin coming into work late and as their satisfaction decreases they will have higher absenteeism rates. Blau (1985) examined whether extrinsic, intrinsic, or demographic predictors might have relationships to different types of employee withdrawal traits. These withdrawal traits included unexcused absence, excused personal absence, excused sick family absence, unexcused tardiness. The participants were 82 registered nurses. The study relied on records from the hospital to examine the absenteeism rates. The extrinsic independent variables were promotion satisfaction, pay satisfaction, co-worker satisfaction, friendship opportunities, and dealing with others. These were measured using the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) and a job characteristics inventory. The intrinsic independent variables were work satisfaction, job involvement, and career commitment. These were measured using the JDI and commitment and involvement scales. The study results indicated that extrinsic predictors produced a significant negative relationship to unexcused absenteeism, which means that if employees were satisfied with their promotions, pay, co-workers, friendship opportunities as well as getting along with the people at work then the employees would not be absent. This study supports the idea that a satisfied employee will want to come to work.