Job Satisfaction in Saudi Aramco

Executive summary

The main focus of this research is to define the effect of workplace satisfaction in influencing organizational productivity and organizational job satisfaction amongst Saudi Aramco Corporate employees. The study uses a quantitative technique to investigate the many factors of motivation in connection to total job satisfaction at Saudi Aramco. The coorelation between internal and external motivators, job satisfaction, management staff’ and workers’ perceptions of the management of human resources, the relationship between job satisfaction and demographic factors, and finally the link between incentive and satisfaction in the workplace are all topics under account.

Abstract

Employee motivation and work satisfaction are two aspects that influence an organization’s success. Within every industry, motivation and job satisfaction are especially crucial. Employees at a company must be highly motivated to effectively participate in the needed fields.

Introduction

In today’s business environment, where there is increased competition from a growing number of organizations, it is critical for a company Such as Saudi Aramco to adopt new approaches to stay profitable and powerful. This is also accomplished through drawing uncommon skills and increasing levels of loyalty and allegiance to the organization to assure its long-term sustainability. Another factor to consider in this profession is that workers need to have the ability to discover job satisfaction to thrive. The ideas of motivation, work satisfaction, and related constructs, as well as the linking motivation and satisfaction.

Literature review

Job Satisfaction: Analysis

Job satisfaction is widely acknowledged to have a vast effect on employee attitude and output (Weaver, 1980, p. 117). The concept, on the other hand, is difficult to grasp and describe. Job satisfaction has numerous elements, as per McCormick and Imogen (1987, 89), including the type of jobs, financial rewards, company, or prospects for advancement (Saal & Knight, 1988, p. 76; Fox, Dwyer & Ganster, 1993, p. 672). The research papers describe the term as “a variety of employees’ attitudes and responses to their occupations” (Wisniewski, 1990, p. 71; Brown & McIntosh, 2003, p. 78). To demonstrate the association connecting work engagement and incentive, Robbins and Judge (2008) state that when individuals talk about employees’ perceptions, they mostly mean job satisfaction. Mullins (2007) expands on this idea, claiming that career progression is more of an interior state of mind. Employment satisfaction, according to Locke and Latham (2004, p. 367), is a “pleasant or positive emotional systematic evaluation of one’s profession as accomplishing or enabling the accomplishment of someone’s profession worth” (Milbourn and Dunn, 1976, p. 35; Fernandes, Awamleh, 2006, p. 87). According to Evans (1998), employee rapport is attained once people’s demands are met.

Job satisfaction is defined as a match among an individual’s ideals and job features. It is related to how an employee feels about their work. Having a positive attitude toward one’s employment indicates job happiness, whereas having a negative attitude indicates job discontent. Job happiness is determined by a variety of things. Character, as per Moyle et al. (2003), has an impact on satisfaction. Jobs are multidimensional; an individual may enjoy one part of work while disliking others. Workers’ job satisfaction and commitment are critical variables in any country’s economic success. Maghrabi and Hayajneh performed a significant investigation on the dynamics of employee wellbeing in Saudi Arabia (1993). The researchers discovered fascinating results from a poll of 120 supervisors from diverse firms in the country, including Saudi Aramco. The study found a significant difference in ambition and fulfillment between different genders (Maghrabi & Hayajneh, 1993; Griffin & Moorhead, 2007, p.876). Men seemed to be happier at work than females. In comparison to non-Bedouin executives, Bedouin supervisors were incredibly motivated and had excellent job contentment, according to the study. Bedouin executives were also more dedicated to their firms than non-Bedouin executives.

The study found that supervisors had relatively little impact on the attitude of other individuals, as opposed to expectations (Bhuina, Al Shammari & Al Jefri, 2001, p. 97). However, the study found that the country’s economy had an impact on general productivity and work contentment. One of the key problems faced by the Saudi Aramco management staff is enhancing organizational performance. This is due to poor work practices and cultural concerns that have a negative effect on employees. People are motivated further by role and status rather than other variables, according to a widespread remark in Saudi Arabian enterprises. The trend of employees being driven by their standing is a big barrier to keeping skilled personnel in a company. Most Saudis were raised in affluence and are hence uninterested in preserving low positions. In Saudi Arabia, the culture upheld by the organization is a contributory cause towards motivation and job satisfaction.

In Saudi Aramco, cultural background tends to have an impact on job incentive among workers. The majority of the Arab administrators are driven by association rather than authority. They link this phenomenon to heritage, family ties, and the practice of religion. We identified significant discrepancies between American expatriates and Saudi Arabian supervisors utilizing the Hierarchy of needs theory. While conscience was important to American immigrants, Saudi Arabian executives were more obsessed with societal requirements. This finding is backed by a previous study that found Maslow’s hierarchy of requirements was associated with cultural standings (Wahba & Bridwell, 1973, p. 79. Saudi management teams indicated work engagement with their occupations, task forces, and job description. We identified significant discrepancies between the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia when comparing job characteristics and motivation needs. Incentive demands including the need for identification, accomplishment, domination, and freedom had no major effect on executives’ work engagement in a research conducted on 154 employees from the UK and 406 selected randomly from Saudi Arabia, including some from Saudi Aramco (Bilgic, 1998, p. 127. When demographic data were taken into account, however, the study revealed a significant disparity in work motivation. In comparison to the rest, job satisfaction level was extremely low in Saudi Arabia making it the Gulf area’s 2nd in work overall satisfaction.

Methodology

Work engagement can be assessed in several ways. Motives, sentiments, and opinions, can all be designed to quantify mindsets. In our case, we chose to employ questionnaires. Although there are a variety of ways to assess work performance, the most popular option is to use surveys. Questionnaire forms are chosen over other approaches because they are less expensive and take shorter durations. According to McKenna (1994), scales are commonly used to assess employee satisfaction. The most frequent and favored scaling procedures are Likert Scaling and Differential Test. Through the use of rating to assess work satisfaction we also faced several benefits and drawbacks. The capacity to formulate questions in common speech, the capability to correctly predict the variety of responses, and the technique’s potential to contribute to an examination of issues and solutions are just a few of the advantages. Some interviewees may provide deceptive answers, data obtained can be impacted because of how the queries are phrased, and findings might be impacted by views other than facts, which are all downsides of the approach.

Discussion

In Saudi Arabia judging from the case of Aramco, employees’ morale and job happiness are undervalued. Despite this, current regional literature indicates that being able to motivate and inspire is a significant difficulty for Saudi working environs. Because there is little study on job performance and satisfaction, particularly in Saudi Arabia, the literature evaluations focused on the topic in a wider sense and the context of Saudi Arabia Aramco. To improve on this Companies must comprehend the direct connection between employee incentives and work comfortability. This interaction, according to Kreitner and Kinicki (2007), is crucial in understanding and enhancing motivation. Kreitner & Kinicki (2007) discovered a favorable correlation between the two relevant corporate factors in a meta-analysis comprising nine research and 1739 personnel. The findings revealed a link between supervisory control and employee motivation. As a result, managers must examine how their actions affect employee happiness. Managers can gradually improve employee enthusiasm by taking good initiatives. Motivators contribute to a favorable atmosphere regarding one’s employment and motivate staff in reaching self-actualization thus making them favorable for Saudi Aramco. According to the study, the greatest feature in Maslow’s model of wants is consciousness. It is believed that the combination of these motivators determines decent performance which can be very additive for the company’s management. However, discontent is not always caused by a lack of motivation factors. Similarly, while the absence of motivators might lead to unhappiness, their existence does not always contribute to better performance.

Conclusion

Employee engagement has a big influence on work results and loyalty to the company. Because of the rising beneficial desirable perceptions about the organization, companies are moving forward toward a barrier-less environment, emphasizing the necessity of employee involvement. Employees who are engaged are more likely to want to stay, produce high-quality work, and strive for continued progress to help the company achieve its objectives. Thus it’s worthwhile to go the additional mile to improve employee engagement levels to assure the existence of an economically productive staff that contributes to the company’s effectiveness and success.

References

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