Discuss the personal and environmental factors that can affect ...

[chads108]

Discuss the personal and environmental factors that can affect job satisfaction.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Discuss the three main methods that employers use to measure the personal characteristics of job candidates.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[SeanoH09]

Answer to Question 1

ANSWER:
Personal factors that can affect job satisfaction include a worker's age, ethnicity, and gender. In general, older workers tend to be more satisfied with their jobs than younger workers. Some studies have found slightly lower job satisfaction levels among Blacks than among Whites, but other studies have found no such differences. Studies have shown few, if any, differences in levels of job satisfaction between women and men. Environmental factors that can affect job satisfaction include the requirements of the job, the amount the job pays, and the ways in which the job affects workers' lives outside of the workplace. In general, people tend to be more satisfied with jobs that are more complex, although complex jobs may create dissatisfaction in individuals lacking the necessary skills to perform a job successfully. The amount that a job pays appears to be weakly correlated with job satisfaction; in fact, the knowledge that salary and pay decisions are made fairly may have a greater impact on job satisfaction. Finally, job satisfaction is affected by the amount of conflict between the demands of the job and the demands of family life.

Answer to Question 2

ANSWER:
Employers use psychological tests, job applicant interviews, and assessment centers to measure the personal characteristics of job candidates. Employers sometimes administer intelligence tests to measure the general ability and skill level of job candidates. In addition, employers sometimes administer tests of job-relevant knowledge to confirm that a candidate has the specific knowledge required to succeed at a job. Finally, employers may administer personality tests to job candidates to measure their levels of conscientiousness, integrity, or other personality characteristics. Job applicant interviews can be either structured or unstructured. A structured interview consists of a specific set of questions, often asked in a predetermined order. An unstructured interview is more flexible; the questions tend to be open-ended and there may be informal conversation mixed in with the questioning. An assessment center is an extensive set of exercises designed to measure a job candidate's suitability for a particular job. The assessment center may require a job candidate to perform simulated tasks related to the job (e.g., the in-basket task). Alternatively, the assessment center may measure a job candidate's interpersonal skills by requiring the candidate to play the role of a manager who must work with others to solve a problem or discipline a problem employee.