Corporate Work Satisfaction: an Empirical Investigation on the Employees of Mobile Phone Companies in Bangladesh

IntroductionThe idea of work satisfaction traditionally has been of great interest to researchers concerned with the problem of work in an industrial society. Many have been interested in job satisfaction which incorporates differences in work ethics and job characteristics in corporate work environment. Involvement of workforce in corporate business sector of Bangladesh is growing since early 1990s (Islam et al., 2000). Open market policies of the government and the huge market volume have eased to attract international giants in telecommunication industry to invest in Bangladesh. Particularly the recent growth of the mobile phone sector is astounding. In fact, telephone was first developed in the mid-1870s (Farley, 2007) and since then, the pace of its improvement is unprecedented. Based on this historical origin, the idea of cell phone appears to be incepted in 1950s and from then on it continues making the revolution in telecommunication industry. Since the last half the 1990s Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated countries of the world, has become and still continuing as a fertile land of momentous growth of mobile telecommunication organizations. A country with a population of 150 million inhabitants, and continued economic growth, appears to be a highly lucrative market, both for the mobile phone operators and network system manufacturers.A recent market survey conducted by a Swedish research institute reveals Bangladesh to be the biggest potential telecom market in Asia after China and India (see Hasan, 2008). In 2004 and 2005 the cellular phone business grew in Bangladesh at the rate of 100 percent and 137 percent respectively (Ahmed, 2006). Be that as it may, corporate cultural environment as well as keen labor market competitiveness has been forging its seminal shape in Bangladesh that creates huge work scope for educated young people having degree in business administration together with Information Technology (IT) literacy. This competition has paved the smooth niche for the employees to switch the job in order for hunting better opportunities in other similar companies. Employment retention and employee work satisfaction appraisals are, thus, at the hub of the corporate policy concerns in Bangladesh today.Work satisfaction refers to an individual's general attitudes towards her/his employment (Huang, 1999; Ostroff, 1992). Lock (1976) is also succinct in this regard as employees' work satisfaction consists of a pleasurable or positive psychological state resulting from the appraisal of one's work and work experience. However, when people speak of employee attitudes, they often mean employee's work satisfaction (Robbins, 1993). This attitude is, in fact, formed over a period of time as employees acquire in-depth information about the workplace.Employee work satisfaction appraisal is not that much rigorously done in the case of corporate sector in Bangladesh. Yet few attempts are worth noting. Islam and Saha (2001) evaluate job satisfaction of bank officers in Bangladesh. They focus on the relative importance of the factors determining job satisfaction and their impact on the overall job satisfaction. The result shows that salary, efficiency in work, fringe supervision and co-worker relation are the most important factors contributing job satisfaction. Huang (1999) analyzes the job rotation practice that affects employees' attitude towards their works. Using data obtained from twentyone Taiwan's large companies, the author highlights the significant effect of job rotation on employees' work satisfaction and training evaluation. There has been an ample empirical evidence of the proven links between aggregate work satisfaction and organizational productivity. Shipton et al. (2004) investigate the nexus between aggregate work satisfaction and organizational innovation. Based on a sample of manufacturing companies in the UK, the results reveal that aggregate work satisfaction is a significant predictor of subsequent organizational innovation and profitability. …