Leahcim Semaj, Ph.D.
CEO, The JobBank

Presented at

"Psychology and Caribbean Development"
University of The West Indies
Mona, Jamaica W.I.
February 15 - 20, 1998

MEANINGFUL AND REWARDING WORK

In 1985, I published a monograph "Something to do, Someone to Love: A Sociocultural Model of Personality". The theoretical implications of this model are that the human adult has two basic needs – work and intimacy. We estimate that these two basic needs account for most of the variants in human behaviour. The first basic need is for rewarding and meaningful work. Work must be rewarding, that is the person must be able, as a result of this activity, to fulfil most material needs with some confidence of predictability and continuity. Individuals must be able to meet their financial obligations and to care for their dependents. The need is also for meaningful work. This means that the person should be able to see how their activities fit and contribute to their known universe and derive a sense of well-being and accomplishment from this activity.

It is interesting to note that both aspects of this need for meaningful and rewarding work can be perverted resulting in the person becoming a predator or a parasite. In the monograph, I also stated that one aspect of this need can be sacrificed for another. For example, a Capitalist could sacrifice meaning for the aspect of reward, for the unending accumulation of money. On the other hand, we see many examples of Artists and Scientists who sacrifice reward for meaning in the work that they perform. It would seem that many major capitalist individuals and organisations that set up charities and foundations do so to add some meaning to their individual and collective lives. Nonetheless, the ideal is for both parts of this need to be satisfied - the need for reward and the need for meaning in one's work.

At the lower levels of work, with more menial tasks, meaning is often sacrificed for reward. At the higher end, reward becomes secondary to meaning in the work situation. The psychic pay is significant.

SUSTAINED AND RECIPROCATED INTIMACY

The other basic human need is for intimacy. This was defined as sustained, reciprocated, interpersonal interaction, which has a high degree of predictability and positive reinforcement. Intimacy can, and should, exist across a variety of dimensions which include the sexual, social, political, intellectual, spiritual, emotional and economic. The relationship may encompass a number of these dimensions. However, the more levels of involvement, the more intense is the feeling of intimacy. The presence of sexual intimacy leads to a higher level of intensity in that dimension as well as in any other dimension that is present in the relationship.

Some interesting contrasts were made between these two basic needs. Work was seen as the conscious dimension of human personality. It also facilitates material and ontogenic survival. By contrast, the dimension of intimacy is unconscious and has socio-biological antecedents which facilitate phylogenic survival to ensure the collective survival of the group. In the work dimension, the individual moves from being dependent materially to being independent and self-sustaining. In contrast, on the intimacy dimension, the movement is from dependent as a child to one of interdependency as an adult.

Work is associated with various instrumental processes, mental and ego functioning and issues that we normally associate with thinking processes.

On the intimacy dimension, we have processes that we refer to as being emotional, also many of the concepts which other theorists may refer to as id functioning. We also have issues that probably would be related to spirituality, to feeling and to affect.

Finally, it has been observed that crisis in these the areas of work and intimacy are often associated with depression and even suicide attempts.

THE DEVELOPMENTAL MODEL

These two dimensions combine to give us a model of perfection in which human adults aspire to be materially independent while at the same time being emotionally interdependent. In examining these two basic needs, we can see that the work dimension begins in childhood, a dependent individual ultimately is able to become a worker, sustaining him or herself materially. We see that the intimacy dimension, even though it has its rudimentary structure in childhood, has its initial structure in adolescence. Adolescence provides the basis from which the intimacy of adult behaviour is focused. This is presented in Figure 1. The broken line from left to right shows the dimension along which integration or disintegration of personality occurs.

Quadrant A represents the optimum state, individuals enjoying a high level of meaningful and rewarding work as well as a high level of intimacy. There are few such persons in our present society because one is often sacrificed for the other.

Quadrant D is where we find many of the people in our society who have had some amount of higher education and hold professional and managerial positions. On the road to acquiring skills as workers, their emotional development as been sacrificed. Very few areas of our culture have actually provided them with assistance towards developing the world of intimacy. So they become very competent Technicians, Teachers, and Managers but very poor practitioners when dealing with their emotional lives. These persons have your typical high IQ and low EQ profile.

In Quadrant C, we find adults with a low level of work functioning as well as a low level of intimate functioning. What we have in Quadrant C are adults who are still behaving as if they were children in their work life, while in their intimate life they behave as if they were adolescents, driven primarily by their sexuality. No aspect of their behaviour is actually optimally adult. Some are desirous of better jobs and better intimate relationships. However, some accept what they see as their lot in life. Some young men in this quadrant have the potential to be the most dangerous force in the society. Typically they are uneducated, unemployed and unmarried. They frequently behave like parasites and predators.

In Quadrant B, we have persons who score high on the intimate component but very low on the material work component. In Jamaica, we find many young women who lack the critical skills to access productive work activities that would allow them to live in the style that they would want to. Often they utilise reproductive mean to access the outcome they desire.

THE NEW WORK ORDER

In 1995 I coined the term "The New Work Order". This was the result of examining the trends that were unfolding in the world of work and business. Since then, I have been updating my data base on a daily basis by observing a steady flow of information confirming the permanent nature of the transition that we now find ourselves in.

The trauma associated with this transition is not unique. Because it took place so long ago, during the first industrial revolution, we have no collective memory of it. All the signs are now clear that our choices are quite straight forward - understand the nature of the transition taking place so that we can benefit from it, or ignore it and experience the perils.

In 1996 the Jamaican government published a National Industrial Policy document in which they outlined policies for six industries - manufacturing, agriculture, tourism, mining and chemicals, information technology and the entertainment industry. The reality of The New Work Order makes it clear that the agriculture and manufacturing sectors a limited future based on their current configuration in our economy. The information technology, tourism and entertainment industries have unlimited potential based on the direction the world is now headed in. Regrettably, I do not get a sense that this society realises that. The recent bad news we received about bananas and sugar has served to inform some persons that we are living on borrowed time. What we must now ask ourselves is where will we get the guidance and leadership to transform our educational system to create the human capital able to take advantage of the information age in which we now live. I hear persons talking about manufacturing but we do not hear any clear arguments on how we are going to identify areas in which we can actually lead as oppose to waiting for the droppings from other people’s tables. We hear talk about tourism but we do not hear concrete plans for maximising the value of this unique and special destination. We still hear lip service to entertainment, even though all the data shows that if we were to put effort in to what we currently have we would be world-beaters. Talk about the information industry usually fails to go beyond data entry. We are now hearing and seeing some positive rumblings from Minister Phillip Paulwell.

TELL THE PEOPLE THE TRUTH

As I look at the Jamaican political and labour leaders, I am waiting to see which one will be willing to tell people some of the brutal truths about the world that is evolving. Truths such as ‘there is no more promise of lifetime employment’. The reality now is that persons will have to be trained and prepared to evolve into new jobs as they occur. The projection is five or six different careers in ones lifetime. I am looking to see who will be willing to let people understand that the creation of a job is first and foremost the individual’s responsibility, not the government’s, nor some godfather’s. If you are really bright, you should be able to create a job for yourself and one for someone else. I will also be looking to see who would be willing to tell the people that they can no longer paid for time, or based on activities that they did and the effort that was expended, but that they will only be paid based on the results that they deliver.

JOB SATISFACTION TODAY

In the last two years, we have conducted more than 100 staff training and development seminars and workshops all over Jamaica. The average American company spends about 1% of payroll on staff development. We are not at this level as yet, but a number of our companies are making significant strides to increase the value of their human capital. A year ago, the main calls we got were for "Motivational" sessions for line staff or sales staff. This request could be equated to taking your car in for washing and waxing when what it really needed was an engine overhaul. Today, we are seeing a change with companies starting training at the top with senior managers showing their commitment. Companies are now requesting sessions in the following areas; Understanding the New Work Order, Team Work, Customer Service, Conflict Resolution, Effective Communications, Man Management, Money Management, and Post Redundancy Adjustments. At the beginning of most sessions, the first thing we do is to administer a ‘Job Satisfaction Survey’. This allows us to hear from the staff before we have influenced their opinions in any way. More often than not, we gain insights into other issues that were not previously evident to management. In an increasing number of situations, we are being invited by the management specifically to conduct a Job satisfaction Study.

METHODOLOGY

When we began measuring job satisfaction, we started with a twelve (12) item scale, then moved to a twenty (20) item and now have settled for evaluating twenty eight (28) areas of the job. Items such as Salary, Job Security and Effects on Personal Life are covered in the scale. Workers are asked to rate their areas of their jobs by rating the item "1" if they are Very Satisfied, "2" if they are Satisfied, "3" if Dissatisfied, and "4" if Very Dissatisfied. First we calculate the means of these scores and then rank order them so as to clearly identify the relative positions of all the areas of job satisfaction. By this method you can see that the lower the score, the higher the level of job satisfaction. We then use 2.5 (the mid point of the range 1 – 4) to determine the general level of satisfaction. The percentage of items falling above 2.5 is then used to define the general level of job satisfaction. The areas falling below 2.5 are then singled out for specific attention, as these are the main areas of dissatisfaction. The data is further condensed by looking at the levels of satisfaction by department, but even more importantly, by years of service. Finally, we conduct an "item to total" correlation analysis in order to measure the extent to which each factor contributes to the overall level of job satisfaction. The end product is a list of correlations indicating the extent to which the various factors contribute to levels of job satisfaction in a particular work environment.

CONCLUSIONS

MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR – People need to like the people they work with and like what they do.

Workers are more satisfied with the social aspects of the job.

• Interpersonal Relations - Getting along with your co-workers and subordinates.
• Supervisory Consideration - Your supervisor sees you as a human being.
• Recognition - Your supervisor knows the real value of your work and makes an effort to recognise this.
• Achievement - You see the results of your work in ways such as the completion of a project or the resolution of a problem.
• Use of Skills and Abilities - Using your talents, knowledge, skills and abilities to carry out your work.

In general, these areas were usually rated in the top quartile for job satisfaction.

The areas of greatest dissatisfaction were:

• Salary
• Communication
• Working Conditions - The physical conditions and equipment.
• Company Policy and Administration - How well do you feel the organisation does in setting and carrying out personnel policies.

In almost every study, salary was rated below 2.5 if not at the very bottom of the scale. It is obvious that a worker can rarely be paid at a level where they would report feeling satisfied for more that one month. Very soon after any raise of pay ones standard of living usually shifts to a new level, thus making the need for more money evident and often times immediate. When you contrast this observation with the factors at the highest levels of job satisfaction it appears that it would be very hard to find people that you can pay enough money to "enjoy" working with people that they do not like, for an extended period of time.

Critical Environmental Factors

People need to be able to shape and influence their future. This observation is inferred from the rating and ranking of the following areas;

• Career Prospects
• Possibility for Advancement - You can move up in the organization.
• Training Opportunities

These observations are contrary to the reality of most remuneration negotiations in Jamaica today. The main factor in the hold out on a settlement in most industrial disputes tends to be with the point of salary, with which our data indicates that no-one is ever satisfied. It is the rare employee who will admit that he or she is satisfied with the pay they receive, even if they are.

I do believe that more time needs to be spent looking at the other areas of worker dissatisfaction. Many of these areas can easily be improved and in so doing significantly enhance the overall quality of the work life. This in turn will trigger increased productivity, resulting in greater profitability and the company’s ability to pay higher salaries. Some obvious areas in which significant improvement can usually be made are

• Training Opportunities
• Career Prospects
• Possibility for Advancement

We need to be clear on the skills and attributes needed to successfully perform every job. The next step is to select workers that appropriately match these profiles. Workers should also be provided with appropriate training opportunities and a clear information on the various possible career paths. By this I mean that we should show workers what they would need to do to go from "casual labourer" to manager. This will put the impetus on the worker to decide if they want to use the information of not to take charge of their destiny.

Until we listen to the workers, we will not begin to tap the real potential of our people. Until then, the main satisfaction that our workers will receive from their jobs will continue to be:

• The relationship with their co-workers and supervisors;
• The challenge inherent in the job;
• The ability to use their skills;
• The personal recognition they experience from a job well done.

This is the meaning of work in Jamaica today.