good job

A Good Job

There is a widespread concern over the characteristics of a good job. Different people hold different views according to their own backgrounds. Some people assert that many good jobs will disappear as a result of more and more unemployment. Some people believe that a good job can provide workers with benefits like high salary and welfare. From my perspective, a good job can provide us with a sense of satisfaction, as well as job security and bring much welfare for us.

In the paper “A Review of Job Satisfaction”, Yanhan Zhu states that “Job satisfaction, as an academic concept, has aroused wide attentions from the fields of management, social psychology, and practical operations in recent years” (Zhu, 2013). Job satisfaction is an important factor in evaluating the quality of a good job, and job satisfaction is to measure the feelings and emotions of employees in terms of working environment, future prospects, work relations and job contents. If employees have pleasant attitudes and feelings toward jobs in the above four aspects, these jobs would be rated as the high job satisfaction by employees, and these jobs will provide workers with ambitions and motivations for further improvement. Job satisfaction was also analyzed by Ivar and Helge I. Two factors were labeled extrinsic and Intrinsic Job Values. Extrinsic Job Values focus on good opportunities for advancement, as well as on good physical working conditions. Intrinsic Job Values focus on interesting work and the attainment of good social relations (Ivar and Helge I 2008). Based on the two related studies, we can see that the four factors play an important role in jobs satisfaction and are important characteristic of good jobs.

A good job can not be defined without high wages and reasonable hours of work. Without high salary, it is impossible for employees to have a high quality of life. What’s more, with the rapid development of society, employees are facing an increasing number of challenges and pressure, so that they need enough leisure time and short hour to release their emotion, pressure and uneasiness. Andrew Clark points `out that “studies of differences in Labor Market outcomes between different groups (males and females; blacks and whites) focus almost exclusively on wages, with a subsidiary interest in hours of work.”( Andrew Clark, 1998).In addition, the author also got the same supporting evidences for this view come form the 1989 International Social Survey Program(ISSP) Data, it shows that job values were very important for workers in high income (24.1%), the amount of leisure time( 11.9%) flexible working hours(18.1%). Through ISSP Date’s information, short working hours and flexible working hours can help workers keep healthy life style, and most of people exclusively emphasizes on wages through Labor Market’s analysis.

Job security is another aspect of a good job, higher job security leads to less likelihood of unemployment. With the stable and safety of jobs, employees will pay more attention and energy on their jobs. According to the ISSP survey in OECD countries, the workers were asked which characteristics would be important in a good job, the outcome demonstrated that job security it is the most important factor, the highest percent of workers (71.1%) think it was very important for them (Andrew Clark, 1998). In addition, we all know that Civil Servant is called as "a golden bowl" which has a long-term work in china. Every year there is more and more person taking part in the civil servant exam. Civil servant is so hot for the reason that the position provides Civil servant with the stability. Job security is free form the threat of losing jobs. Thus, most people prefer pursuing work with high job security.

According to the article of "Men's and women's definitions of 'good' jobs: similarities and differences by age and across time," Moen, Phyllis, and Pamela S. Tolbert describe that randomly selected samples of citizens who are older than 18 in the General Social Survey for the years 1973 to 1994 showed the top five main jobs characteristic: job security, short working hours, high income, chance for advancement, a sense of accomplishment. From this study, we can also see that job satisfaction job welfare and job security are important characteristics of a good job.

Taking all factors and evidences into account, I draw a conclusion that a good job values measure jobs satisfactory, benefits and jobs security. A good job can bring workers’ abilities and potential into full play and bring them the feeling of self-actualizations. A good job can also provide employees with flexible working hours and stable job environment. Only in this way can employees have a meaningful and happy job atmosphere.

Reference

Bråten, Ivar, and Helge I. Strømsø. "Job Values In Professional Education: The Role Of Achievement Goals." Scandinavian Journal Of Educational Research 52.3 (2008): 259-277. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 May 2013.

Clark, A. E. (1998), "Measures of Job Satisfaction: What Makes a Good Job? Evidence from OECD Countries", OECD Labour Market and Social Policy OccasionalPapers,No. 34, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org 10.1787/670570634774

Moen, Phyllis, and Pamela S. Tolbert. "Men's and women's definitions of 'good' jobs: similarities and differences by age and across time." Work and Occupations 25.2 (1998): 168+. Business Insights: Essentials. Web. 4 May 2013.

Yanhan, Zhu. "A Review Of Job Satisfaction." Asian Social Science 9.1 (2013): 293-298. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 May 2013.