Although there are numerous publications on gender discrimination and its impact on job satisfaction, there have been relatively very little empirical data on the job satisfaction of male and female bank managers and officers in general and still less on the impact of other factors like salary differential, flexible working hours, promotion on the job satisfaction of male and female bank managers and officers in Pakistan. Thus, the question one may ask is: why is the study of gender gap and its impact in job satisfaction in Pakistan significant?
First, we propose that job satisfaction and gender related research is needed in a rapidly developing country like Pakistan, because of its relationship to cost reduction through increased individual productivity, which in turn leads to economic and industrial growth. Since work is an important aspect of people’s lives and most people spend a large part of their working lives at work, understanding the factors involved in job satisfaction is crucial to improving employees’ performance and productivity. Second, this study is important, because in a rapidly developing country such as Pakistan there is a need to understand the attitudes of workers towards their work: determining the job satisfaction of male and female bank managers and Officers could lead to improvements in the workplace that would help them to remain satisfied with their jobs. Third, job satisfaction has often been linked to organizational commitment, turnover intentions, and absenteeism (Koh & Boo 2001).
These variables are costly to an organization, as they could lead to low morale, poor performance, lower productivity, and higher costs of hiring, retention, and training. Finally, from a practical standpoint, it is vital to provide practitioners with key information that could enable them to make informed managerial decisions in a work environment. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to investigate the impact of gender discrimination on the job satisfaction of male and female bank managers & Officers in Pakistan.
Methodology
The research with the review of existing secondary information on gender discrimination research article.
Objectives of the study
The study has the following objectives.
- To filter out the reasons, (if any) for women not being given the equal employment opportunities
- To find out areas of improvement in the internal environment and work settings to encourage women participation
- To point out deficiencies and areas of improvement for women employees
Defining Variables Following are the diagrammatic elaboration of variable which we consider in research survey;
Variable Diagram
Discrimination
Measurement Instrument
Data was collected from the Banking officers and managers of the organizations using interview questionnaires.
Sample
The research was conducted in different banks with Lahore as population. From 24 Branches of 13 banks we have taken interview of Banking officers and managers and fill out 60 questionnaires. The sample banks included, Habib Bank, UBL, Bank Alfalah, Alied Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, My Bank, NIB, MCB, KASB, Emirates Global Islamic Bank, National Bank of Pakistan, Meezan Bank, Faysal Bank.
Analysis
The data collected using the interview questionnaires was analyzed using Microsoft Excel. Using the excel spreadsheets, the averages and percentages were calculated and the tables, charts and graphs were designed. The analysis and the observations of the study are as follows.
Evaluation Table
Years of Experience:
The number of years spent in an organization is an age related variable that has a relationship to job satisfaction. It can predict the affective response to work; you can say positive feeling towards work. More ever, demographic variables, such as work experience, age and positive personal perception, enhanced job satisfaction. In fact, persons with more work experience had respect for their jobs, could apply their experience to that work, and might like the physical work environment because of staying in the organization from long time. Like employee working from past 20 years is more satisfied then an employee working from past 15 years due to know how of working and relationship. Managerial Rank
The level at which individuals work within an organization has some influence on their satisfaction. According to Reilly et al. (1993), managerial employees have more opportunities for growth in an organization and are more involved in planning and implementing any changes for growth in that organization. More positive responses might be expected from higher-level employees. That is, managerial employees were more satisfied with their jobs than their non-managerial counterparts. In fact, being a managerial employee indirectly increased satisfaction with co-workers, supervision, work motivation, and life satisfaction.
Education
Many researchers have found positive relationships between education levels and job satisfaction (Rogers 1991). Falcone (1991) found that educated managers expressed more job satisfaction in both public and private sectors than less educated managers. Like during survey, a male working in HBL having 24 years of experience was positioned at operation manager, while female was promoted to branch manager with in 6 years of experience due to having sound education back ground and performance.
Perceptions
It is usually perceived that women employees or even the male employees as well are recruited, keeping in mind their geographical and family background (Bourgon.J 996), but on the basis of the study the reality seems to be different. Only some (22% that is Bank Alfalah Ltd, Habib Bank Ltd and National Bank of Pakistan) consider the background while others don’t. it shows that the perceptions related to such phenomenon are no more valid.
Career breaks & social responsibilities
In the literature it is mentioned many a times that women are lagging behind due to their family responsibilities and career breaks, but this is not the case in the organizations studied in this survey. The results show that the men and women are being treated equally in performance appraisal management and friendly family policies.
Flexible Hours
Flexible hours are very important for organization to retain its qualified employee. In survey we found that, 60 % men and women treated equally, 37 % Men are treated less favourable, and 3 % Women are treated less favourably. The result show that women are favoured more in flexible hour as compare to men which can be demotivation for male employee in the organization.
Department Support:
Departmental support provides comprehensive field and technical support which helps individual in performing its duty and responsibilities much better. In survey, result shows that 63 % men and women are treated equally, 15 % Men are treated less favourably, while 22 % Women are treated less favourably.
Training & Development and Promotion Opportunities
14 out of the 12 organizations provide on the job trainings, which are provided on equal opportunity basis to both male and female employees showing a positive and non discriminatory environment for women. The table shows that 95% men and women are treated equally, while 5% shows women are treated less favourable. Promotion opportunities in banking sector are high for females. Survey shows that 41 % men and women are treated equally, 37 % men are treated less favourable and 27 % women are treated less favourable due to Qualification.
Discrimination and Sexual Harassment:
Remaining research shows that there is gender discrimination in work setting rather it is not much more then 5 years before, women are discriminated on the basis of burden of work, responsibility, empowerment, red tapism, and French leaves. Because of stereotype nature, the organization thinks that women are much more able to do work such as customer relation officer, credit control officer, receptionist, because of their attractive look and good inter personal communication skills. But at one side, women are given facilities like, Flexible working hours, Family Friendly policies and good remuneration. So in nutshell the effect of both sides is null and if they found discrimination then they prefer to go to HR department rather then Head of Department.
Harassment in the workplace affects businesses, managers and employees, and preventing managers and employees from focusing on the organizational primary objectives. In banks there is a strong harassment policy which has eliminated such concept. Today men and women work together in very respectful environment, helping each other to achieve pre established goals. These measures also increase the productivity and retention ratio of employees.
Effects on Motivation:
The discrimination in the workplace has multiple effects, including on employee motivation. To understand how discrimination and motivation relate, let examine comptemporary theory and process theory of motivation.
The contemporary argues that a major input into job performance and satisfaction is the degree of equity (or inequity) that people perceive in their work situation (Luthans, 180). As a result, motivation is heavily impacted by things like cognitive dissonance and the exchange theory. The theory is congnitively based because it focuses on the thought processes and perceptions of the employee. Inequity occurs when an employee perceives his/her outcomes to inputs and the ratio of a coworker's outcomes to inputs to be unequal and can be schematically represented as follows:
Person’s outcomes/person's inputs < other outcome's/other's inputs
= inequality
The result of survey shows that there is discrimination in the workplace, and it has effect on employee’s motivation. The effect is; communication within the organization decreases, expectation from the organization decreases, trust on your abilities decrease, and commitment toward work is decreased. While there is no effect in company loyalty.
Conclusion
The aim of the study was to explore various factors that might be under consideration of the employers, while making recruitment decisions, remuneration, appraisal performance, training and development, promotion, access to database, flexible working hour, friendly policies, department support and policies procedures, handling the gender issue. In the study general trends were analyzed regarding the qualification levels of the female employees i.e. whether they are equally capable and equipped with academic qualifications as well as the personality attributes. The personality traits were analyzed based on the perceptions of the employers. What they think of the females in terms of making themselves fit and value able in the organization, as well as fulfilling the job requirement? How good they are making themselves, mixed up in the organizational environment, with other fellow employees, peers, boss, subordinate etc? How they balance their work life with their official responsibilities? Is their any lack of commitment, seriousness or motivation making them as a less preferred resource or vice versa? The research confirmed that there is no obstacle in the career path of a woman as far as their personality attribute and academic requirements are concerned. Most of the employers do not consider the social, geographical background of the employees, so it proves that cultural issues or the perceptions regarding any of such issues are not cause of hindrance in the way of women work force. Another dimension analyzed was regarding the facilities and relaxations provided by the employers to their workforce that might make the opportunities easier to avail for the women especially and all other employees generally. The departmental support, promotion, training and development are given less to female members as compare to male members.
Regardless of all the above mentioned factors it was evident that the departments headed by the females are not equal to the ones headed by the males. It was further noticed that the environment had not much positive impact having female bosses like in male bosses. This phenomenon was associated to their better disciplined personalities and leadership styles of males as compare to females.
Recommendations
The whole study and its results are not yet so reliable and generalizable, due to the fact that the sample size is not sufficiently large, as it is compare to the whole population.
Following are the recommendations made from above conclusion.
- Some arrangements such as day-care facilities, and training after the career breaks (such as maternity leave) might even improve the performance and productivity of the female staff.
- The equal opportunity organizations and the organizations with flexible work settings (flexible timings, shifts/part times etc)
- Bank should publish clear discrimination policies and inform all their employees.
- Every suitable employee should be offered equal chance of progress according to its performance.
- A separate complaint department should be made in banks, so that discriminatee should feel ease to communicate discrimination being done.
- The name of chargee who has filed discrimination should be kept secret.
References and Bibliography
- Elron.E, & Kark.R, 2002. “Women Managers And International Assignments: Some Recommendations For Bridging The Gap ” In MendenHall.M (Ed) “Readings And Cases International Human Resource Management, & Dug, South Western College Publishing, Cincinnati, p14.
- Govt of Punjab, 2005. “Punjab Economic Repot 2005” Punjab Economic Research Institute
-
John O. Okpara, 2004. “The impact of salary on job satisfaction”, The journal of business in developing nations Vol 8.
-
www.units.muohio.edu/psybersite/workplace/motivation.shtml