Psychological characteristics of representatives of "person - technics" group of professions as a factor of job satisfaction and efficacy

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Oles Honchar Dnipro National University

Анотація

Проаналізовано, теоретично обґрунтовано та емпірично перевірено зв'язок індивідуально-психологічних характеристик представників групи професій «людина-техніка» та їх ефективністю і задоволеністю роботою на прикладі слюсарів з ремонту та експлуатації газового устаткування. На вибірці, що складалась із сорока слюсарів-ремонтників газового устаткування та чотирьох їх безпосередніх керівників була емпірично встановлена наявність зв'язку між оцінкою ефективності праці й задоволеністю роботою та високим рівнем технічних здібностей, логіко-математичним, візуально-просторовим інтелектом та толерантністю до невизначеності.

Ключові слова: індивідуально-психологічнимі характеристики, задоволеність роботою, ефективність, представники групи професій «людина-техніка».

Аннотация

Проанализированы особенности связи между оценкой эффективности и удовлетворенности работой представителей группы профессий «человек-техника» с их индивидуально-психологическими характеристиками на примере слесарей по ремонту и эксплуатации газового оборудования. Практическое применение результатов исследования заключается в их потенциальной ценности для менеджеров по персоналу и HR-отделов предприятий с целью поиска сотрудников, которые лучше подходят для такой группы профессий, а также с целью мотивации, повышения удовлетворенности и эффективности уже работающих специалистов.

Ключевые слова: индивидуально-психологические характеристики, удовлетворенность работой, оценка эффективности, представители группы профессий «человек-техника».

Introduction

Problem identification. The urgency of investigation of individual psychological characteristics of representatives of the “person - technics” group of professions as a factor of their job satisfaction and efficacy is grounded by the fact that current conditions of economy development demand the high level of the quality of training of competitive professionals who are to be successful in professional self-realization and career. Work efficacy of these employees considerably depend on their psychological characteristics. At the same time, the data concerning manifestation of personality features in the process professional development allow to predict and improve it.

The analysis of the latest research findings. The problematics devoted to job satisfaction and work efficacy in relation to individual psychological characteristics of professionals has been worked out in the works of many domestic and foreign scientists. Different aspects of this matter, in particular, were analyzed in the papers by L. P. Alekseeva, M. P. Vasylieva, E. A. Klimov, A. K. Markova, L. A. Petrovskaya, L. P. Pukhovskaya, S. А. Sysoeva, S. S. Vitvyts'ka, O. V. Voznyuk, A. A. Dubasenyuk, M. V. Levkivs'kyi, G. S. Selevko etc. The works of Ukrainian psychologists L. M. Dybkova, V. I. Svystun, D. M. Goldevs'ka, O. Y. Kovalenko, O. G. Romanovs'ky, M. R. Mruga, L. G. Kaydalova are devoted to research of professional competence of future specialists in different fields.

Work efficacy is viewed by many authors as a complex characteristics of professional activity expressed in its quantitative and qualitative indices and determined by a person's integral characteristics that makes it possible to achieve a fairly high socially meaningful result of work and its products (material or spiritual) that comply with the demand of the society. Work satisfaction, as considerable amount of research shows (Cordero et al., 1998; Desselle, 2007; Faragher et al., 2005; Judge et al., 2002; Kaap-Deeder et al., 2018; Lee & Wilbur, 1985), is an important component of social psychological climate in a company being also a base for development and realization of positive psychological atmosphere in the group as well as a result of stable positive relationship between employees. Job satisfaction is influenced by the ratio between the essence of desires, motives and particular efficacy in the professional activity. Cognitive abilities, emotional stability, adaptation mastery, labour practice of employees, perspectives for a worker to use all knowledge and skills that he possesses, coordination of demands with his abilities named as work congruency, and organizational justice are all considered individual and psychological features that have a certain impact on job satisfaction (Petty et al., 1984; Scarpello & Campbell, 1993; Schmidt, 2007; Scotter, 2000; Tietjen & Myers, 1998).

The objective of the present paper lies in determining the specifics of the connection of job satisfaction and efficacy with individual and psychological characteristics of representatives of the group of professions “person - technics” on the example of craftsmen responsible for repairing and maintenance of gas equipment.

Presentation of the subject matter of the research

Theoretical analysis of the sources of literature allows to state that there exist the following requirements to individual psychological characteristics of such employees concerning the matter of their efficacy in work: a fairly high level of general and technical intelligence, good attention, operational in particular; self-confidence, resilience, intention to work, purposefulness as personality characteristics; being active and resourceful in complicated situations, demanding for oneself and others as social behavioral characteristics (Klimov, 1996; Kokun, 2010; Kunda et al., 2002; Mansfield, 1996; Muzyka, 2008; Watson & Meiksins, 1991). The ability to organize and manage the work is meaningful.

Speaking about the work efficacy of representatives of technical professions, a lot of researchers highlight that both its objective and subjective indices are to be considered (Bender et al., 2018; Chung et al., 2015; Hilton et al., 2009; Pidbuts'ka, 2015; Scherbakova, 2015). So, we can conditionally single out two blocks of such indices. The first unites objective characteristics of work efficacy such as effectiveness, productivity, quality, and reliability; subjective indices such as psychological and personal (employees work activity and job satisfaction) belong to the second block. Work activity is manifested in such indices as work productivity, product quality etc. Job satisfaction is an index of a personal attitude of a subject to his work that is an important condition of employees' efficacy.

There can be distinguished two groups of factors that influence job satisfaction (Shadrikov, 2004). The first has an impact on organizational relationship, and these are hygienic factors, labour organization, the schedule of work, provision with privileges (Bureau et al., 2018). The second group is motives and it includes satisfaction of internal needs, in particular acknowledgement of job achievements, deep integration to the essence of labour activity, responsibility, and initiative. As individual psychological characteristics having some impact on job satisfaction cognitive abilities, work congruence, meaning the possibility to make use of all knowledge and skills, the correspondence of work requirements to abilities as well as emotional stability and adaptation mastery are viewed (Kobets, 2012; Kulwinder, 2011; Tabakova, 2006; Tatyanenko, 2011; Voilokova, 2007).

In our research we put the goal to specify in what way individual psychological characteristics of representatives of the group of professions “person - technics”, in particular high indices of technical and emotional intelligence as well as tolerance to ambiguity, are connected with job efficacy and satisfaction. Our expectations as for such a connection grounded on the statement according to which dominance of certain individual psychological characteristics of representatives of the group of professions “person - technics” influence specifics of their job satisfaction and efficacy in different ways.

According to our hypothesis, workers with high indices of technical and emotional intelligence and tolerance to ambiguity are also typical of high levels of job efficacy and satisfaction. psychological man technician profession

To test these hypotheses, we created a sample of research participants out of Regional Gas Company “Dniprogaz” of Dnipro city division, men aged from 30 and 45. Total number of respondent craftsmen engaged in repairing and maintenance of gas equipment completed 40 subjects. The research was carried out in group form. The respondents were informed about the aim of the research and received explanations as for instructions for all questionnaires. In order to increase reliability of results, the research was carried out anonymously, and the subjects were asked to indicate only their age, sex, and initials. To eliminate the subjectiveness factor in evaluation of own efficacy by the respondents, we additionally asked direct managers of these employees to participate as experts as the respondents views on themselves and their managers' opinions could differ.

To test hypotheses empirically, the following questionnaires were chosen: Job Satisfaction Survey by P. Spector, Job Involvement Questionnaire by N. Kanungo, the test created by the HR-manager of “Dniprogaz” M. A. Shevchenko (for evaluation of employees); the Bennett Mechanical Comprehension test, Multiple Intelligences Test by H. Gardner; “New Questionnaire of tolerance or intolerance to ambiguity” by T. V. Kornilova.

We carried out p-Spearman's correlational analysis and found relationship between the indices of individual psychological characteristics and specifics of job satisfaction and efficacy. The indices of total employee's efficacy and job satisfaction were used in the research. The index of “total efficacy” was calculated as the sum of the employee's own efficacy estimation and such estimation made by his or her direct manager. The index of “total satisfaction” was found as a sum of additives defined by “Job Satisfaction Survey”. The results of empirical data as the data of correlational analysis are given in Table 1.

Table 1 illustrates meaningful relationship between estimation of job efficacy and total job efficacy of respondents with their types of intelligences. The high level of technical abilities of professionals is connected with the high level of their total efficacy (p= .898 at p< .001) and job satisfaction (p= .925 at p< .001). We also found the relationship between the level of logical-mathematic intelligence according to Gardner's test and job satisfaction (p= .817 at p< .001) and job efficacy (p= .809 at p< .001). This is also typical of visual-spatial intelligence: the connection with job efficacy is p= .759 at p< .001 and with job satisfaction p= .798 at p< .001. These results show that the higher the level of technical abilities is, the more repondents are satisfied with their work as it corresponds to their abilities, and the higher their efficacy is estimated.

One can also note that professionals with the higher level of linguistic abilities are less satisfied with work (p= -.378 at p< .05) and are worse estimated in efficacy by their managers (p= -.452 at p< .01). Our results coincide with the views of V. Shadrikov (Shadrikov, 2004) as for the influence of a subject's individual characteristics on his work effectiveness and of E. Klimov as for the phenomenon of jobs division by abilities (Klimov, 1996.

This is vital to point out that there is straight correlation between the indices of intrapersonal intelligence and efficacy estimation made by managers (p= .557 at p< .001) and job satisfaction (p= -.563 at p< .001). We can hypothesize that respondents with the higher level of intrapersonal intelligence even in a very stressful situation demonstrate a higher abilitity to keep calm and solve problems that helps them do their production tasks better and is better estimated by their managers.

Table 1 The specifics of the relationship between types of intelligence and job satisfaction and efficacy of “person - technics” group of professions Representatives