工作环境和工作满意度外文翻译.docx

1、工作环境和工作满意度外文翻译外 文 翻 译原文：WORK ENVIRONMENT AND JOB SATISFACTIONAbdulmonem H. AlzalabaniIntoduction:Work environment has been a popular research subject. This popularity mainly results from its important relationships with human behaviour in organization. If the work environment and arrangement help an

2、 employee to be satisfied with his work, it will affect his performance and his own life.The work environment contains two components: job characteristics and work context. These two components according to Wright and Davis (2003) represent the factors external to the employee and can be influenced

3、easily by the organization to shape employee job satisfaction. Tremblay and Roger (2004) believe that some of job characteristics can affect the attitudes of employees towards their work. Therefore, Wright and Davis (2003) suggest that organizations should take into consideration how the work enviro

4、nment may affect their employees perceptions, attitudes and experiences on the job, if these organizations want to improve the employees job satisfaction. The authors study about the influence of the work environment on public employee feelings of job satisfaction, indicate that the specific job cha

5、racteristics and work context normally associated with the public sector significantly influence employee job satisfaction.Lee (2003) defines intrinsic job characteristics as “the type of job content, the amount of decision making, and the degree of role overload and ambiguity.” Moreover, job charac

6、teristics theory anticipates that, “as job control increases, employees will find their work more and more intrinsically rewarding, sustaining increased levels of job satisfaction and motivation” (Kiffin-Peterson and Cordery, 2003).Thus, availability of clear and accurate job descriptions is very im

7、portant in the organization in order to make employees understand clearly what is expected of them in their jobs and to avoid any tension associated with role ambiguity.The purpose of this study is to explore some aspects of work environment and job characteristics of a very important job, namely op

8、erative in Oil and Petrochemical industry. It also aims to examine the impact of such job characteristics on the employee feeling of job satisfaction.2- Definition of an Operative:Operatives, key workers in every manufacturing industry, are often its largest single group of employees. An operative i

9、s usually one of a shift of a dozen persons or fewer who, between them, may control a plant worth a lot of money.The Department of Employment (1971) defines operatives as those:“People directly concerned with production or service possessing varying degrees of skill and knowledge which is usually of

10、 a narrower range and capable of a lesser degree of adaptation than that of a craftsman” (Kenney et al., 1979:126).The Industrial Training Board Glossary of Training Terms (1972:25) agrees with the above definition. It defines an “operative-manual worker as someone with, usually, a narrower range of

11、 skills and adaptability than the craftsman.” Moreover, the Iron and Steel Industry Training Board (1972a:4) states that “An operative is a male or female employee in the industry engaged to undertake work primarily involving the operation of equipment or plant.” It expands the term to include those

12、 engaged in labouring, semi-skilled work in maintenance or service departments, such as drivers; production workers including machine operatives; warehousing and inspection. In addition, maintenance craftsmen or technical grades are sometimes identified as other categories of operative.The Iron and

13、Steel Industry Training Board (1972a) uses the term junior operatives to identify individuals under eighteen whose recruitment and training usually falls into two groups. The first consists of those who are recruited to receive broad-based training and education in preparation for future, more respo

14、nsible jobs in production or service departments. The UK Iron and Steel Industry Training Board (1972b) give them the title of production apprentices to emphasis the in-depth nature of their training. They are usually school leavers and are generally recruited as a group. The second group is those w

15、ho are recruited to fill immediate vacancies after a limited amount of training. These are called direct entrants and tend to vary in age and experience; from school leavers to those who have worked before in similar industries.From the above definitions it is obvious that almost all of the authors

16、agree about that an operative is a semi-skilled worker (Thursfield, 1999a/b; Gibbons-Wood, 1999). Barber (1968:326) confirms this definition with some reservation, since he states that “In many continuous process industries, the operator often (though not invariably) has been regarded as a semi-skil

17、led worker. In the future, he may well need to become a technician.” Thus, there is a notion of some potential for an operatives job to be more significant and, of course, there is a difference between the traditional manual operative and the process operative.In modern industry, it is important for

18、 operatives “to be swift and accurate in diagnosis and equally swift in taking corrective action” (Barber,1968:328). Accordingly, Barber suggests having two kinds of operative. One is the process operative mechanic, who would always be in a position to keep himself mentally in tune by instrument mai

19、ntenance work. Because of this work he would be more able to deal effectively with a contingency which might otherwise cause an emergency. The second is a site monitoring operative who could, but might not necessarily, acquire some of a technicians expertise. This notion of ending the occupational d

20、ivision between craft technician and process operative appears in two forms. Firstly, as Thursfield (1999a) remarks, there is a shift towards flexible working practices through the introduction of multi-skilling between craft maintenance workers and process operatives. Secondly, a policy has been in

21、troduced of recruiting only qualified craftsmen to process operative posts (Thursfield, 1999a). However, this latter faces some criticisms, such as the fact that those craftsmen would find the job boring, which, in turn, would lead to their making more mistakes than less qualified workers (Thursfiel

22、d, 1999b). Moreover, it is important to recognise that selection of those workers is not a matter of picking the best applicants but of choosing those people most suitable for a particular job.”3- Characteristics of Operative Jobs:Job characteristics can be defined as “what a person does at work tha

23、t is the nature of the job or the collection of tasks that comprise the job”(Wright and Davis, 2003). This section provides a literature review of the operative job description.Kenney et al., (1979) list six common characteristics of operative jobs:1- Short learning times. Generally speaking, to pro

24、duce an operative takes less training time than is the case with other jobs because operatives normally concentrate on a specific area or task, enabling a high degree of skill in a limited are to be acquired, in a limited period of time.2- Standard Training Programmes. They are usually clearly speci

25、fied, which means there is little variation in the way similar work is performed by different operatives. Accordingly, operative training programmes can be standardised and the same training manuals can be used repeatedly.3- Limited Knowledge Content. Operative jobs tend to require a restricted rang

26、e of technical knowledge because they depend mainly on the use of manual skills. However, Robinson (1988:173) argues that the nature of many operative tasks is changing. He states that “Automation has eliminated some and substituted others which involve controlling and monitoring processes rather th

27、an manual ones.” Barber (1968) claims that the operatives job has become easier due to modern technology. However, Berg (1987:115) disagrees and states that the operative function is expected to be upgraded due to automation. “In controlling the complex total of a production process in an advanced p

28、lant operators require knowledge of the relations between the various machines and machine parts and the technological meaning of the production phases” (p.115). Kiffin-Peterson and Cordery (2003) conclude that the skill level required by the plant operatives has greatly increased. In addition, Sing

29、er and MacDonald (1970:18) note that:“The process operator requires more knowledge; his job is primarily one of monitoring the process; he has become to a large extent the eyes and ears of the maintenance man and needs to develop a close working relationship with maintenance staff. Therefore, in thi

30、s case, the operative needs to be well informed about the operation.”4- Significant Manual Skill Content. Operative jobs usually require considerable manual skill.However, with regard to the process operative, Berg (1987) argues that manual skills are becoming less and less important in operating ad

31、vanced production processes. He adds that operatives in such plants need, instead, cognitive knowledge to make predictions about the direction of the process, besides knowledge of how to interpret information from meters and indicators.5- Minimal Education. Kenney et al., (1979) argue that most oper

32、ative jobs require physical rather than mental skills. Thus, academic qualifications are unnecessary. However, they admit that a process plant operative should have a high general standard of education, in order to acquire a working knowledge of the process he is controlling. According to Berg (1987

33、) the majority of managers interviewed felt that the operative needs a higher level of education because of automation.6- On and Off-the-Job Training: Operative training schemes vary from On-the-Job to Off- the-Job training. OJT is where the newcomer is trained under actual work conditions. Barber (1968) states tha