Online published on 10 October, 2013.
Changes in the management of an entity's operations will affect many facets within the organization as well as the employees. In this vein it is therefore, imperative that organizations must regularly feel the pulse of its workforce and attempt to meet their needs in order to motivate and retain them. This paper attempts to investigate the impact on job satisfaction within the Municipalities in the ER. The first research objective was to evaluate the impact of the establishment of ERED on staff job satisfaction in the Municipalities. The second research objective was to measure job satisfaction using the MSQ. The third objective involved the evaluation of the factors that contribute to low job satisfaction among the staff of the various Municipalities within the ER. The last objective was to make recommendations on how to mitigate the status quo regarding job satisfaction in the various Municipalities within the ER. The significance of this research is that no study relating to the impact on job satisfaction has been conducted on the Municipalities within the ER in Namibia.
The research methodology employed the quantitative approach utilising a modified version of the short-form Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) measurement instrument.
The research established a conundrum of evidence that the job satisfaction level in the Municipalities was low and has been existing long before the establishment of ERED. It also established that empowerment was a thorny issue causing job dissatisfaction among the work variables. Other areas of dissatisfaction included supervision, lack of a complaint forum, poor rewards and jobs of a repetitive nature. The implications of this study are that Municipality management of the ER and other Municipalities in Namibia must use the results for follow-up organizational improvement initiatives and also to establish a baseline for future assessments. It was recommended that the following changes be implemented to improve the status quo: Executive Development Programs; Employee Relations Management; Culture Change Program; Code of Ethics; Performance Based Rewards and Promotion; Job Evaluation; Job Redesign and Regular Employee Satisfaction Surveys among others.
