Improving ethical behaviour in organisations has been strongly associated with elevating corporate social responsibility. Research has also shown that ethical leadership can elicit positive responses from workers. Creating a better quality of life for workers is critically important in creating positive responses from workers or avoiding high levels of burnout and stress. Two Chinese studies show how different organisational and geographical settings can shape employees’ workplace experiences. In one study that a large Chinese chemical company conducted to understand what factors influenced job satisfaction and staff retention, it was found that staff responded well to the company’s image, working atmosphere and supervisor’s expertise. In addition, staff members were keen for the company to develop wellbeing policies such as job rotation, promotion, staff benefits and compensation. The top nine reasons for staying with the company conformed to Herzberg’s hygiene factors and met the basic working conditions for staying with the company. Staff members responded moderately well to the ‘thriving facilitation workplace’ (thriving being a ‘psychological state in which individuals experience both a sense of vitality and learning’) and were proud to be working for the company.

Another study of Chinese community workers compared intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction experienced by community health workers in the larger Chinese city of Shenyang with its smaller counterpart Benxi. While workers in both cities expressed a moderate level of satisfaction, the study goes on to report that ‘Nine per cent were either very dissatisfied or dissatisfied with their jobs; 16.9 per cent were dissatisfied to moderate; 8.2 per cent were moderate; 59.1 per cent were moderate to not fully satisfied, while 14.9 per cent were very satisfied or satisfied with their jobs’. The study showed that in Shenyang job satisfaction was lower than in Benxi, with the authors suggesting that ‘community health workers undergo more stress, burnout and competition in the big city’. While workers in both cities suffered from emotional exhaustion and ‘cynicism of burnout’, lower job satisfaction in Shenyang is possibly associate  with a lack of personal development. The study goes on to conclude that the Shenyang government should provide more opportunity for personal development and, hence, accomplishment. This would increase the intrinsic job satisfaction among staff through community engagement and enable personal creativity.

The two studies reveal the importance of doing the right thing by the workers and shows how ethical considerations are important in enhancing both corporate social responsibility and business performance.

QUESTION

Describe the relationship between job satisfaction and social responsibility. Do the two research studies demonstrate that social responsibility can be good for business? How would ethical leadership improve job satisfaction among workers in each study?

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