This activity is important because as a manager, you should be able to create a work environment that supports employee job satisfaction. To do this, you will need to understand how job satisfaction is developed and the actions that can affect how employees think and feel about their jobs. Job satisfaction is important because it directly affects job performance and organizational commitment.

The goal of this activity is to demonstrate your understanding of job satisfaction by applying concepts from the case to answer questions.

Read the case and answer questions that follow.

Imagine being excited to go to the grocery store.

Shopping at Wegmans, a privately$-$owned chain of $92$ grocery stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, and Massachusetts, is viewed as a fun event. Wegmans understands that successful grocery stores must combat a sobering statistic: $84\%$ of consumers believe that all grocery stores are alike. Why travel an extra two blocks to go to a different store?

Wegmans has created its own unique identity by offering more of virtually everything, including $500$ varieties of cheese, bookstores, child play centers, and dry cleaners on$-$site. Wegmans stops at nothing to make customers happy, including sending a chef to a customer$$s home to correct a food order mistake or cooking a family$$s Thanksgiving turkey at the store because Mom and Dad bought one that was too big for their oven.

Wegmans creates a shopping experience like no other by being an employer like no other. Wegmans has been highly listed on Fortune's $100$ Best Companies to Work For$$ since the list began in $1998,$ and was #$2$ in $2017,$ only behind Google. The smiles customers see on the faces of employees at Wegmans are not forced or rehearsed. What makes these employees so satisfied? They make good money, with hourly wages and annual salaries that range toward the high end of the grocery store industry. Wegmans also has paid $$54$ million for college scholarships to full$-$ and part$-$time employees during the past $20$ years and offers profit sharing and medical coverage to its employees. Such employee$-$friendly policies have resulted in higher labor costs$$around $16\%$ of sales versus $12\%$ for its competitors. However, Wegmans enjoys a $6\%$ turnover rate instead of the $19\%$ rate of competitors, and $20\%$ of its employees now have $10$ or more years of service. As former Chairman Robert Wegman put it$,$I have never given away more than I got back.$$

The satisfaction felt by Wegmans$$ employees goes beyond pay and benefits, however. The company looks to hire people who have a passion for food and a genuine interest in culinary products, even to the extent that it passes over qualified candidates who lack such feelings. The company sent one of its cheese managers on a $10-$day trip through London, Paris, and Italy to learn more about the cheeses Wegmans might offer. Wegmans$$ employees also have the freedom to do whatever it takes to make a customer happy or improve the store, without having to check with higher$-$ups. One Wegmans operations chief even noted, only half$-$jokingly, $$We$$re a $$3$ billion company run by $16-$year$-$old cashiers.$$ The end result of these philosophies is that employees view their work as very meaningful, with jobs at Wegmans described as $$a badge of honor.$$