Abstract:
Job satisfaction is an attitude that reflects the extent to which an individual is
gratified by or fulfilled in his/her job. It is an affective or emotional response toward various
facets of one’s job. This meaning of job satisfaction implies that job satisfaction is not a
unitary concept. Rather a person can be relatively satisfied with one aspect of his or her job
and dissatisfied with one or more other aspects. Thus, we can differentiate at least two aspects
of job satisfaction ⎯ facet satisfaction and overall satisfaction. Facet satisfaction is the
tendency for an employee to be more or less satisfied with various facets of his or her job. A
large number of related research has been conducted in different countries including
Bangladesh. Alam (1986) conducted a research on the job satisfaction of female workers in
different garment factories in Dhaka City in 1983. He measured the level of overall
satisfaction and analyzed the nature of facet satisfaction of 200 female workers. He concluded
that a minor percentage of female workers in different garment factories are satisfied with their
jobs, and there is a positive relationship between their level of job satisfaction and the level of
wages/salaries and other identified factors. The objective of the present study is to measure the
overall level of job satisfaction of female workers in different garment factories and to identify
factors contributing to job satisfaction and factors contributing to job dissatisfaction. The
present study also ranks all identified factors according to their relative importance by using a
formula developed by Alam in 1983 (Alam, 1986). Finally, the present study makes
intertemporal comparisons of overall job satisfaction level and of the nature of facet
satisfaction over the twenty two-year period (between 1983 and 2005). Such intertemporal
comparisons are necessary because of the fact that over the last twenty two years, as the
garment industries of the country has expanded significantly, the nature of human resource
management in this sector has changed in many aspects. As a result, job satisfaction status and
the absolute as well as relative importance of factors contributing to satisfaction level are
expected to change.
