The Relationship between Workplace Learning and Job Satisfication in U. S. Small Commercial Banks

ABSTRACT While much attention has been focused on training and development in large corporations, little is known about workplace learning in U.S. small businesses. Small businesses are critical to the economic well-being of the U.S. economy. Further, employees in small firms have been shown to have higher levels of job satisfaction than employees in large businesses. This study examines workplace learning and job satisfaction in small commercial banks, and investigates the relationship between these two variables. The findings establish strong linkages between workplace learning and job satisfaction. INTRODUCTION This study examines the relationship between workplace learning and job satisfaction in the context of the small business. Job satisfaction is one of the most widely researched yet least understood phenomenon in organizations today. Perhaps because job satisfaction is one of subjective perception-how one feels about her or his work-numerous factors have been associated with job satisfaction such as pay, benefits, promotion, communication, supervision, coworkers, and so forth. One area that has not been explored adequately is the impact workplace learning has on job satisfaction (Cropanzano & Byrne, 2001). Size of company and the industry may also be factors. In 1997, for example, the Wall Street Journal (Tannenbaum, 1997) and, later, the Small Business Economic Trends (Anonymous, 1997) reported on a recent survey conducted for Inc. Magazine. Each year Inc. releases its annual report on the State of Small Businesses in the U.S. Normally, their report presents the latest trends, issues, legislation, and start-up/failure statistics concerning small businesses; however, for the first time they had surveyed workers in large and in small businesses to find out how they felt about their jobs. The findings revealed what most had expected-that big companies pay better and have better retirement programs, among other things. However, the study did reveal one unexpected result. Workers in U.S. small businesses were generally more satisfied with their employment situation than were workers in larger companies. The study found that 44 percent of the workers in small businesses said they were "extremely satisfied" with their jobs, compared with 28 percent at companies with 500 or more workers. It was speculated that factors such as job security, empowerment, and the ability to do what they do best might explain job satisfaction (Anonymous, 1997). While workplace learning was not explicitly measured in the study, satisfied respondents reported that they could learn and grow on the job. That learning might be related to job satisfaction presents some interesting implications for the field of Human Resources (HR). Currently, the vast majority of HR attention is focused on large organizations. Even Training Magazine, which annually reports on the state-of-the-art of "training" in the United States, completely ignores companies with fewer than 100 employees, and only 16 percent of their study contains companies with fewer than 500 workers (2001 Industry Report). Conventional wisdom says that small businesses do not have the financial resources nor the time to develop their people. At the same time, the small business employees in the Inc. study that reported a higher level of job satisfaction (than employees in large businesses) also acknowledged that the ability to learn and to grow had a bearing on their sense of job satisfaction. So it would seem that learning is related to how employees feel about work-it is that connection that is explored in this study of small commercial banks. The volatility of the banking industry over the past two decades (e.g., mergers, acquisitions) has certainly impacted the level of job satisfaction among bank employees. This volatility, in turn, has led to a tremendous need for new skills and knowledge in the industry. Small community banks have been especially vulnerable to these forces, as their limited resources have been stretched in the highly competitive environment. …