Literature Review: Job Satisfaction in Australian Tax Office (ATO)

This literature review explores job satisfaction among workers in public services, focusing on the Australian Tax Office (ATO) as a case study. It investigates factors influencing job satisfaction, such as training, pay, working conditions, employee empowerment, and relationships with co-workers. The review analyzes existing literature, comparing and contrasting arguments from various authors to identify potential gaps in understanding job satisfaction within the ATO. It highlights the importance of addressing performance management, providing adequate training, and fostering a supportive work environment to improve employee satisfaction and overall organizational effectiveness in the public sector.

Running Head: Job Satisfaction 1
Business Research
Job satisfaction among workers in public services. a case study of Australian Tax
office

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Project Objective.............................................................................................................................4
Project Scope...................................................................................................................................4
Literature Review............................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Reference List................................................................................................................................11
Appendix........................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
The research examines various factors regarding job satisfaction in employment satisfaction
among workers in public services. The working conditions in entirely different between the
public sectors and private sectors in Australia due to different tax labor laws. Job satisfaction is
vital for the company to grow in the competitive environment. Job satisfaction is referred the
contentment of an individual from the job which can be measured in cognitive, behavioral and
affective components. The Australian Tax Office is the agency of government’s principle
revenue collection and manages the huge range of tax legislations. The role of ATO is important
in several other social and economic policies in the form of large payer of government funds,
provides of evaluation services by the Australian Valuation Office, superintendent of vital
aspects of the superannuation system and the guardian of the Australian Business Register. The
entire population of Australia gets impacted due to ATO. The research will define the various
factors that may affect the job satisfaction among workers in public services. The project
objective will be mentioned which support the entire research in an adequate manner and
literature review will cover the project objectives.

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Project Objective
The major objective of this research is to find out the factors that affect the job satisfaction
among workers in public services. Australia Tax Office’s case study is taken to evaluate the
various factors and to make comparative analysis with the support of different authors’ journal
articles and books. The main project objective is to evaluate the challenges faced by the
employees in the public sector.
Project Scope
The project scope of this research is wide. Job satisfaction has become vital component in the
organization as it helps to attain the objectives of the company within time frame. There are
various factors that influence the working environment of the workers adversely and being the
cause of job attrition. The project will facilitate in developing the insights for the factors which
affect the job satisfaction in Australian Tax Office. It will help to handle the situation in perfect
manner so that employees of the public sector can be satisfied and provide the quality services to
the Australians.

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Literature Review
Job satisfaction has been referred as an enjoyable emotional state out coming from the reward of
one’s job. It is necessary for the company to satisfy the customers by providing various strategies
such as motivation, rewards and recognition, appraisal and promotion. Public Sector Company is
effective in comparison of private is the major debate topic which pretends to be a never ending
topic. It is hard to determine that which one is provide better services to the customers because
the way of working of both companies are different. From an employees’ point of view, job
satisfaction is attractive result in itself. In the point of view of managerial effectiveness, job
satisfaction is vital because of its turnover, absenteeism and effective behaviour like helping
customers (Kumari and Pandey, 2011). It has been found that public sector is more divided in
comparison of organized. As per Vratskikh, Al-Lozi and Maqableh, (2016), human resource has
various governmental organizations performing under it to gather the data from. It might appear
to be systematic and organized but eventually it becomes divided and makes concerns in the long
run. The working system of public sectors is typical than private sector as the employee of public
sector need to visible and accountable for each and every activities they do and show the
transparency in their work. It has been analyzed Asegid, Belachew and Yimam, (2014), that the
objective and aims of the public sector is more confusing which raise the major concern of job
satisfaction among employees. They do not get better understanding about the performing job.
As per the case study of Australian Tax Office, it has been evaluated that everyday ATO links
with a considerable number of Australians. The working criteria of employees over there are a
systematic in comparison of other public sectors. It has been found that the ATO assisted more
than 486,000 people in last year and answered more than 8 million telephone calls. The ATO has

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believed on information and communication technology to provide the efficient services to the
Australians in which it spends $759 million on ICT (Terrey, 2012). There are major four
functions managed by ATO called sub-plans. These sub-plans are covered the various roles of
compliance, operations, corporate Services and Law and Enterprise Solutions and Technology.
These sub-plans are handled by the staff of the ATO in and adequate manner and it has been
evaluated that the workforce of ATO is decentralized with a presence in 46 sites across all states
and territories.
The above mentioned image depicts that in 2012, 24,740 people worked with ATO and many
more are connected with the organization in present. The employee satisfaction level in ATO
office is high which can be seen in the example of 44 year old female employee who is working
at the APS 6 level and in the auditing department. It has been found that she was hired for tax
reform in 2000 and connected with the organization for approximately 15 years (Australian
Government, 2013). It depicts that the job satisfaction at ATO is prior than any other factor
which helps to connect with employees for the long period of time.
It has been analyzed that the job satisfaction is considered as an indicator of job quality which
has been proposed by the European council in 2001(Kumari and Pandey, 2011). It has been
analyzed from the study of Zaheer, Sharif, Yaqub and Baig, (2015), that there are various factors
which may influence the employee satisfaction in public sector. Training, pay, working
condition, relationship with worker, relationship with co-worker, nature of work, employees’
empowerment and turnover intention. These are the major factors are evaluated that may
influence the Australian Tax Office’ employee in the context of job satisfaction (Hussain,
Musarrat, Aleem, Hamed, 2012). Training is the major part of any organization whether it is
public sector or private sector because it is the process that helps employees to learn about how

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to perform in an efficient manner in order to improve the efficiency of working. The legitimacy
of the ATO draws its breadth from the ability of reacting to the needs of Australians in a way
that is efficient in economically. It has been analyzed that there are major two questions arise in
public sector performance that include the satisfaction of the citizens by providing services by
the public sector and the in what finest way are public sector utilizing the resources under their
removal. These questions are answered in an adequate way by applying the process of training
which helps employees of ATO to work in a proper way by considering the need of Australians.
Training process is the major factor that may affect the job satisfaction of public sector
organization. It has been argued by Abbas, Mudassar, Gul, Madni (2013), that need assessment
is vital for the organization to find out the performance gap for which training can be conducted.
Lack of training for the specific areas may lead the organization into adverse situation and
increase the job dissatisfaction among employees of ATO.
There is another factor of job satisfaction is pay. According to Dafe, (2009), the level of job
satisfaction is influenced with the intensity of the rewards and promotion system. However, there
are various policies in ATO to satisfy the employee from their performance in which ATO
provides the incentives plan to the employee but the working criteria is difficult for the
employees of this organization as they have to maintain the transparency and authenticity in their
work and overload of customer satisfaction maintain the pressurize working environment. It has
been found that ATO has small benefits and rewards system for its employee such as redeemable
vouchers to staff as per ongoing scheme, $500 as a gift to the employee on the birth of his or her
child, meals activities and fringe benefit taxes (Unisa, 2017). These are attractive factors for the
job satisfaction but there should be different policies for employees to make them satisfied
towards his performance. As per Kaynak, (2013), the success of public sector is entirely grateful

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to the encouraged employees who plays noteworthy role in this regard. The pay factor has
significant role to make employees satisfied from their working and it can be amplified by
increasing in allowances, pay and promotion. The compensation can be explained as the pay
received by employee against provided services to the organization. The reward is considered as
the vital component for the employee satisfaction.
Employee empowerment is the major factor that affects the job satisfaction because it is referred
that to what extent employees are endorsed to make decisions in their daily decision making
activities. It has been argued by Jackson & Mathis, (2008), that empowerment cannot be defined
in one way because it entails the managerial executions and feelings of employees. It is majorly
connected with the methods and techniques of organization like motivation, communication,
training, employee participation and feedback which makes essential to evaluate the idea and
management direction. It has been evaluated that ATO is not good to manage the individual
performance involving poor performance. The performance management framework of ATO
reflects that plans regarding corporate should be dropped in the organization to provide
expectations for individual performance (Chardon, Freudenberg and Brimble, 2016). However,
the efficiency of the performance management framework is dependent on the abilities and skills
of individual managers. There are some areas in ATO organization that have different approach
such as ‘tick and flick’ to performance appraisal. Employees have to face various problems
because they are working in different locations which raise the issues of giving the feedback and
mentoring advices to the direct supervisor.
It has been analyzed that the ATO is unable to find out the performance gap to improve the
productivity of the employees due to different working style in different locations. There are
many employees in the public sector that unable to forecast the potential benefits for their job

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satisfaction. It is vital for the public sector to recognize the situations in which staff of the
organization can be re-skilled. It would be helpful to get ATO’s strategic needs through making
satisfied the workers by performance management. It has been analyzed from the case study of
ATO is that 22% of ATO respondents approved that the performance management of ATO is
ineffective and dealt with under performance (Australian Government, 2013). In the case of
underperformance, managers of ATO need to report that the intensity of support from the
employees is contradictory and dependent on the individual case manager. It is required to give
the proper time and efforts to reduce the impact of lack of performance management within the
organization. It has been examined by Australian Government, (2013), that ATO allows taking a
risk avoidance approach which unable to determine the various aspects in the organization. It is
vital for the organization to improve the performance management which is critical aspect of the
leadership and various strategies.
Relationship with co-workers is important factor as it helps to maintain the collaboration among
employees. The vital aspects favorable to job satisfaction are equality in the working
environment, supportive colleagues and working conditions and challenging work. Friendly
environment within the organization is also liable to increase the job satisfaction. It has been
found by Mboi, (2014), that environmental factors are integral aspects of job satisfaction.
Kumari and Pandey, (2011), concluded that team working has an integral role to put impact on
the satisfaction level of employees. It is crucial for the public sector to recognize the importance
of these factors significantly for amplifying the satisfaction level of employees towards job. The
ATO has a surplus of explained ways which support reliable delivery across an enormous,
geographically dispersed workforce (Disselkamp, 2013). The ATO has well scripted way to
deliver effective services to the customer that enables public sector to resolve the issues of

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customers and enhance the systematic structure of resolving the issues. This structure enhances
the collaboration among employees. It has been suggested by Alsemeri, (2016) that the intensity
of instruction is unable to give effective flexibility for staff to create the ability to implement
judgment. It has been evaluated that the direction will need to create the effective culture in the
organization. The disempowerment has shown by the staff and a manager of ATO which
represents the need of greater risk management skills in case of responding to the calls from
external interlocutors for more sensible moves in the direction.
It has been researched that the various factors have huge importance on the job satisfaction.
These factors entail promotion, task clarity, opportunities, task clarity and pay. Carrera &
Dunleavy, (2013), studied that work itself as the degree to which the organization provides the
certain tasks to an individual know the ability of accomplishing the task, personal growth, chance
for learning and the chance to be liable for outcomes. However, it has been concluded by Kumari
and Pandey, (2011), that high level of job satisfaction may lead an employee towards high job
performance which can increase the job stress. It has been analyzed from the case study of ATO
that it delivers a huge ICT agenda with continuous pressure to meet the government essential and
service delivery expectations. The ATO was effective agency that worked on the latest
technology but it has been found that it has now dropped behind other agencies of public sectors
(Australian Government, 2013). Internal as well as external stakeholders uttered frustration with
the response of ICT and provided services. It has been analyzed that the frustrations in the
context of internally exist with the currency of corporate procedures and latency in executing
imperceptible changes. There are some examples of the ATO in the support of the reason of
falling behind effective practices. These are the nonexistence of electronic records for the ATO
corporate records. However, the tax records are managed by agency in an effective manner

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without showing any dullness in handling the records. There is another issue in the agency such
as out of date intranet and hard to navigate. However, internal interlocutors identify the
requirement to improve these issues and start to form part of an ICT back log in which an agency
is under pressured to overcome.
Externally there is admiring for technology based program which has delivered by ATO in the
past, but it has been evaluated that this kind of practices appear to have hindered. Devastatingly,
it has been suggested by external feedback that technology services of the agency is not effective
as it was before (Haas, 2010). That is why it is unable to provide the services as per the aligned
expectations. It has been cleared from the above mentioned description about the ATO that there
is a lack of job satisfaction within the agency that increase the lack of satisfaction of the
customers. It has been evaluated that the internal demand is not covered by an agency to satisfy
its employees. Moreover, there are no regulations proposed to make changes in the organization
regarding safety and effective cultures. The review regarding internal and external frustration
was given with a report commissioned by the ATO in which various recommendations on
making improvements were done that will help to make better changes in managing internal
demands.
Resource availability such as tools and equipment is the factor that entails the importance of job
satisfaction within the organization. It has been stated by Stephen, (2010), that having the right
equipment to do the correct job is a major aspect of how productive employees can remain in an
organization for the long period. It has been found that it is not possible that each employees of
the organization is having same skills to perform the task, there can be difference but with the
right equipment or resources, an employee can perform the allocated task significantly. There is
another approach of increasing the performance of the employees an appropriate manner that is

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adaption of latest technology. However, ATO has adopted latest technology to manage the
record system of taxation but there is a lack of training and development program which being
the cause of lack of job satisfaction among employees.
It is apparent that ATO has a firm focus on meeting commitments to government. It is liable for
providing a range of proposals. The workforce of ATO is huge which provides high quality
services to the Australians and make them realized that they should value the tax and
superannuation system of Australia as community asset. Job satisfaction is vital component in
public sector as numbers of citizens are dependent on the workers of public sector. In case of
lack of job satisfaction in public sector would increase the imbalance in the economy of the
country. It is necessary for the public sector to take care of the employees and provide them
efficient services so that they can perform in an adequate manner (Zhu, Gospel & Benson, 2013).