Abstract

Jung-Yu Lai1*, Hsin-Jung Chi1 and Chun-Chieh Yang2

Operating in highly competitive environments, high-tech firms leverage capital-intensive facilities, technologyintensive products and computer applications to earn competitive advantages. Doing so requires employees perform tasks that are relatively more complex in comparison with other industry sectors. Employee job satisfaction, a surrogate measure of organizational effectiveness/performance, is an important management index for practitioners and researchers. However, the impact that task value and goal orientations, as perceived by employees during task execution, have on individual and organizational effectiveness/performance has not received sufficient attention in the context of high-tech firms. This study integrated two theories, expectancy-value and achievement goal, to explore the effect of task value and goal orientation on high-tech employee job satisfaction. After surveying 156 respondents in six Taiwan-based multinational high-tech manufacturers, results show that task value and goal orientation affect employee job satisfaction in the high-tech sector positively. Findings provide guidance to managers for improving employee job satisfaction and in-depth insights for researchers interested to test or further develop organizational development theories.