Job Satisfaction

Outline

Nature of job satisfaction

How it is measured
Potential causes antecedents
Possible consequences

Job satisfaction is the most studied variable in I/O psychology due to relative ease in assessment and
being viewed as relevant for organizational effectiveness.
NATURE OF JOB SATISFACTION
Pleasurable, positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of ones job or job experiences
Attitudinal variable that reflects how people feel about their jobs overall as well as about various
aspects of them
Extent to which people like their jobs (vs Job Dissatisfaction)
Class Activity
Please divide yourselves into groups of 2-3. Discuss and make a list of what makes people satisfied or
dissatisfied with their jobs (make at least 5 for each).
Each group will be asked to share their list with the class.
APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF JOB SATISFACTION
Global Approach
o Treats job satisfaction as a single, overall feeling toward the job
Facet Approach
o Focus on different aspects of the job or job facets, permitting a more complete picture of
job satisfaction
COMMON JOB SATISFACTION FACETS
(Gallup, 1997, 1999) conducted in America

Pay
Promotion Opportunities
Fringe Benefits
Supervision
Co-workers
Job Conditions
Nature of the Work Itself
Communication
Security

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CULTURE VALUES AND JOB SATISFACTION

Individualism vs. Collectivism
Masculinity extent to which organizations focus on achievement and job performance as
opposed to the health and well-being of employees
Power Distance tolerance people have for power and status differences among levels of an
organization
Uncertainty Avoidance the level of comfort in situations that are unpredictable
ASSESSMENT OF JOB SATISFACTION
Using questionnaires or interviews
Asking people how they feel or asking their supervisors
Job Satisfaction Scales
o Job Descriptive Index (JDI)
o Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ)
o Job in General Scale (JIG)
Job Descriptive Index (JDI)
(Smith, Kendall & Hulin, 1969)
Most popular with researchers
Most thoroughly and carefully validated
Assess only five facets:
o Work
o Pay
o Promotion Opportunities
o Supervision
o Co-Workers
Sample Items from the JDI
How well does each of the following words or phrases describe your work? Beside each phrase, wite
Y for Yes if it describes your work
N for No if it does NOT describe it
? If you cannot decide
WORK ON PRESENT JOB
Routine
Satisfying
Good
PRESENT DAY
Income adequate for normal expenses

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Insecure
Less than I deserve
OPPORTUNITIES FOR PROMOTION
Dead-end Job
Unfair Promotion Policy
Regular Promotions
SUPERVISION
Impolite
Praises good work
Doesnt supervise enough
CO-WORKERS (PEOPLE)
Boring
Responsible
Intelligent
Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire
(MSQ) (Weiss, Dawis, Lofquist & England, 1966)
Two versions
o 100-item long
o 20-item short: assess either global satisfaction, or intrinsic satisfaction (nature of job
tasks and how people feel about the work they do) and extrinsic satisfaction (other
aspects of the work)
Each of the MSQ items is a statement that describes a facet, and employee is asked to indicate
how satisfied s/he is for each one
Job in General Scale (JIG)
(Ironson et al., 1989)
Patterned on the JDI
Good reliability and correlates well with other scales of overall job satisfaction
Contains 18 items that are adjectives or short phrases about the job in general
Sample Item from the JIG
Think of your job in general.
All in all, what is it like most of the time?
Y for Yes if it describes your work
N for No if it does NOT describe it
? If you cannot decide
JOB IN GENERAL
Undesirable
Better than most
Rotten
ANTECEDENTS OF JOB SATISFACTION
1.
2.
3.
4.

Job Characteristics
Individual/Personal Characteristics
Social Factors
Growth Opportunities

1. JOB CHARACTERISTICS
Ones satisfaction with a job is affected by the structure of the job and what it provides
Research (Spector & Jex, 1991) has demonstrated a consistent relationship between employees
perceptions of the characteristics of their jobs and their level of job satisfaction
Studies (Hart, 1999) also indicate that employees who feel overloaded and stressed at work tend
to be dissatisfied with their jobs

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 Five core job dimensions (Hackman & Oldham, 1980)

CHARACTERISTIC
Skill Variety
Task Identity
Task Significance
Autonomy

MEAN
CORRELATION
.29
.20
.26
.34

Job Feedback

.29

Job Scope

.45

DESCRIPTION OF CHARACTERISTIC
The Number of different skills necessary to do a job
Whether or not an employee does an entire job or piece of a job
The Impact of a job has on other people
The freedom employees have to do their jobs as they see fit
The extent to which it is obvious to employees that they are doing their
jobs correctly
The overall complexity of a job, computed as a combination of all five
individual characteristics

2. INDIVIDUAL/PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS
a.
b.
c.
d.

Affective Disposition
Genetics
Self-Esteem
Others
o Gender
o Age
o Cultural and Ethnic Differences

a. Affective Disposition
o The tendency to respond to classes of environmental stimuli in predetermined affectbased ways
o Individuals respond to the world in different ways
Chronic Kickers: individuals who continually complain about the job
Negative Affectivity: the tendency for an individual to experience negative
emotion such as anxiety or depression, across a variety of situations
Locus of Control: refers to whether or not people believed they are in control of
reinforcements in life
b. Genetics
o Research (Arvey. Bouchard, Segal & Abraham, 1989) found that the proportion of
variance in satisfaction resulting from genetic factors was about 30%
c. Self-Esteem
o Individuals with high self-esteem tend to be satisfied with their jobs (Brockner, 1988;
Lopez & Greenhaus, 1978)
o Core self-evaluations have consistent effects on job satisfaction regardless of the job
(Judge et al., 1998)
o Organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), a measure of how valuable employees view
themselves as organization members, is strongly correlated with job satisfaction (Pierce,
Gardner, Cummings & Dunham, 1989)
d. Age
o
o

Studies have shown that older workers are more satisfied with their jobs than are
younger workers (e.g., Siu, Lu & Cooper, 1999, Brush et al., 1987)
Job satisfaction at first declines with age, reaching the lowest level at around ages 26-31,
and then increases through the rest of the working career (Birdi, Warr & Oswald, 1995)

e. Gender
o No significant gender differences in global job satisfaction (Brush, et al., 1987; Witt &
Nye, 1992), even though, in the sample, men were more likely to have
managerial/professional jobs, and women were more likely to have clerical jobs.
f.

Cultural and Ethnic Differences

o Organizations are becoming increasingly multicultural
o Differences in satisfaction are affected by other variables which relates to the way
different organizations treat people of various cultures

3. SOCIAL FACTORS

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a. Supervisor Relationships
o Job Satisfaction is affected by the demographic similarity between supervisors and
subordinates (Wesolowski & Mossholder, 1997)
o Job Satisfaction is affected by the way in which supervisors assign tasks (Balu, 1999)
o Job Satisfaction is affected by the extent to which subordinates and supervisors like ad
respect each other (Murphy & Ensher, 1999)
b. Co-Worker Relationships
o The extent to which individuals are satisfied with their pay levels is partly determined by
their comparisons to, as well as beliefs and attitudes about, co-workers (Taylor & Vest,
1992)
o Organizational restructuring that influences the nature of interactions at work affects coworker relationships, which, in turn, affects job satisfaction (Howard & Frink, 1996)
c. Role Variables
o Role Ambiguity: extent to which employees are uncertain about what their job functions
and responsibilities are
o Role Conflict: when people experience incompatible demands either intrarole or
extrarole
Intrarole Conflict: arises from multiple demands on the job
Extrarole Conflict: occurs between demands from work and nonwork domains
d. Organizational Justice
o The role of fairness in the workplace
o A scale to measure employees perceptions of organizational justice has been developed
(Donovan, Drasgow & Munson, 1998), and it was found that it was strongly correlated
with various job satisfaction measures regardless of ones affective disposition
4. GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES
a. Promotion
b. Merit Pay and Benefits
The employees perception that there is potential to grow, advance or be promoted within the
organization
Employees satisfaction with their pay and benefits are significant predictors of job
satisfaction (Huber, Sybolt & Venemon, 1992)
Attitudes about pay are better predictors of job satisfaction than attitudes about benefits,
although both make significant contributions to predicting satisfaction (Howard, 1999)
Pay satisfaction is affected by how an individuals salary compares with salaries of others in
the same job rather than those of people in general (Cohen-Charash & Spector, 2001)
c. Work-Family Issues
A form of extrarole conflict in which the demands of work and the demands of family life
conflict
Problem may be acute for two-career couples with children and for single parents
Employees with high levels of conflict tend to be less satisfied with their jobs (and their lives,
in general) than employees with low levels of conflict (Kossek & Ozeki, 1998)
What is the best family-work situation for people with children?
Most frequently used approaches to help work-family issues:
o Flexible work schedules
o On-site child care in the workplace
3 PERSPECTIVES OF JOB SATISFACTION

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CONSEQUENCES OF JOB SATISFACTION

1. Performance
2. Withdrawal Behaviors
3. Counterproductive Behaviors
1. PERFORMANCE
The relationship between job satisfaction and performance is not a strong one; there are
other variables involved in the process which are better predictors of performance (e.g., skills,
good rest, misunderstanding of what is expected, lack of motivation)
a. Task
b. Contextual Performance
o Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)
o Refers to behaviors that are not formally part of ones job description; have more
to do with social elements at work than with task elements
2. WITHDRAWAL BEHAVIORS
a. Absenteeism
b. Tardiness

c. Turnover

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3. COUNTERPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIORS
Any behaviors that bring, or are intended to bring, harm to an organization, its employees, or
stakeholders
When an employee is frustrated and thus dissatisfied, ones potential for antisocial behaviors
is increased (Spector, 1997)
a.
b.
c.
d.

Theft
Sabotage
Aggression
Others arson, blackmail, bribery, fraud, interpersonal violence

FRAMEWORK FOR JOB SATISFACTION

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