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Job Satisfaction

Chapter · January 2015

DOI: 10.1002/9781118785317.weom050093

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Laurenz L Meier Paul E. Spector

Université de Neuchâtel University of South Florida
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job satisfaction
Laurenz L. Meier and Paul E. Spector
Q1 Job• satisfaction is a person’s overall evaluation
of his or her job as favorable or unfavorable.
It reflects an attitude toward one’s job and
hence includes affect, cognitions, and behavioral
tendencies. Job satisfaction is a widely studied
and central variable in many theories about orga-
nizational phenomena, and it is related to many
factors that are important for human resource
management such as performance, counterpro-
ductive work behavior, turnover, and employee
health.
The majority of workers are satisfied with
their job on a global level, at least in the United
States. Multinational surveys show that job satis-
faction levels are not the same across countries.
With regard to Europe, job satisfaction is highest
in Scandinavia, and lowest in Eastern Europe. A
more detailed focus on job satisfaction shows that
employees may be satisfied with some aspects of
the job, but not with others (Spector, 2012).
Although the various aspects of job satisfaction
such as pay and supervision are differentially
related to its proposed antecedents as well as
outcomes, the majority of research did not focus
on the different facets but on a general, global
level of job satisfaction. Therefore, most findings
presented in this article refer to job satisfaction
as an overall evaluation of one’s job. Given that
job satisfaction is related to important outcomes
for an organization (as outlined in more detail
later), a central question concerns the cause of
job satisfaction.
ANTECEDENTS OF JOB SATISFACTION
In general, three perspectives exist concerning
potential antecedents of job satisfaction: The
dispositional approach (person), the situational
approach (environment), and the interactionist
approach (interplay and match of the person and
the environment).
The first approach assumes that some persons
are more satisfied than others due to their dispo-
sition. Research shows that up to 30% of the
variance in job satisfaction can be attributed to
genetic factors and that a large proportion of this
effect can not only be explained by individual
weom050093 Volume 5 V1 12/18/2013 10:51 A.M. Page 1
differences in negative and positive affectivity,
but also in differences in the Five Factor Model
dimensions of personality, namely neuroticism,
extraversion, openness to experience, agreeable-
ness, and conscientiousness (Ilies and Judge,
2003). Other traits like locus of control, self-
efficacy, self-esteem, which also have been −
together with neuroticism − subsumed under
the label core self-evaluation (CSE), have also
been linked to job satisfaction. Various mecha-
nisms connecting job satisfaction to personality
have been proposed. For example, some have
suggested that some people (e.g., with high levels
of CSE) seek and choose jobs with higher level
of complexity, which is assumed to positively
affect satisfaction (see below). Other researchers
proposed that some people (e.g., with an internal
locus of control) perform better than other (e.g.,
with an external locus of control), which may lead
to more rewards and hence a higher job satis-
faction. Finally, other scholars suggested that
some people (e.g., with high levels of negative
affectivity) have a predisposition to experience
negative emotions and distress and therefore
may experience less job satisfaction, irrespective
of their work conditions. All these mechanism
suggest within person stability in levels of job
satisfaction over an extended period of time and
in different jobs.
However, this does not mean that job satis-
faction does not change. Meta-analytical results
indicate that job satisfaction is more stable over
time when people remain on the same job than
when they change jobs, suggesting that work
conditions also affect job satisfaction (Dormann
and Zapf, 2001). Moreover, diary studies with
ambulatory assessments showed that people’s
state job satisfaction may even change within
very short periods (e.g., hours), depending on
the experienced work events.
Such work conditions and events are the focus
of the situational approach. Job satisfaction has
been associated with various job characteristics
(e.g., skill variety, task identity, task significance,
task feedback, and autonomy), work stressors
(e.g., workload, organizational constraints, inter-
personal conflicts, and injustice), and resources
(e.g., social support). Most of this research
utilized cross-sectional designs, which strongly
limits insight into the direction of a proposed
effect. However, some quasi-experimental and

2 job satisfaction
longitudinal field studies showed that job char-
acteristics, work stressors, and resources are
prospectively related to job satisfaction. Thus,
promoting challenging jobs (e.g., increasing skill
variety), reducing work stressors, and enhancing
resources seems to be effective actions to increase
an employee’s job satisfaction.
According to the interactionist approach,
however, not everybody will be affected to
the same degree by the same work conditions.
Several researchers suggest that different people
prefer different features of a job, and hence,
job satisfaction will be highest when there
is a good match between the person and the
job, for example, matching task demands to
employee abilities, or matching what people
want on a job with what they have. In line
with this assumption, smaller the discrepancy
between having and wanting, higher the job
satisfaction (Verquer, Beehr, and Wagner,
2003). Similarly, job characteristics such as
autonomy are particularly strongly related to job
satisfaction among people with a high growth
need strength (i.e., desire for the satisfaction
of higher order needs, such as autonomy), and
people with high levels of self-efficacy profit
more from job control.
In sum, research suggests that both dispo-
sitional, personal and situational, work-related
factors as well as their interaction have an impact
on job satisfaction.
OUTCOMES OF JOB SATISFACTION
Job satisfaction is assumed to be an antecedent of
several organization relevant outcomes, some of
which concern employee productivity and others
that concern employee health and well-being. On
the productivity side, job satisfaction has been
linked to job performance, organizational citi-
zenship behavior (behaviors beyond required job
tasks that help the organization), counterproduc-
tive work behavior (behaviors that harm orga-
nizations), and withdrawal, including absence
and turnover (Spector, 1997). On the health
and well-being side, job satisfaction is related
to burnout, physical and psychological health,
and life satisfaction (Spector, 1997). Although
it seems intuitively obvious that high job satis-
faction should lead to better performance, less
absence from work, and lower turnover, previous
weom050093 Volume 5 V1 12/18/2013 10:51 A.M. Page 2
research did not find especially strong relation-
ships. Meta-analyses showed that there is, at
best, a modest correlation between global job
satisfaction and job performance (Judge et al.,
2001). This may be at least to a certain degree the
result of measurement problems (most studies
relied on supervisor ratings for performance,
which suffer from bias and inaccuracy; Spector,
2012). However, it also should be noted that most
studies mainly utilized cross-sectional designs
and hence are mute about the direction of the
effect. Indeed, it is both plausible that people
who like their job work harder and perform
better as well as that people who perform well
receive more desirable outcomes such as money
and esteem and hence should be more satisfied
with their jobs.
Job satisfaction has not only been studied as
an antecedent of desired behavior such as task
performance, but also as a potential cause of
counterproductive behavior. Interestingly, job
satisfaction is rather strongly linked to (self-
reported) behavior that is targeted against the
organization. Rather unexpectedly, global job
satisfaction is only weakly related to employee
absence and is not the main antecedent (Dalton
and Mesch, 1991), but many studies have shown
that dissatisfied employees are more likely to quit
their jobs than satisfied employees, especially
when there are many alternative opportunities
as when unemployment rates are low (Carsten
and Spector, 1987). Finally, job satisfaction can
also be considered as an element of well-being.
In line with this, many studies showed a link
between job satisfaction and various indicators
of well-being. For example, high job satisfaction
is related to low levels of somatic complaints
(e.g., digestive upset and headache), depression,
and burnout (Spector, 1997).• Q2
Bibliography
Carsten, J.M. and Spector, P.E. (1987) Unemployment,
job satisfaction, and employee turnover: a meta-
analytic test of the Muchinsky model. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 72, 374–381.
Dalton, D.R. and Mesch, D.J. (1991) On the extent
and reduction of avoidable absenteeism: an assess-
ment of absence policy provisions. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 76, 810–817.

Dormann, C. and Zapf, D. (2001) Job satisfaction: a
meta-analysis of stabilities. Journal of Organizational
Behavior, 22, 483–504.
Ilies, R. and Judge, T.A. (2003) On the heritability of job
satisfaction: the mediating role of personality. Journal
of Applied Psychology, 88, 750–759.
Judge, T.A., Thoresen, C.J., Bono, J.E. and Patton,
G.K. (2001) The job satisfaction-job performance
relationship: a qualitative and quantitative review.
Psychological Bulletin, 127, 376–407.
weom050093 Volume 5 V1 12/18/2013 10:51 A.M. Page 3
job satisfaction 3
Spector, P.E. (1997) Job Satisfaction: Application, Assess-
ment, Causes, and Consequences, Sage Publications,
Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA.
Spector, P.E. (2012) Industrial and Organizational
Psychology: Research and Practice, 6th edn, John Wiley
& Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ.
Verquer, M.L., Beehr, T.A. and Wagner, S.H.
(2003) A meta-analysis of relations between person-
organization fit and work attitudes. Journal of Voca-
tional Behavior, 64, 47–71.
 weom050093 Volume 5 V1 12/18/2013 10:51 A.M. Page 4

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Abstract: Job satisfaction is a person’s overall evaluation of his or her job as favorable or unfavorable.
Both personal characteristics such as traits and situational characteristics such as work stressors affect
people’s job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is related to many factors that are important for human
resource management, such as performance, counterproductive behavior, turnover, and employee
health.

Keywords: job satisfaction; performance; turnover; counterproductive work behavior; personality;

work characteristics

Author(s) and Affiliation(s):

Laurenz L. Meier
Paul E. Spector
University of South Florida
 weom050093 Volume 5 V1 12/18/2013 10:51 A.M.

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