Job Satisfaction

Conceptual Overview

For decades, job satisfaction has stood at the center of the study of organizational behavior. In 1976, Locke counted more than 3,300 studies on job satisfaction, and that figure rose to more than 12,400 in the late 1990s. As the most studied variable in organizational behavior research, several relationships have been uncovered between job satisfaction and other organizational variables, such as organizational citizenship and role withdrawal behaviors. Job satisfaction has implications for both individuals embedded within organizations and also for higher, collective levels of analyses (i.e., groups and organizations).

Past definitions of job satisfaction have focused on affective reactions toward an individual's job; these affective, or emotional, conceptualizations presumably capture how employees feel about their jobs. Such definitions of job satisfaction mask the differences between its distinct affective and cognitive components. More recent definitions of job satisfaction as an attitude toward one's job do not limit consideration to affect alone, but also include cognitive appraisals formed by individuals about their jobs.

Theoretical attention has focused on the determinants of job satisfaction. Person-environment (P-E) fit models have dominated the way in which organizational scientists have thought about the causes of job satisfaction. The underlying assumption of these models is that environments that fulfill employees' important needs are considered satisfying, reflecting an appropriate “fit” between what the environment has to offer and what the person needs. The Work Adjustment Project at the University of Minnesota, which yielded the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, was perhaps the most systematic and sustained program of research addressing the relationship between P-E fit and job satisfaction.

Various theories have been advanced that specify the needs employees seek to fulfill through their work. These include Maslow's need hierarchy theory; Alderfer's existence, relatedness, growth (ERG) theory; and Herzberg's motivator-hygiene, or two-factor, theory. The cumulative evidence in support of such needs theories is not compelling, primarily indicating the lack of a consistently verified taxonomy of needs that can be linked to specific job elements, goals, or outcomes.

Characteristics specific to the job have been considered influential sources of job satisfaction as well. Hackman and Oldham, in the job characteristics model, proposed that employees' perceptions of a set of task attributes, such as skill variety and autonomy, are associated positively with satisfaction. Empirical support has shown that the relationship between these task perceptions and satisfaction is reciprocal, such that task perceptions contribute positively to satisfaction and vice versa. Satisfied employees see more task variety, autonomy, and so on in their jobs, and these job characteristics positively influence perceptions of job satisfaction.

Salancik and Pfeffer, in their social information processing approach, also emphasized the importance of work environments. As in the job characteristics model, this approach posits that employees form perceptions about the job and its tasks. Jobs are considered ambiguous stimuli, with the potential to be interpreted in multiple ways. Where the social information processing approach departs from the job characteristics model is the way in which perceptions about the job are formed. This approach suggests that the interpretation of the job and work environment is influenced greatly by the information gleaned from coworkers about the work itself. As such, social cues contribute to the production of job attitudes.

...