Journal
of
Applied Psychology
1998, Vol.
83, No. 1,
17-34
Copyright
1998
by the
American Psychological Association, Inc.
0021-901Q/98/$3.00
Dispositional
Effects
on Job and
Life
Satisfaction:
The
Role
of
Core Evaluations
Timothy
A.
Judge
University
of
Iowa
Edwin
A.
Locke
and
Cathy
C.
Durham
University
of
Maryland
College
Park
Avraham
N.
Kluger
Hebrew
University
Past research
has
suggested that
dispositional
sources
of job
satisfaction
can be
traced
to
measures
of
affective
temperament.
The
present research focused
on
another concept,
core
self-evaluations, which were hypothesized
to
comprise self-esteem, generalized self-
efficacy,
locus
of
control,
and
nonneuroticism.
A
model hypothesized that
core
self-
evaluations would have direct
effects
on job and
life
satisfaction.
It
also
was
hypothesized
that
core
self-evaluations would have indirect
effects
on job
satisfaction. Data were
collected
from
3
independent samples
in 2
countries, using dual source methodology.
Results indicated that
core
self-evaluations
had
direct
and
indirect
effects
on job and
life
satisfaction.
The
statistical
and
logical relationship among
core
evaluations,
affective
disposition,
and
satisfaction
was
explored.
In
recent years increasing attention
has
been given
to
the
hypothesis that factors within
the
individual, divorced
from
the
attributes
of the
job,
affect
the
degree
of
satisfac-
tion
experienced
on the
job. These factors, called disposi-
tions, also
are
asserted
to
affect
life
satisfaction. Although
the
possible
effects
of
dispositions
on
satisfaction with
the
job
have been recognized
for
many
decades (e.g.,
Fisher
&
Hanna, 1931; Hoppock, 1935; Locke, 1976;
Smith,
1955; Weitz, 1952),
it was the
work
of
Staw
and
Ross
(1985)
and
Staw, Bell,
and
Clausen
(1986)
that
first
provided
empirical support
for the
dispositional hypothe-
sis
with respect
to job
satisfaction. Recent research also
suggests
that
affective
temperament
is
related
to
subjective
Timothy
A.
Judge, Department
of
Management
and
Organiza-
tions,
College
of
Business Administration, University
of
Iowa;
Edwin
A.
Locke
and
Cathy
C.
Durham,
College
of
Business
and
Management, University
of
Maryland
College
Park; Avraham
N.
Kluger,
School
of
Business Administration, Hebrew University,
Jerusalem,
Israel.
Cathy
C.
Durham
is now at
Pepperdine
University.
We
thank Sharon Buchbinder
for her
assistance
with
collec-
tion
of the
physician
data.
Collection
of the
data
in
Israel
was
funded
by a
grant received
by
Avraham
N.
Kluger
from
the
Recanati Fund
of the
School
of
Business Administration
at He-
brew
University, Jerusalem,
Israel.
Correspondence
concerning this article should
be
addressed
to
Timothy
A.
Judge, Department
of
Management
and
Organiza-
tions,
College
of
Business Administration, University
of
Iowa,
Iowa City, Iowa
52242.
Electronic mail
may be
sent
to
tim-
judge@
uiowa.edu.
well-being (Brief, Butcher, George,
&
Link,
1993)—a
concept equivalent
in
meaning
to
life
satisfaction.
From
this initial base, studies have begun
to
shed light
on
the
psychological processes underlying
the
disposi-
tional
source
of job
satisfaction.
For
example, Weiss
and
Cropanzano
(1996)
presented
a
cognitive model that
de-
scribes
how job
reactions result
from
the
correspondence
between perceptions
of the job and
internalized standards.
In
an
empirical study, Brief, Butcher,
and
Roberson
(1995)
showed that, when subjected
to the
same task
attributes, individuals' dispositional tendencies
affect
how
they
interpret
the
favorability
of
these attributes.
Although
the
last decade
of
research
on the
disposi-
tional source
of job
satisfaction
has
been successful
in
establishing
a
clear link between
affective
temperament
and
job
satisfaction,
further
conceptual development
in
this realm
is
possible.
As
House, Shane,
and
Herold
(1996)
noted
in
their recent review
of the
dispositional
literature,
affective
disposition
is
only
one of
many
traits
that
can and
should
be
studied. Further, explanation needs
to
be
provided
as to why
some people
feel
happier than
others. Advocates
of the
genetic approach argue that dis-
positions
are
innate
(Lykken
&
Tellegen,
1996);
indeed,
evidence indicates that
the job
satisfaction experienced
by
identical twins reared apart
is
higher than that
of
less
closely
related
individuals
(Arvey,
Bouchard, Segal,
&
Abraham,
1989).
However, this argument
by
itself does
not
illuminate
the
psychological
processes
underlying
the
dispositional source
of job
satisfaction. Even
if it is
true
that
some
people's
brains
are
"wired"
differently
than
17
18
JUDGE,
LOCKE, DURHAM,
AND
KLUGER
those
of
others, this cannot
be the
whole story. What
happens
after
birth
and
what conclusions people
draw
from
their experiences also
profoundly
affect
people'sjob
and
life
happiness.
Toward
this end, Judge, Locke,
and
Durham
(1997)
proposed
the
concept
of
"core
evaluations," which
refer
to
fundamental,
subconscious conclusions individuals
reach about themselves, other people,
and the
world.
Ac-
cording
to
Judge
et
al.,
core evaluations
may
explain,
in
part,
the
dispositional
source
of job
satisfaction. Judge
et
al.
argued that
people's
appraisals
of the
external world
are
affected
not
just
by the
attributes
of
objects
and
peo-
ple's
desires with respect
to
those objects (e.g.,
pay in
relation
to
desired pay)
but
also
by the
deepest (e.g.,
metaphysical) assumptions people hold about themselves,
other people,
and the
world. Examples
of
these premises
are
"I
am
weak,"
"Other
people
will hurt me,"
and
"The
world
is a
dangerous
place"
versus
"I can
handle life's
exigencies,"
"Others
can
bring
me
happiness,"
and
"Life
is
an
adventure." Judge
et al.
proposed that people
who
consider themselves
to be no
good
or
fundamentally
in-
competent
will
react quite
differently,
for
example,
to in-
creased
job
responsibilities than will those
who
consider
themselves
to be
good
and
competent. Similarly, people
who
consider other people
to be
fundamentally
untrust-
worthy
or the
world
to be a
dangerous place will view
their
jobs
in a
much
less benign
way
than those
with
the
opposite
premises.
The
concept
of
core evaluations,
as
presented
by
Judge
et al.
(1997),
which
was
derived
from
aspects
of
eight
literatures
(philosophy, clinical psychology research, clin-
ical
psychology practice,
job
satisfaction, stress, child
de-
velopment,
personality,
and
social
psychology),
must
be
related
to and
distinguished
from
other approaches
to
dis-
positions. Cantor
(1990),
for
example, discussed cogni-
tive
mechanisms pertaining
to
midrange
personality traits
that govern
how
people interpret their environment.
An
example
is
schemas, cognitive structures that
affect
how
people
process
information
about themselves
and the
world.
Similarly,
Markus
(1977)
discussed
self-schemas
that
color
how
people
see and
interpret reality.
Obviously,
there
is
some relationship between
core
evaluations
and
schemas. However, there
are two
ways
in
which
schemas
and
core evaluations
are
different.
First,
core evaluations
are not
strictly cognitive; they
are
evalua-
tions
(e.g.,
I am
good; other people
are not
good;
life
is
dangerous).
Second,
core
evaluations
are not
midrange
traits
but
rather
fundamental
traits—fundamental
in
that
they
encompass
and
underlie
all
other, more
specific
evalu-
ations (Judge
et
al.,
1997).
It
should
be
noted that Cantor
(1990)
actually distinguished cognitive schemas
from
dis-
positions
in
arguing that schemas
may
mediate between
dispositions
and
interpretations
of the
outside world. This
Neurotic
ism
Figure
1.
Hypothesized model relating dispositional character-
istics
to
perceptions
of
intrinsic work characteristics,
job
satis-
faction,
and
life satisfaction. Dashed line
depicts
a
moderating
effect
of
core self-evaluations
on the
relationship between per-
ceived work characteristics
and job
satisfaction. With
the
excep-
tion
of the
loading
of
neuroticism
on the
core
self-evaluations
factor,
all
hypothesized linkages were hypothesized
to be
positive.
implies
that schemas
are not the
same
as
core evaluations,
although
they probably
are
related.
We
believe that
the
concept
of
core evaluations, what-
ever
its
relation
to
self-schema,
is
promising
as it may
further
explicate
the
psychological processes underlying
the
dispositional source
of job
satisfaction.
We are not
arguing
that core evaluations represent
the
cure
for all
limitations
in
dispositional research. Rather,
we are
sug-
gesting
that
they
are a
useful
addition
to our
conceptual
arsenal
and can be
used
to
understand
the
sources
of job
and
life
satisfaction.
The
particular core evaluations
we
describe below
are
based
on the
theoretical work
of
Judge
et
al.
(1997).
To
qualify
as a
core evaluation,
the
facet
in
question
had to be
both
"core"
(fundamental)
and
an
evaluation.
The
three most
fundamental
evaluations
a
person
can
make
are
with respect
to
oneself, other
people,
and
reality
(the
world).
These include,
by
implication,
all
lesser
evaluations. Below
we
describe
specific
evaluations
within
each
of
these three broad
categories.
Figure
1
con-
tains
the
model tested
in the
study.
As the figure
shows,
the
focus
is on
core
self-evaluations,
which
are
described
next.
After
discussing core self-evaluations,
we
consider
the
relationship between
them
and
external core
evaluations.
Core
Evaluations
of the
Self
Self-Esteem
Self-esteem
is the
basic appraisal people make
of
them-
selves.
At its
core, self-esteem
is the
most
fundamental
DISPOSITIONS
AND JOB AND
LIFE
SATISFACTION
19
core evaluation
of
the
self,
because
it is the
overall value
that
one
places
on
oneself
as a
person
(Harter,
1990).
There
is
considerable evidence that self-esteem
is
related
to
job
satisfaction (Locke,
McClear,
&
Knight,
1996).
Clausen
(1991),
working
from
the
same data base
as
Staw
et
al.
(1986),
found
that self-esteem
was a
predictor
of
job
satisfaction later
in
life
for
men. Furthermore, Judge
and
Locke
(1993)
found
that
two
self-focused
items
from
a
measure
of
affective
disposition were mainly responsible
for
its
association with satisfaction with
life.
Self-esteem
may
be the
source
(or
an
important
source)
of
positive
affectivity
(PA).
Generalized
Self-Efficacy
Although
self-efficacy
as
treated
by
Bandura
(1997)
is
task
specific,
Judge
et al.
(1997)
extended
the
concept
to
a
global
level.
Judge
et al.
defined
generalized
self-efficacy
as
one's
estimates
of
one's
capabilities
to
mobilize
the
motivation,
cognitive
resources,
and
courses
of
action
needed
to
exercise general control over events
in
one's
life.
Although
it
seems reasonable
to
view
self-efficacy
in
both
specific
and
generalized forms,
the
relationship
of
generalized
self-efficacy
to
one's
average
efficacy
ratings
across
a
variety
of
task-specific situations
is yet to be
determined. Because generalized
self-efficacy
can be
viewed
as
reflecting
one's
perceptions
of
one's
fundamen-
tal
ability
to
cope
with
life's exigencies,
it
represents
a
core self-evaluation. Furthermore, general
efficacy
is
typically
viewed
as
being
one of the two
core components
of
self-esteem
(the other being self-worth; Locke
et
al.,
1996).
Thus,
it
would
be
expected that generalized self-
efficacy
would load
on the
same factor
as
self-esteem.
Locus
of
Control
Locus
of
control concerns
the
degree
to
which individu-
als
believe that they control events
in
their lives (internal
locus
of
control)
or
believe that
the
environment
or
fate
controls events (external locus
of
control; Rotter,
1966).
Although locus
of
control
is
theoretically related
to
gener-
alized
self-efficacy,
the two
concepts
differ
in one im-
portant respect.
Self-efficacy
pertains
to
confidence with
respect
to
actions
or
behaviors, whereas locus
is
more
concerned with confidence
in
being able
to
control out-
comes.
In
expectancy theory terms,
efficacy
pertains more
to
expectancy
and
locus more
to
instrumentality. Although
task-specific
self-efficacy
and
locus
of
control
are
unre-
lated (Bandura, 1997),
it
seems likely that when
one
considers
self-efficacy
in its
generalized
form,
its
associa-
tion
with locus
of
control should
be
stronger. Because both
generalized
self-efficacy
and
locus
of
control represent
a
belief
in
oneself relative
to
one's
environment,
it is
appropriate
to
construe them
as
manifestations
of
one's
core
self-evaluation.
The
main reason
why
individuals
with
an
internal locus
of
control
are
more
satisfied
with
their jobs
is
their perceived ability
to
control situations.
Furthermore,
Spector
(1982) notes,
"Cognitive
consis-
tency
theory would predict that individuals
who
have per-
ceived
personal control
to
leave
the
situation
and who
choose
to
stay
will
tend
to
reevaluate
the
situation
favor-
ably
to
retain consistency between their attitudes
and be-
havior"
(p.
490).
Neuroticism
This
is one of the Big
Five personality dimensions
and
constitutes
the
negative pole
of
self-esteem. Individuals
who
score high
on
measures
of
neuroticism
are
likely
to
be
insecure, guilty,
and timid
(Costa
&
McCrae,
1988).
Neurotic
individuals also
are
prone
to
anxiety, which man-
ifests
itself
in
tendencies
to be
fearful
of
novel situations
and
susceptibility
to
feelings
of
dependence
and
help-
lessness (Costa
&
McCrae,
1988).
Negative
affectivity
(NA)
is
often
viewed
as a
measure
of
neuroticism,
and
in
fact
research indicates that
NA and
neuroticism
are
closely related concepts
(Larsen
&
Ketelaar,
1991).
Nega-
tive
affect
and
neuroticism
act as
negative lenses through
which
the
environment
is
interpreted;
for
example, high
NA
individuals rate peers less favorably, view themselves
as
victims,
and
tend
to be
dissatisfied
with themselves,
with
their jobs,
and
with their lives
in
general (Clark
&
Watson,
1991).
A
pertinent question concerning
the
above list
is, Are
the
above
dispositional
measures really separate
or are
they
facets
of a
single,
underlying
dimension, namely,
attitudes toward
the
self?
It is our
belief
that
these
specific
dispositions represent
a
common core self-evaluations
factor,
for
several reasons. First,
the
nature
of the
specific
traits themselves
unifies
them. Each
of the
above traits
focuses
on
global evaluations individuals make about
themselves
or
their relation
to
their environment. Second,
an
emerging body
of
research suggests that these disposi-
tions
represent
a
common
factor.
Judge, Thoresen,
and
Pucik
(1996),
analyzing results obtained
from
five
sepa-
rate studies,
found
that
self-esteem,
self-efficacy,
locus
of
control,
and
positive
affectivity
loaded
on a
common fac-
tor.
Although their analyses
did not
include neuroticism,
logic
suggests
that neuroticism represents
the
other side
of
the
same
coin.
(This
is not to
deny
the
possibility
it
could represent
a
separate
factor.)
External
Core
Evaluations
External
core
evaluations
are
similar
to
core
self-evalu-
ations
in
that both
are
fundamental
in
nature
and
global
in
scope. However,
the
difference between
the two is
that
whereas
core
self-evaluations
are
self-appraisals, external
20
JUDGE,
LOCKE,
DURHAM,
AND
KLUGER
core
evaluations
are the
appraisals
individuals make
of
their environment. Judge
et
al.
(1997)
argued that external
core
evaluations pertain
to
other
people
(trust
vs.
cyni-
cism)
and the
world
(belief
in a
benevolent world, belief
in
a
just
world).
The
importance
of
developing
a
sense
of
trust early
in
life
was
noted long
ago by
Erikson
(1950).
The
opposite
of
trust
is
cynicism,
the
view that other people
are '
'out
to get
you"
and
that they lack moral principles, including
integrity.
Of
course,
in
reality, some people
can be
trusted
and
others cannot,
but
this core evaluation goes deeper
than
one's
journalistic evaluations
of
others.
It
pertains
to
one's
deepest
convictions about
the
basic nature
of
other
people.
For
example, cynicism
is
sometimes viewed
as
the
basic premise behind Theory
X
management. This
premise could
affect
satisfaction with
life
and
one's
job
to the
extent that these involved other people (which
is
virtually always
the
case).
Whereas trust concerns
the
core
assumptions individu-
als
hold
about
other
people,
belief
in a
benevolent
and a
just world pertains
to how
people
evaluate
the
outside
world
in
general.
The
premise that
the
universe
is
benevo-
lent refers
to the
belief that happiness
and
successful
value
achievement
are
possible
in
life, whereas malevolence
re-
fers
to the
belief that
one is
doomed
to
failure
and
frustra-
tion
(Peikoff,
1991).
Such
a
premise would undercut
the
pleasure
one
experienced
from
success (e.g.,
"It
won't
last")
and
enhance
the
pain
of
failure
("This
is
just
the
way
life
is and
always will
be").
Ball,
Trevino,
and
Sims
(1994)
found
that individuals
who did not
believe
in a
just world
had
more negative perceptions
of the
punish-
ment
they
received
than
those
who had
more positive
perceptions
of
justice
in
life. More broadly, individuals
who
do not
think good work
and
virtue
are
rewarded
should
have
a
more
negative view
of
life
and
their
jobs
than those
who
believe
that
life
is
fair.
Obviously, this
dimension
has
some logical link with
the
trust versus
cynicism dimension.
Hypotheses
Figure
1
contains
the
hypothesized model tested
in
this
article—in
the
model, boxes represent exogenous
or
inde-
pendent variables,
and
circles represent endogenous
or
dependent variables.
On the
basis
of the
preceding analy-
sis,
we
believed that core self-evaluations would
contrib-
ute
to job and
life
satisfaction. Thus,
Hypothesis
1. The
traits constituting
core
self-evaluations
(a)
will
comprise
self-esteem,
general self-efficacy, internal
locus
of
control,
and
nonneuroticism
and
(b)
will
be
posi-
tively related
to
satisfaction with
the job and
with life.
Similarly,
we
predicted that
core
external evaluations
would
be
related
to job and
life
satisfaction. However,
a
related question concerns
the
issue
of
priority among
the
various
dispositions.
There
is
little
in the way of
theory
to
guide
us
here,
but our
belief
is
that
the way in
which
people view themselves
is
more fundamental and,
to a
large extent,
the
source
of the way in
which people
view
others
and
their world.
For
example,
it
seems
intuitively
obvious
that people
who
think poorly
of
themselves
will
not
see the
world
as a
benevolent
or
exciting
place—
because they will
not see
themselves
as
being able
to
deal
with
it. On the
other side
of the
coin,
it
would
be
hard
to
see the
world
as
malevolent
and
dangerous unless
one
saw
oneself
as
helpless
and
afraid.
And if
other people
are
untrustworthy,
individuals
with
poor self-concepts
probably
feel
it is no
less than they deserve. Thus, there
was
reason
to
believe that external core evaluations would
be
related
to job
satisfaction
but
would
not
explain incre-
mental variance
in job
satisfaction once core self-evalua-
tions
are
controlled. (Because
we
believed
that
external
core evaluations would
be
related
to job
satisfaction
but
not
incrementally beyond
core
self-evaluations, external
core evaluations
are not
included
in the
model
in
Figure
1.)
Although
we
later tested
the
relationship
of
external
core evaluations
to
core self-evaluations
and job
satisfac-
tion,
we
only hypothesized
the
following:
Hypothesis
2.
Dispositions pertaining
to
other
people
and
the
world will
be
positively associated with dispositions
pertaining
to the
self,
as
well
as job and
life
satisfaction.
The
next issue
to
address pertains
to
attributes
of the
job
itself.
It is
well established
that
certain
job
attributes,
especially attributes
of the
work such
as
challenge, sig-
nificance,
task feedback, opportunity
for
growth, auton-
omy,
and
variety
are
related
to job
satisfaction
(Fried
&
Ferris, 1987;
Hackman
&
Oldham, 1980; Locke, 1976).
Are the
perceptions
of
work characteristics
influenced
by
dispositions? Some initial theoretical
and
empirical work
suggests that they are.
Larsen
and
Ketelaar
(1991)
tested
a
theoretical rationale
for
predicting
dispositional
differ-
ences
in
emotional susceptibility
to
rewards. Their results
showed
that extroverted individuals
(those
predisposed
to
experience positive
affect
and
positive self-evaluations)
were more
affected
by
situations designed
to
induce posi-
tive
affect,
whereas neurotic individuals (those predis-
posed
to
experience negative
affect
or to
hold negative
self-evaluations) were less
affected
by
such situations.
The
application
of
these
findings to
employees' reactions
to
job
enrichment
is
fairly
direct. Individuals with positive
orientations
should react
favorably
to
enriched work
whereas individuals with negative orientations should
re-
act
less
favorably,
or
even negatively,
to
enriched work.
In
fact,
an
earlier
study
(Kraiger,
Billings,
&
Isen,
1989)
found
that positive
affect
was
related
to
perceptions
of
task characteristics. What
is
needed
to
extend these
find-
ings
is
explicit attention
to the
aspects
of
personality that
DISPOSITIONS
AND JOB AND
LIFE
SATISFACTION
21
may
influence
the
perception
of
work
characteristics,
as
well
as
further
consideration
of the way in
which these
psychological processes
may
explain
the
dispositional
source
of job
satisfaction.
Judge
et
al.
(1997)
proposed three possible models
of
the
role
of
intrinsic
job
characteristics
and the
disposi-
tional source
of job
satisfaction.
We
have already pro-
posed
an
effect
of
core
self-evaluations
on
satisfaction
(Hypothesis
la).
However, Judge
et al.
proposed that both
core evaluations
and job
attributes exert significant,
inde-
pendent
influences
on job
satisfaction.
The
second model
discussed
by
Judge
et al. is a
mediator
model—percep-
tions
of
intrinsic
job
characteristics mediate
(at
least
partly)
the
dispositional source
of job
satisfaction.
The
mediation hypothesis
is
also consistent with
the
argument
that people with positive self-concepts have
a
stronger
desire (more motivation)
to
continue
to be
happy than
people with negative self-concepts. Research
by
Swann
sheds
light
on
these cognitive-motivational processes
(Swann, 1992; Swann,
Stein-Seroussi,
&
Giesler,
1992).
According
to
Swann's
theory
of
self-verification,
individ-
uals
with
positive self-concepts
seek
situations that will
supply
them with positive feedback; individuals with neg-
ative
self-concepts
will seek situations providing negative
feedback.
Extending
self-verification
theory,
we
believe that peo-
ple may use the
perceptions about
the
nature
of
their work
to
reinforce,
or
detract
from,
their feelings
of
self-worth.
Individuals with positive core evaluations
may
seek
and
categorize information
in
their work environment that will
lead
to
positive conclusions about their work; individuals
with
negative
core
self-evaluations will attend
to
negative
aspects.
One way in
which individuals with positive self-
evaluations
may
reinforce their self-concept
on the job is
through their perception
of the
value
of
their work.
Re-
search directly
and
indirectly supports this proposition.
L.
R.
James
and
Jones
(1980)
found
that self-esteem
was
positively related
to
perceptions
of
intrinsic
job
character-
istics,
and
Judge
and
Locke
(1993)
found
that perceptions
of
intrinsic
job
characteristics partly mediated
the
rela-
tionship between
affective
disposition
and job
satisfaction.
If
the
core
self-evaluations factor operates
in the
same
way
as
affective
disposition,
its
influence
on job
satisfac-
tion also should
be
mediated,
at
least
in
part,
by
percep-
tions
of
work
characteristics.
Finally,
the
moderator hypothesis proposes that disposi-
tions
may
interact with perceptions
of
intrinsic
job
charac-
teristics
in
influencing
job
satisfaction. Under
the
modera-
tor
hypothesis,
the
effect
of
improving work characteris-
tics would
be
positive
for
those with positive core
evaluations
and
neutral
(or
negative)
for
those with nega-
tive
core
evaluations. Judge
et al.
(1997)
argued that this
type
of
interaction would
be
predicted because individuals
with
poor self-concepts would likely
see the
negative
as-
pects
of
increased
job
challenge (broader responsibilities
leading
to
more work
and the
necessity
of
learning
new
things),
whereas individuals with positive self-concepts
would
attend
to the
positive aspects
of the
change
(more
interesting work
and
more
influence).
In two
separate
laboratory studies, Brief
et al.
(1995)
and
Necowitz
and
Roznowski
(1994)
found
support
for one
link
in the
mod-
erator
hypothesis
in
showing that
NA
predisposes
individ-
uals
to
attend
to the
negative aspects
of
work rewards
and
enriched tasks.
As
discussed
by
Judge
et al.
(1997),
the
main
effect,
mediator,
and
interactive models
are not
mutually
exclu-
sive.
It is
possible
that partial forms
of all
these
effects
could
be
found.
Because
of the
conceptual
and
empirical
support
for
each
of the
hypotheses,
all
three
are
proposed
and
tested
in
this article. Thus,
Hypothesis
3a.
Main
effects:
Dispositions
and
perceptions
of
work
characteristics
are
independently
related
to
satis-
faction with
the job
such that
individuals
with positive self-
evaluations
and who
believe
their
work
is
challenging
will
be
more
satisfied
with their
jobs.
Hypothesis
3b.
Mediator
effects:
Perceptions
of
work char-
acteristics
partly
mediate
the
effect
of
dispositions
on job
satisfaction such that part
of the
positive influence
of
core
self-evaluations
on job
satisfaction will
be due to a
more
positive
perception
of
work characteristics.
Hypothesis
3c.
Moderator
effects:
Dispositions will
moder-
ate the
effect
of
perceptions
of
work characteristics
on
job
satisfaction such that individuals with positive self-
evaluations
will
see
challenging
work
as
more satisfying
than
those
with negative self-evaluations.
Having
presented
the
hypotheses within
the
model,
we
believe there
are two
additional elements that require some
discussion.
First,
on the
basis
of the
predictions
of the
job
characteristics model,
we
expected that perceptions
of
intrinsic
job
characteristics
would
be
positively related
to job
satisfaction. Second,
we
expected that
job
satisfac-
tion would significantly influence life satisfaction.
As
Judge
and
Locke
(1993)
noted,
"An
obvious reason
for
job
satisfaction playing
a
causal role
in
subjective well-
being
is
that
it
represents
a
part-whole
relationship; that
is, the job is a
part
of
life
and
thus
is
taken into account
when
rating overall
life
satisfaction"
(Judge
&
Locke,
1993,
p.
485).
In
fact,
the
part-whole
hypothesis
was
advanced
some
time ago and has
been supported (see
Near,
Rice,
&
Hunt,
1978; Rice,
Near,
&
Hunt,
1980).
Thus,
the
conceptual model
in
Figure
1
displays links
from
perceptions
of
work
characteristics
to job
satisfac-
tion
and
from
job
satisfaction
to
life satisfaction.
We
should note that
the
hypothesized model assumes
a
unidirectional relationship
from
job
satisfaction
to
life
satisfaction.
Although this reasoning
is
consistent with
Locke's
(1976)
part-whole
hypothesis,
it is
also true that
other research
has
found
a
reciprocal
relationship between