Showing papers on "Core self-evaluations published in 1985"

Stability in the Midst of Change: A Dispositional Approach to Job Attitudes

Abstract: Most recent debates on the determinants of job attitudes have concentrated on situational theories, stressing external influences such as job design and social information processing. In contrast, this research examines the dispositional argument that job attitudes are rather consistent within individuals, showing stability both over time and across situations. To test this notion, longitudinal data on job satisfaction were analyzed from a national sample of over 5,000 middle-aged men. Results showed significant stability of attitudes over a 5-year time period and significant cross-situational consistency when individuals changed employers and/or occupations. Prior attitudes were also a stronger predictor of subsequent job satisfaction than either changes in pay or the social status of one's job. The implications of these results for developing dispositional theories of work behavior are discussed, along with possible implications for popular situational theories such as job design and social information processing.

Job Importance as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Job Satisfaction and Life Satisfaction

Abstract: Moderated regression analyses are used to assess the degree to which indirect indicators of job importance moderate the relationship between job satisfaction and life satisfaction. The 1971 Quality of American Life Survey (N = 2,164) and the 1972-1973 Quality of Employment Survey (N = 1,496) provide two large nationwide probability sample data sets for these secondary analyses. It is hypothesized that the strength of the job satisfaction-life satisfaction relationship is positively related to job importance. Contrary to this hypothesis, respondents whose jobs were expected to be more important do not have substantially stronger job satisfaction-life satisfaction relationships than respondents whose jobs were expected to be less important. The zero-order job satisfaction–life satisfaction correlations in both samples are stronger than expected (r = .48 and r = .49). Discussion focuses on the conceptual implications of the failure to find substantial moderator effects. Locke's (1969) theory of the implicit ...

The effects of need for achievement and need for independence on the relationship between perceived job attributes and managerial satisfaction and performance.

Abstract: Work-manifest needs for achievement and independence were examined as moderators of relations between perceptions of five job attributes (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feed-back) and job satisfaction and job performance among a sample of 346 middle-managers. Need for achievement and need for independence were unrelated to the perceived job attributor and to both job satisfaction and job performance. However, most of the relations between the perceived job attributes and both job satisfaction and job performance were significantly higher among the managers high in need for achievement and need for independence than among those low in these needs. These results point to the importance of differentiating between managers high and low in these needs when redesigning jobs.

A Specification Issue in Job Satisfaction Research What Happens to Job Satisfaction Models When Workers Place High Value on Increasing Their Satisfaction

Abstract: Prevailing theories of job satisfaction assume that the pursuit of job satisfaction is an important employment goal to workers. The central questions asked here are as follows: (1) Is this assumption tenable? (2) What effects do the violation of this assumption have on the testing of popular models in job satisfaction research? Using data representative of registered nurses in a large metropolitan area, it was found that only about half of the workers rank the pursuit of job satisfaction highly among the employment goals relevant to their work places. Furthermore, it was found that much more variance can be explained in job satisfaction among workers who value increased job satisfaction highly than can be explained among workers who do not value it as highly. When workers' value for increased job satisfaction is used as a moderator variable, it is found to have methodological and substantive significance for the sort of evidence that can be obtained using standard models of job satisfaction.

Leadership Orientation as a Moderator of the Relationship between Job Performance and Job Satisfaction of Mexican Managers

Abstract: A survey of 82 Mexican managers in nine Mexican organizations was conducted. Managers completed measures of leadership style (LPC) and reported job satisfaction on the Job Description Index. Managerial performance on the individual and group level was rated by each manager's supervisor. Consistent with predictions based on the contingency model of leadership, task-motivated leaders evidenced much stronger relationships between job performance and job satisfaction than did relationship-motivated leaders.

Work and the quality of life.

Abstract: Wilensky's (1960, 1961) proposition that the integration of work into one's total life is contingent upon the technological and social organization of the work was tested in a national probability sample of approximately 1,025 men and women. In line with Wilensky's arguments, it was found that a composit measure of job complexity and occupational status moderated the job satisfaction-life satisfaction relationship. Specifically, the relationship between job- and life satisfaction was greatest for individuals with occupations characterized as complex and high in status. The magnitude of the detected moderating effects, as well as that of job satisfaction per se, on life satisfaction, were small, however. It is argued that the scope of variables considered in attempts to understand the relationship between life- and job satisfaction should be expanded and suggestions for future research are offered.