Deconstructing job satisfaction: Separating evaluations, beliefs and affective experiences

Abstract In this paper I argue that standard treatments of job satisfaction have inappropriately defined satisfaction as affect and in so doing have obscured the differences among three separate, if related, constructs. These key constructs are overall evaluative judgments about jobs, affective experiences at work, and beliefs about jobs. I show that clearly separating these constructs is consistent with current, basic research and theory on attitudes as well as with current research and theory on “subjective well-being” (SWB). I also argue that the separation of the constructs can produce better criterion predictions than job satisfaction has by itself, suggests new areas of research that cannot be envisioned when satisfaction and affect are treated as equivalent constructs, and requires the development of new measurement systems.

[1]  K. Edwards,et al.  The Interplay of Affect and Cognition in Attitude Formation and Change , 1990 .

[2]  A. H. Brayfield,et al.  Employee attitudes and employee performance. , 1955, Psychological bulletin.

[3]  P. Ellsworth,et al.  Beyond simple pessimism: effects of sadness and anger on social perception. , 1993, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[4]  V. Vroom.  Work and motivation , 1964 .

[5]  R. Fazio.  On the power and functionality of attitudes: The role of attitude accessibility. , 1989 .

[6]  Timothy A. Judge,et al.  Job satisfaction : how people feel about their jobs and how it affects their performance , 1994 .

[7]  John P. Campbell,et al.  JOB SATISFACTION: ARE ALL THE PARTS THERE? , 1983 .

[8]  Susan T. Fiske,et al.  Affective and semantic components in political person perception. , 1982 .

[9]  Russell Cropanzano,et al.  Effects of justice conditions on discrete emotions. , 1999 .

[10]  Richard E. Lucas,et al.  Subjective Weil-Being: Three Decades of Progress , 2004 .

[11]  Steven J. Breckler,et al.  Affect versus evaluation in the structure of attitudes , 1989 .

[12]  M. Zanna,et al.  Attitudes and Attitude Change , 1993 .

[13]  T. K. Srull,et al.  Handbook of Social Cognition , 1993 .

[14]  Scott Highhouse,et al.  Facet measures and global job satisfaction , 1993 .

[15]  N. Frijda.  Moods, emotion episodes, and emotions. , 1993 .

[16]  David Trafimow,et al.  Some Tests of the Distinction between Cognitive and Affective Beliefs , 1998 .

[17]  Howard M. Weiss,et al.  Learning theory and industrial and organizational psychology. , 1990 .

[18]  John B. Miner,et al.  Industrial-Organizational Psychology , 1991 .

[19]  Richard E. Lucas,et al.  Discriminant validity of well-being measures. , 1996, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[20]  Arthur P. Brief,et al.  Job Attitude Organization: An Exploratory Study1 , 1989 .

[21]  Ed Diener,et al.  Assessing subjective well-being: Progress and opportunities , 1994 .

[22]  Edwin A. Locke,et al.  Job satisfaction. , 1969, Hospital administration currents.

[23]  E. A. Locke.  The nature and causes of job satisfaction , 1976 .

[24]  S. Chaiken,et al.  The psychology of attitudes. , 1993 .

[25]  R. Fazio,et al.  Attitude accessibility as a moderator of the attitude-perception and attitude-behavior relations: an investigation of the 1984 presidential election. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[26]  H. Triandis,et al.  The Shifting Basis of Life Satisfaction Judgments Across Cultures: Emotions Versus Norms , 1998 .

[27]  Arthur P. Brief,et al.  Attitudes in and around organizations , 1998 .

[28]  Marlene E. Turner,et al.  Of What Value is a Job Attitude? A Socio-Cognitive Analysis , 1994 .

[29]  A. Isen,et al.  Toward understanding the role of affect in cognition. , 1984 .

[30]  Frank M. Andrews,et al.  Social Indicators of Well-Being , 1976 .

[31]  A. Tesser,et al.  The effects of affective-cognitive consistency and thought on the attitude-behavior relation , 1989 .

[32]  R. Dawis,et al.  Adjustment to work : a psychological view of man's problems in a work-oriented society , 1969 .

[33]  A. Tesser,et al.  Effects of affective and cognitive focus on the attitude–behavior relation. , 1986 .

[34]  Charles L. Hulin,et al.  Adaptation, persistence, and commitment in organizations. , 1991 .

[35]  G. Kaufmann,et al.  'Paradoxical' Mood Effects on Creative Problem-solving , 1997 .

[36]  Duane T. Wegener,et al.  Attitudes and attitude change. , 1997, Annual review of psychology.

[37]  K. Motamedi.  The quality of American life , 1976 .

[38]  H. Weiss,et al.  Affective Events Theory: A theoretical discussion of the structure, causes and consequences of affective experiences at work. , 1996 .

[39]  Kate B. Carey,et al.  A Structural Analysis of Attitudes toward Alcohol and Marijuana Use , 1998 .

[40]  H. Weiss,et al.  An Examination of the Joint Effects of Affective Experiences and Job Beliefs on Job Satisfaction and Variations in Affective Experiences over Time. , 1999, Organizational behavior and human decision processes.

[41]  Melvin M. Mark,et al.  The influence of mood state on judgment and action: Effects on persuasion, categorization, social justice, person perception, and judgmental accuracy , 1992 .

[42]  R. Larsen,et al.  The experience of emotional well-being. , 1993 .

[43]  R. Petty,et al.  Measuring the Affective and Cognitive Properties of Attitudes: Conceptual and Methodological Issues , 1994 .