Carl J. Thoresen

The job satisfaction-job performance relationship: a qualitative and quantitative review.

A qualitative and quantitative review of the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance is provided. The qualitative review is organized around 7 models that characterize past research on the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. Although some models have received more support than have others, research has not provided conclusive confirmation or disconfirmation of any model, partly because of a lack of assimilation and integration in the literature. Research devoted to testing these models waned following 2 meta-analyses of the job satisfaction-job performance relationship. Because of limitations in these prior analyses and the misinterpretation of their findings, a new meta-analysis was conducted on 312 samples with a combined N of 54,417. The mean true correlation between overall job satisfaction and job performance was estimated to be .30. In light of these results and the qualitative review, an agenda for future research on the satisfaction-performance relationship is provided.

Are measures of self-esteem, neuroticism, locus of control, and generalized self-efficacy indicators of a common core construct?

The authors present results of 4 studies that seek to determine the discriminant and incremental validity of the 3 most widely studied traits in psychology-self-esteem, neuroticism, and locus of control-along with a 4th, closely related trait-generalized self-efficacy. Meta-analytic results indicated that measures of the 4 traits were strongly related. Results also demonstrated that a single factor explained the relationships among measures of the 4 traits. The 4 trait measures display relatively poor discriminant validity, and each accounted for little incremental variance in predicting external criteria relative to the higher order construct. In light of these results, the authors suggest that measures purporting to assess self-esteem, locus of control, neuroticism, and generalized self-efficacy may be markers of the same higher order concept.

Managerial coping with organizational change: A dispositional perspective.

In a departure from the organizational development literature, this study hypothesized that managerial responses to organizational change are influenced by 7 dispositional traits (locus of control, generalized self-efficacy, self-esteem, positive affectivity, openness to experience, tolerance for ambiguity, and risk aversion). Data were collected from 6 organizations (N = 514) to test the hypotheses. The 7 traits were reduced to 2 factors: Positive Self-Concept and Risk Tolerance. Both of these trait factors significantly predicted self-reports and independent assessments of coping with change. Results also indicated that coping with organizational change was related to extrinsic (salary, job level, plateauing, job performance) and intrinsic (organizational commitment, job satisfaction) career outcomes and that coping mediated roughly half of the relationships between the dispositional factors and these career outcomes. In a recent review of the literature, Quinn, Kahn, and Mandl (1994) noted that research in the field of organizational change and development has evolved from four major paradigms: organizational development, strategic choice, resource dependence-institutional theory, and population ecology. That all four of these paradigms consider change at the organizational level is a telling depiction of the organizational change literature. Research dealing with organizational change has been largely dominated by a macro, systems-oriented focus. Some researchers have called for a more micro, person-oriented focus pertaining to issues important in change (Bray, 1994), yet micro-level research on organizational change remains limited. Studies of individual behavior in relation to organizational change typically have

The affective underpinnings of job perceptions and attitudes: a meta-analytic review and integration.

Using psychometric meta-analysis, the authors present a quantitative and qualitative review (k = 205, total pairwise N = 62,527) of the literature relating trait and state positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) to job-related attitudes, including job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intentions, and dimensions of job burnout. Results indicated substantial correlations, ranging in absolute value from -.17 (PA and turnover intentions; NA and personal accomplishment) to.54 (NA and emotional exhaustion). Correlational results largely were consistent across hypothesized and exploratory moderator conditions. Meta-analytic multiple regression results generally supported the unique contribution of each affect to each attitude variable of interest. Implications and suggestions for future research on emotion-related aspects of job attitudes are discussed.

Five-factor model of personality and employee absence

The present study investigates the degree to which dimensions of the 5-factor model of personality (often termed the Big Five) are related to absence. On the basis of previous descriptions of the Big Five traits and drawing from prior research, the authors hypothesized that neuroticism and extroversion would positively predict absence and conscientiousness would negatively predict absence. Also, they hypothesized that absence history (absence proneness), measured by the absence that occurred the year prior to the study, would partly mediate the relationship between the personality characteristics and subsequent absenteeism. Data were collected from a sample of 89 university employees. Results suggest that extraversion and conscientiousness predicted absenteeism and that part, but not all, of the relationship between these traits and absence was mediated through absence history. A recent trend in organizationa l research is dispositional explanations for the attitudes individuals display at work and their subsequent effects on employee behavior. This body of research has led to renewed debate over the relative effects of dispositional versus situational variables on work attitudes, roles, and behaviors. Therefore, whereas some argue that dispositional constructs are relevant to understanding human behavior (House, Shane, & Herold, 1996), others suggest that situational variables are more useful predictors of peoples attitudes and behaviors in organizationa l settings and that the search for dispositional effects likely will prove unproductive

The big five personality traits and individual job performance growth trajectories in maintenance and transitional job stages.

This study extends the literature on personality and job performance through the use of random coefficient modeling to test the validity of the Big Five personality traits in predicting overall sales performance and sales performance trajectories--or systematic patterns of performance growth--in 2 samples of pharmaceutical sales representatives at maintenance and transitional job stages (K. R. Murphy, 1989). In the maintenance sample, conscientiousness and extraversion were positively associated with between-person differences in total sales, whereas only conscientiousness predicted performance growth. In the transitional sample, agreeableness and openness to experience predicted overall performance differences and performance trends. All effects remained significant with job tenure statistically controlled. Possible explanations for these findings are offered, and theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed.

A note on the relationship between affect(ivity) and differing conceptualizations of job satisfaction: Some unexpected meta-analytic findings

This study investigated whether the relationships between positive (PA) and negative affect (NA) and job satisfaction (JS) differ as a function of the satisfaction measure being primarily affective or cognitive in nature. Subject matter experts classified JS measures as being primarily affective or cognitive. A series of meta-analyses involving between 17 and 63 primary studies revealed that PA, but not NA, correlated more strongly with affective JS measures. Analyses comparing specific measures suggest that the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire is most cognitive in nature and that the Faces scale is most affective. The results indicate that affect predicts, but is not synonymous with, affective assessments of satisfaction. Discussion focuses on the discrepant mechanisms through which PA and NA may impact satisfaction.

Self-Regulation and Performance in High-Fidelity Simulations: An Extension of Ego-Depletion Research

This article extends the research literature related to “ego-depletion.” Although numerous studies have focused on the self-regulatory failure associated with ego-depletion, the extant literature is generally characterized by relatively simple behavioral manipulations and dependent measures. Two studies are described that extend previous ego-depletion findings by employing a high-fidelity, customer service simulation as an ego-depleting manipulation (Study 1) and by using performance on a cognitively demanding naval combat simulator as a dependent measure (Study 2). Results of both studies show the generalizability of the effects of ego-depletion; the implications for self-regulatory failure in more naturalistic settings are discussed.