Timothy A. Judge University of Florida 30 November 2006

1. Job Satisfaction:Implications for Science and PolicyNSF Meeting on the National Accounts of Well-Being Timothy A. Judge University of Florida 30 November 2006

2. PreliminariesImportance of work • People spend majority of waking hours engaged in work • Principal source of identity in Western world • reflected in doing (“what do you do?”) and being (surnames) • Thus, how people react affectively and cognitively to the work role mightbe of consequence behaviorally

3. PreliminariesWhy: ‘might be of consequence’? • Job satisfaction is an attitude, and support for attitude-behavior linkage has been inconsistent in social psychology • “there is considerable variability in the degree to which attitudes predict behavior” (Glasman & Albarracín, Psych. Bulletin, 2006) • Why might job satisfaction be different? • Job satisfaction may be more salient (personal) than typical social attitudes

4. PreliminariesThree imperatives • Job satisfaction – outcome relationships must achieve construct correspondence • Affect (mood and emotions) must be considered in job satisfaction models and methods • Job satisfaction must be construed as a multilevel phenomenon

5. 1 Correspondence imperativeWork outcomes of job affect • Job satisfaction related to impressive array of work behaviors • Job performance (Judge et al., 2002) • Attendance at work (Sagie, 1998) • Turnover decisions (-) (Tett & Meyer, 1993) • Decisions to retire (-) (Sibbald, Bojke, & Gravelle, 2003) • Psychological withdrawal (-)(Necowitz & Roznowski, 1994) • Prosocial/citizenship behaviors (LePine et al., 2002) • Prounion representation votes (-)(Friedman et al., 2006) • Workplace incivility (-)(Mount, Ilies, & Johnson, 2006)

6. 1 Correspondence imperativeLife outcomes of job affect • Also related to many non-work indicators of well-being • Life satisfaction (Judge & Watanabe, 1993) • Physical and mental health (Cass, Siu, Faragher, & Cooper, 2003) • Other’s benefits: student learning, customer satisfaction, etc. (e.g., Homburg & Stock, 2004) • Quality of marital interaction (Rogers & May, 2003)

7. 1 Correspondence imperativeHowever… • Correlations with work behavior are reliable but not particularly strong • Most r’s .15≤r≤.35 (.32≤d≤.74) • Why? • Correspondence (Fishbein-Azjen) • Attitude-behavior linkages often have failed to achieve correspondence (Hulin & Roznowski, 1993) • Specific attitude predicting broad behavior • Broad attitude predicting specific behavior • Missing affect (thus failing to fully assess job satisfaction as the social attitude that it is)

8. 1 Correspondence imperativeJob satisfaction – job performance Mean r=.31 Mean d=.66 Number of correlations=311 .12-.50 .50-.88 Numbers of studies reporting d-value in category 0.88-1.26 -.25-.12 1.26-1.62 Job Satisfaction – Job Performance D-value Source: Judge, Thoresen, Bono, & Patton (Psych. Bulletin, 2002)

9. 1 Correspondence imperativeResults of recent study • When job attitudes (here, commitment+satisfaction) and outcome (here, ‘individual effectiveness’) are both construed broadly, effects are strong (Values are standardized coefficients) Source: Harrison, Newman, and Roth (2006)

10. 1 Correspondence imperativePractical nature of effects • Harter et al. (2002) linked 12-item Gallup Workplace Audit to the performance of 7,939 business units • “How satisfied are you with _____ as a place to work?” • “At work, my opinions seem to count” • “I know what is expected of me at work • Business units above the median on employee engagement had a 70% (i.e., [63%-37%]/37%) higher success rate than those below the median on employee engagement • Results were consistent across broad criteria of: • Customer satisfaction–loyalty: customer satisfaction, customer loyalty • Productivity: revenue, revenue-per-person • Profitability: profit as a percentage of revenue (sales) • Turnover: annualized percentage of employee turnover (turnover rate) • Safety: lost workday/time incident rate • Composite performance: overall or performance using all outcomes

11. 1 Correspondence imperativeSummary • When job satisfaction is construed and measured as a broad attitude, and… • when the behavioral manifestations of this attitude are similarly construed and measured broadly, then… • the attitude – behavior relationship is strong and theoretically and practically meaningful

12. 2 Affect imperativeHistorical role in job satisfaction research • Classical definition of job satisfaction • A pleasant or positive emotional state resulting from an appraisal of one’s job or job experiences (Locke, 1976) • It has been argued that researchers have emphasized cognition more than affect (Weiss, 2002; Hulin & Judge, 2003) • In theorizing and measurement • Why is this a problem?

13. 2 Affect imperativeTheory without affect Work role contributions Skills and abilities Time Effort Training Job withdrawal turnover(-) retirement(-) malingering (-) Environmental/ economic factors Work withdrawal absence (-) citizenship incivility (-) Frames of reference Job/work role evaluations Personality Work role outcomes Pay and benefits Status Working conditions Intrinsic outcomes Attempts to Δ work situation vote for union(-) job redesign

14. 2 Affect imperativeMeasurement without affect • Without trying to advance an artificial dualism between cognition and affect • Measures of job satisfaction are descriptive-evaluative Y for “Yes” if it describes (scored 3) N for “No” if it does NOT describe (scored 0) ? if you cannot decide (scored 1) • SUPERVISION COWORKERS • ___Impolite ___Boring • ___Praises good work ___Intelligent

15. 2 Affect imperativeImplications for research methods • Emphasizing role of affect poses problems • “Measurement of affect should reflect its statelike, episodic nature” (Hulin & Judge, 2003) • Unless we revise research design, we’ve reached a “methodological stalemate” (Larson & Csikszentmihalyi, 1983)

16. 2 Affect imperativeSummary • Affect theoretically important to any attitude – including job satisfaction • Theories, measures, and models in job satisfaction research have cognitive orientation • Including affect will require different research models and methods • Need to conceptualize job affect as multilevel phenomenon (next imperative)

17. 3 Multilevel imperativeConceptual model

18. 3 Multilevel imperativeRole of experience sampling methodology • One of the most promising means of conceptualizing job satisfaction as a multilevel phenomenon is to utilize designs that capture within-individual (daily variation); such designs show • Affective events influence job satisfaction • Job satisfaction associated with temporally-dependent moods/emotions • Job satisfaction affects daily variation in work and nonwork behaviors • Individual differences moderate the associations

19. 3 Multilevel imperativeMicro (individual-level) moderator Positive Mood at Home Low job satis- faction at work High job satis- faction at work Source: Judge and Ilies (2004)

20. 3 Multilevel imperativeMacro (cultural-level) moderator One way to investigate job satisfaction as a multilevel phenomenon is to aggregate at a higher (or decompose at a lower) level (than the typical individual difference perspective) Another way – on display here – is to consider higher-level variables as moderators of effects on, or consequences of, job attitudes Source: Huang and Vliert, 2004

21. 3 Multilevel imperativeConceptual framework Culture Cross-Cultural variation in job satisfaction National competitiveness/ quality of life Δ Ml+1 Organization Organizational-level variation in job satisfaction Organization performance/ sustainability Δ Ml+1 Work group Group-level differences in job satisfaction Individual differences in job satisfaction Δ Ml+1 Individual Individual differences in job satisfaction Performance, job/work withdrawal Δ Ml+1 Intra-individual Within-individual (e.g., diurnal) variation in job satisfaction Emotion-driven behavior Δ Ml+1

22. 3 Multilevel imperativeSummary • In addition to considering breadth, and affect, another way to further our understanding of the importance of job attitudes is to consider the multilevel nature of job satisfaction • Need to conceptualize outcomes – and moderators – that correspond to this multilevel nature

23. SummaryTakeaways • Job satisfaction is important to work and life outcomes • Especially when broad measures of job attitudes and outcomes are used • Affective and multilevel nature of job satisfaction have shown further practical import of construct

24. SummaryRecommendations • Measure it! • National Longitudinal Surveys suggest what is possible but measurement is very limited • Need for more multilevel, longitudinal research • Focus on quality of working life is natural non-partisan issue • Benefits to employees and employers

25. Questions or Comments? These slides and my articles available at: www.ufstudies.net/tim/VITA