Laura Heijnen – Working Man
Problem 6. What works best?
Arnold & Randall (2010) – Work psychology. Understanding human behaviour in the workplace –
Chapter 7: Attitudes at work
Judge, Thoresen, Bono & Patton (2001) – The job satisfaction job performance relationship: A
qualitative and quantitative review
Landy & Conte (2013) – Work in the 21st century: An introduction to industrial and organizational
psychology – Module 4.1: A Basic Model of Performance
Spector (2012) – Industrial and organizational psychology: Research and practice – Chapter 9: Feelings
About Work: Job Attitudes and Emotions
Spector (2012) – Industrial and organizational psychology: Research and practice – Chapter 10:
Productive and Counterproductive Employee Behavior
I: The happy worker
What is job satisfaction?
Job satisfaction: person’s evaluation and feelings about his/her job. Pleasurable/positive
emotional state resulting from appraisal of one’s job or job experiences.
- Importance:
o Indicator of person’s psychological well-being/mental health unlikely
unhappy at work but happy in general.
o Leads to motivation + good work performance don’t necessarily occur.
- 3 approaches:
o Work attitudes (e.g. job satisfaction) are dispositional stable dispositions
learned through experience or based on genetic inheritance personality
characteristic rather than attitude + satisfaction cannot be improved.
o Social information processing model: job satisfaction developed out of
experiences + info provided by others at work interpreting + evaluating
work.
o Information processing mode: cognitive info about workplace + job influences
job satisfaction (= most obvious approach).
- Types:
o Global satisfaction: how thinking/feeling about job as a whole.
o Facet satisfaction: how thinking/feeling about specific aspects of work, e.g.
pay, work activities, working conditions, career prospects, relationships with
superiors + relationships with colleagues more complete picture of job
satisfaction.
- Cross-cultural differences: highest in Scandinavia, Germany, and Austria, lowest in
Eastern Europe. Reason might be basic values varying across countries (Hofstede’s
culture values).
Measuring job satisfaction
- Job Description Index & Occupational Stress Indicator: questions/statements asking
respondents to indicate what they think/feel about job as a whole and/or specific
aspects.
o JDI: 5 facets (work, pay, promotion opportunities, supervision, co-workers)
might not cover all facets of job.
- Likert scaling, using different facets to measure something.
1
Problem 6. What works best?
Arnold & Randall (2010) – Work psychology. Understanding human behaviour in the workplace –
Chapter 7: Attitudes at work
Judge, Thoresen, Bono & Patton (2001) – The job satisfaction job performance relationship: A
qualitative and quantitative review
Landy & Conte (2013) – Work in the 21st century: An introduction to industrial and organizational
psychology – Module 4.1: A Basic Model of Performance
Spector (2012) – Industrial and organizational psychology: Research and practice – Chapter 9: Feelings
About Work: Job Attitudes and Emotions
Spector (2012) – Industrial and organizational psychology: Research and practice – Chapter 10:
Productive and Counterproductive Employee Behavior
I: The happy worker
What is job satisfaction?
Job satisfaction: person’s evaluation and feelings about his/her job. Pleasurable/positive
emotional state resulting from appraisal of one’s job or job experiences.
- Importance:
o Indicator of person’s psychological well-being/mental health unlikely
unhappy at work but happy in general.
o Leads to motivation + good work performance don’t necessarily occur.
- 3 approaches:
o Work attitudes (e.g. job satisfaction) are dispositional stable dispositions
learned through experience or based on genetic inheritance personality
characteristic rather than attitude + satisfaction cannot be improved.
o Social information processing model: job satisfaction developed out of
experiences + info provided by others at work interpreting + evaluating
work.
o Information processing mode: cognitive info about workplace + job influences
job satisfaction (= most obvious approach).
- Types:
o Global satisfaction: how thinking/feeling about job as a whole.
o Facet satisfaction: how thinking/feeling about specific aspects of work, e.g.
pay, work activities, working conditions, career prospects, relationships with
superiors + relationships with colleagues more complete picture of job
satisfaction.
- Cross-cultural differences: highest in Scandinavia, Germany, and Austria, lowest in
Eastern Europe. Reason might be basic values varying across countries (Hofstede’s
culture values).
Measuring job satisfaction
- Job Description Index & Occupational Stress Indicator: questions/statements asking
respondents to indicate what they think/feel about job as a whole and/or specific
aspects.
o JDI: 5 facets (work, pay, promotion opportunities, supervision, co-workers)
might not cover all facets of job.
- Likert scaling, using different facets to measure something.
1
