Course 1.7. Organizational Psychology
Problem 5.Job satisfaction-Organizational commitment
Job satisfaction
Job satisfaction: An attitudinal variable reflects how people feel about their jobs overall and
for various aspects of the job. (The extent to people like their jobs and job dissatisfaction the
extent to which they dislike their jobs)
Global approach: Treats job satisfaction as a single, overall feeling towards the job.
(most used)
Facet approach: Focus on the different aspects of the job, like rewards, other people
on the job, job conditions and the nature of work itself.
You can like your job globally but dislike the aspects of it.
There are cultural differences in job satisfaction:
Individualism/Collectivism: Autonomy and self-interest VS Connected and group-
focused.
Masculinity/Femininity: Job performance VS well-being and health of the
employees.
Power distance: Tolerance for power and status differences.
Uncertainty avoidance: The level of comfort in unpredictable situations.
Three approaches to job satisfaction:
1. Dispositional approach: Nature dispositions, personal characteristics through
experience or genetics.
2. Social-information processing model: Experiences and information provided by
others at work.
3. Information processing model: Accumulating cognitive information on the
workplace and the job. (characteristics of the job-satisfaction)
Measuring Job Satisfaction
Overall satisfaction: Results from mathematically combining scores based on satisfaction
with specific important aspects of work or a single overall evaluative rating of the job.
, Course 1.7. Organizational Psychology
Problem 5.Job satisfaction-Organizational commitment
Facet satisfaction: Information related to specific facets or elements of job satisfaction.
Overall, measurement or satisfaction is performed by using questionnaires, or interviews.
Questionnaires are used most of the time because they require little time and effort, they
are anonymous. (Rare form of measuring is asking the supervisor)
Job Descriptive Index (JDI)
Assessment of 5 facets (work, Pay, Promotion opportunity, Supervision, Coworkers)
that result in overall job satisfaction (not true)
Most popular
High validity, reliability
o Does not cover all the facets, has translation problems.
Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ)
100-item (long version), 20-item (short version) that both measure 20 facets
Long version: facet scores calculation
Short version: Global or intrinsic-extrinsic satisfaction= nature of tasks and how
people feel- Aspects of the work situation.
Reliability, validity high
o Classification in extrinsic intrinsic groups in doubt.
Job in General Scale (JIG)
Scale of glob satisfaction-no facet reflection
18 items, adjectives/short phrases about the job in general.
Good reliability and correlates with other global scales.
→Additional scales: Overall js scale, scale of occupational stress indicator, js survey
Critiques: By summing up the facet scores to one global score of job satisfaction we are
making the assumption that every facet is similarly contributing to global job satisfaction. So,
facet sum is just an approximation to job satisfaction.
Antecendents of job
satisfaction
Environmental
1. Job characteristics: content and nature of job tasks themselves. These core
characteristics describe the scope/complexity of the job.
Skill variety (number of skills necessary for a job) – 0.29
Task identity (does an employee has an entire or a piece of job) – 0.20
Task significance (Impact of job on other people) – 0.26
Problem 5.Job satisfaction-Organizational commitment
Job satisfaction
Job satisfaction: An attitudinal variable reflects how people feel about their jobs overall and
for various aspects of the job. (The extent to people like their jobs and job dissatisfaction the
extent to which they dislike their jobs)
Global approach: Treats job satisfaction as a single, overall feeling towards the job.
(most used)
Facet approach: Focus on the different aspects of the job, like rewards, other people
on the job, job conditions and the nature of work itself.
You can like your job globally but dislike the aspects of it.
There are cultural differences in job satisfaction:
Individualism/Collectivism: Autonomy and self-interest VS Connected and group-
focused.
Masculinity/Femininity: Job performance VS well-being and health of the
employees.
Power distance: Tolerance for power and status differences.
Uncertainty avoidance: The level of comfort in unpredictable situations.
Three approaches to job satisfaction:
1. Dispositional approach: Nature dispositions, personal characteristics through
experience or genetics.
2. Social-information processing model: Experiences and information provided by
others at work.
3. Information processing model: Accumulating cognitive information on the
workplace and the job. (characteristics of the job-satisfaction)
Measuring Job Satisfaction
Overall satisfaction: Results from mathematically combining scores based on satisfaction
with specific important aspects of work or a single overall evaluative rating of the job.
, Course 1.7. Organizational Psychology
Problem 5.Job satisfaction-Organizational commitment
Facet satisfaction: Information related to specific facets or elements of job satisfaction.
Overall, measurement or satisfaction is performed by using questionnaires, or interviews.
Questionnaires are used most of the time because they require little time and effort, they
are anonymous. (Rare form of measuring is asking the supervisor)
Job Descriptive Index (JDI)
Assessment of 5 facets (work, Pay, Promotion opportunity, Supervision, Coworkers)
that result in overall job satisfaction (not true)
Most popular
High validity, reliability
o Does not cover all the facets, has translation problems.
Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ)
100-item (long version), 20-item (short version) that both measure 20 facets
Long version: facet scores calculation
Short version: Global or intrinsic-extrinsic satisfaction= nature of tasks and how
people feel- Aspects of the work situation.
Reliability, validity high
o Classification in extrinsic intrinsic groups in doubt.
Job in General Scale (JIG)
Scale of glob satisfaction-no facet reflection
18 items, adjectives/short phrases about the job in general.
Good reliability and correlates with other global scales.
→Additional scales: Overall js scale, scale of occupational stress indicator, js survey
Critiques: By summing up the facet scores to one global score of job satisfaction we are
making the assumption that every facet is similarly contributing to global job satisfaction. So,
facet sum is just an approximation to job satisfaction.
Antecendents of job
satisfaction
Environmental
1. Job characteristics: content and nature of job tasks themselves. These core
characteristics describe the scope/complexity of the job.
Skill variety (number of skills necessary for a job) – 0.29
Task identity (does an employee has an entire or a piece of job) – 0.20
Task significance (Impact of job on other people) – 0.26
