A State-Trait Analysis of Job Satisfaction: On the Effect of Core Self-Evaluations
Doris Fay is now at Aston Business School, Aston University, Birmingham, UK.
The project AHUS (Aktives Handeln in einer Umbruchsituation—Active actions in a radical change situation) was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, No. Fr 638/6-6) (principal investigator: Michael Frese). Thanks are due to the two firms Bayrische Hypotheken—und Wechselbank and Tobacco Reynolds, as well as the “Hundertjahre Stiftung” of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich—they all helped at the beginning of the project. Other members of the project have been and are: Doris Fay, Harry Garst, Sabine Hilligloh, Christa Speier, Thomas Wagner, and Jeannette Zempel, Giessen.
Other parts of this large-scale project were published by Frese, Kring, Soose, and Zempel (1996), Frese, Fay, Hilburger, Leng, and Tag (1997), Speier and Frese (1997), Dormann and Zapf (1999, 2002), Garst, Frese, and Molenaar (2000), Fay and Frese (2000a, 2000b, 2001), Warr and Fay (2001), and Fay and Sonnentag (2002); these publications did not focus on job satisfaction. Only one publication looked at job satisfaction ( Dormann & Zapf, 2001), but it had a different theoretical emphasis and did not analyse the job stayers of the present study and none of the personality variables.
Abstract
Une recherche récente qui portait sur les fondements caractériels de la satisfaction au travail s’est focalisée sur le rapport entre la satisfaction professionnelle observée et le noyau central des autoévaluations (CSE). Cette étude s’est occupée d’une part de la relation entre la variance-trait de la satisfaction au travail et le CSE et d’autre part de la structure des variables CSE. En faisant le choix d’un modèle de mesure longitudinal, nous avons d’abord recherché si le CSE était suffisamment stable, cela à partir d’une analyse secondaire de quatre périodes successives. Les résultats montrent une forte stabilité du CSE (.87 sur deux ans). Nous avons ensuite opéré une scission état-trait de la satisfaction professionnelle de façon à dissocier la variance-trait de la satisfaction au travail de la variance instable. Le facteur stable de satisfaction professionnelle fut mis en rapport, par régression, avec les variables CSE, en utilisant plusieurs modèles de CSE (une sommation, un facteur latent ou un concept global). D’après les résultats, il vaut mieux traiter les variables CSE comme une sommation, et cette série rend compte de presque toute la variance stable de la satisfaction professionnelle (84%). En outre, seuls l’affectivité négative et le locus of control interne avaient un impact significatif, alors que l’estime de soi et l’efficience personnelle n’en avaient pas. On conclut que la conception actuelle du CSE comme concept supraordonné englobant quatre dimensions est défendable, mais trop générale pour les recherches sur la satisfaction professionnelle; il est plus satisfaisant et suffisant d’analyser à la fois l’affectivité négative et le locus of control.
Recent research that looked into the dispositional base of job satisfaction focused on relating observed job satisfaction to core self-evaluations (CSE). This study was concerned with (a) the relation between the trait variance of job satisfaction and CSE and (b) the structure of the CSE-variables. Using a longitudinal measurement model in a secondary analysis of four waves of a longitudinal study we first tested whether CSE are sufficiently stable over time. Results indicate a high stability of CSE (.87 across 2 years). We then performed a state-trait decomposition of job satisfaction in order to separate trait variance of job satisfaction from changing variance. The stable job satisfaction factor was regressed on CSE-variables, using different models of CSE (a collective set, a latent factor, or an aggregate concept). Results were in favor of treating the CSE-variables as a collective set, and this set explained almost all stable variance of job satisfaction (84%). Moreover, only negative affectivity and internal locus of control had a significant impact, whereas self-esteem and self-efficacy had not. It is concluded that current conceptualisations of CSE as a superordinate concept underlying its four dimensions is possible but overly broad in job satisfaction research; collective consideration of LOC and NA is better and sufficient.
