Age, tenure, and job satisfaction: A tale of two perspectives

Abstract

This study was designed to explore the relations among tenure, age, and job satisfaction as a way of testing two alternative paradigmatic perspectives. Accordingly, it tells a “tale of two perspectives” in which previous researchers, using different “lenses,” have seen different things even though ostensibly viewing the same employee characteristics. Hierarchical polynomial regression analysis was used to assess the form of the relations between tenure/age and job satisfaction, and to compare the stability of the relations as suggested by job experience and career stage models for separate samples of male (n = 172) and female (n = 592) respondents. Results indicate that though age and tenure are natural dependent, time-related variables which co-vary with one another, they are distinct variables leading to different outcomes. Tenure (however measured) was a more consistent and stable predictor of job satisfaction than chronological age. The functional relation between tenure and job satisfaction, however, was found to differ for males and females.