Individual differences in personality, position in the organization, and job satisfaction

Abstract

Recent research has demonstrated that affective responses to work are related more directly to the structural characteristics of the organization than to individual differences. Individual characteristics, however, have often been thought to be antecedent to job satisfaction, but relevant empirical evidence supporting this notion has not been accumulated. The research reported here examines the relationships among 13 individual traits, 3 structural characteristics of the position, and 5 aspects of job satisfaction. Partial correlations were first used to control for the effects of the structural characteristics, and canonical correlations computed to assess relationships among personality variables and job satisfaction. No significant relationships were found. Canonical correlations between structural characteristics and job satisfaction with personality traits partialled out were significant. These results were validated by randomly splitting the sample and recomputing the analyses. The general hypothesis that individual work-related traits affect job satisfaction was supported only insofar as intrinsic traits may predict attainment of position. Structural characteristics appear to be more directly linked to job attitudes than personality traits.