Personal Characteristics and Job Satisfaction

This study examines the relationships among job satisfaction and selected personal variables. Data were collected from 659 participants in various occupational areas in the Czech Republic (managers, accountants, in sales/insurance, PR, advertising, health service, teachers, nature conservation as well as manual workers and different kinds of skilled workers). The study revealed several personal correlates of job satisfaction. Low negative correlation between job satisfaction and age was found. Next, individuals with higher level of education are more satisfied in job than workers with lower level of education. However, this trend does not hold for individuals with the highest level of education. Those employees are slightly less satisfied. A decreased level of job satisfaction of employees with a higher level of education is explained in terms of certain disappointment - those people realized that their education did not lead to extrinsic rewards such as money, prestige, authority, and autonomy. No significant gender differences in job satisfaction were found. Further, managers and employees with supervisory responsibility were more satisfied than workers without supervisory responsibility. Workers are slightly more satisfied in large companies with more than 500 employees than in smaller organizations. Moreover, the data revealed that employees from international corporations are definitely more satisfied than employees from other types of organizations. The least satisfied are employees working in public/governmental organizations. Finally, an association between personal traits of the Five-factor personality model, self-efficacy and job satisfaction was inspected. The data indicated that agreeableness, stability, openness, and self-efficacy were positively related to the total job satisfaction.