Integrating person and situation perspectives on work satisfaction: A social-cognitive view

This study reports results of a meta-analysis linking traits from the 5-factor model of personality to overall job satisfaction. Using the model as an organizing framework, 334 correlations from 163 independent samples were classified according to the model. The estimated true score correlations with job satisfaction were -.29 for Neuroticism, .25 for Extraversion, .02 for Openness to Experience, .17 for Agreeableness, and .26 for Conscientiousness. Results further indicated that only the relations of Neuroticism and Extraversion with job satisfaction generalized across studies. As a set, the Big Five traits had a multiple correlation of .41 with job satisfaction, indicating support for the validity of the dispositional source of job satisfaction when traits are organized according to the 5-factor model.

Two main theoretical approaches have been put forward to explain individual differences in life satisfaction: top-down (i.e., personological) and bottom-up (i.e., situational). The authors examine the relative merit of these 2 approaches and the psychological processes underlying top-down models. Consistent with a top-down approach, meta-analytic findings indicate that Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness are related to both various domain satisfactions and life satisfaction; however, consistent with a bottom-up approach, domain satisfactions are strongly linked to life satisfaction but only weakly linked to each other. Path analyses based on meta-analytic estimates did not support a simple "direct-effects" top-down model but supported both (a) a temperament-based top-down model and (b) an integrative model that incorporates the direct influence of domain satisfactions on life satisfaction.