Assessing the Influence of Personality, Affectivity, and Mood on Job Satisfaction and Job Behaviors: A Test of Alternative Models

"Although job satisfaction is traditionally defined as ""an affective reaction...to a job (p.1; Cranny et al., 1992),"" the tools used to measure it rarely assess it as such. Researchers have systematically overlooked affective components of job attitudes, focusing instead on comparisons of actual and desired outcomes, a cognitive evaluation of the job. To address this oversight, Weiss and Cropanzano (1996) proposed Affective Events Theory (AET) that incorporates both job affect and job satisfaction in the prediction of important job behaviors. Job affect and job satisfaction, assessed as cognitive evaluations, are hypothesized to be related differentially to various job behaviors. Specifically, spontaneous behaviors (e.g., volunteering for tasks) are likely to be influenced by affective components while more deliberate behaviors (e.g., turnover, absence) are likely to be influenced by cognitive evaluations. In this research, AET was modified to account for both affectivity and personality and their relationships with the components of job attitudes and job behaviors. Several alternative models were proposed based on the literature on job attitudes, job behaviors, personality, affectivity, and mood at work. These models were tested using structural equation modeling on a sample of employees from a local government agency in the Midwest ( n = 453) and then cross-validated on a sample of employees from a telecommunications company (n = 364). The results indicate that assessments of both personality, as instantiated by neuroticism and extraversion, and affectivity do not seem necessary; rather, one will suffice. This research provides support that job affect influences spontaneous behaviors, such as ORBs/work withdrawal and OCBs. This result may explain why some researchers do not find a relationship between satisfaction and OCBs and work withdrawal. If most researchers are using cognitive items to assess satisfaction, relationships between these measures and OCBs and work withdrawal should not be expected. However, the results obtained from this study suggest that both job affect and cognitive components predict job withdrawal intentions, and in some instances, affect at work is a stronger predictor of these behaviors. This result is contrary to the predictions of AET. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed."

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Munson, Liberty Joy

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hulin, Charles L.

• Psychology, Personality

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI9990097

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/82321