How important are dispositional factors as determinants of job satisfaction? Implications for job design and other personnel programs.

Abstract

According to recent research, stable dispositional factors result in considerable in attitudes such as job satisfaction across time and situations. If true, this finding have important implications. For example, Staw and Ross (1985) argued that many situational changes such as job redesign . . . not affect individuals as intended. Such personnel programs may be prone to failure because they must contend with attitudinal consistency (p. 478). The present article has two purposes. Fiist, methodological and conceptual problems with the Staw and Ross assessment of the impact of situational and dispositional factors on job satisfaction are discussed. Second, given Staw and Ross's focus on job redesign, this article examines the impact on job satisfaction of changes in two very different measures of job complexity. Findings indicate that changes in situational factors such as job complexity are important predictors of job satisfaction, consistent with Hackman and Oldham's (1975, 1976) job design model. In contrast, measurement problems preclude accurate assessment of the predictive power of dispositional factors. Contrary to the concern raised by Staw and Ross (1985) and Staw, Bell, and Clausen (1986), it does not appear likely that the success of personnel programs will be significantly constrained by the influence of attitudinal consistency. Locke (1969) denned job satisfaction as a function of the perceived relationship between what one wants from one's job and what one perceives it as offering. Presumably, this definition points to the importance of both dispositional and situational factors as determinants of job satisfaction. In practice, however, Mitchell (1979) suggested that personality variables have received relatively little attention in empirical research on