Psychological determinants of portfolio workers’ satisfaction with life

Abstract

<b>Background</b><br /> The objective of the study was to evaluate which psychological variables are determinants of the level of satisfaction with life in the case of workers employed in more than one workplace, called portfolio workers. In the research, the transactional model of satisfaction with life by A. Zalewska, and also the model of multiwork by A. Lipińska-Grobelny, were referred to.<br /> <br /> <b>Participants and procedure</b><br /> Two hundred and eighteen portfolio workers and 218 monoworkers participated in the research. The studied individuals completed a self-made survey. The following techniques were also applied: the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS); the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS); the Formal Characteristics of Behaviour – Temperament Questionnaire (FCZ-KT); the Masculinity and Femininity Scale (SMiK); the Organisation Climate Questionnaire (KKO); and the Marital Communication Questionnaire (KKM).<br /> <br /> <b>Results</b><br /> The results indicate that satisfaction with life in the case of portfolio workers is determined by personal characteristics (ascribing a greater significance to the sphere of ‘achievements’, a higher level of activity), demands at work (exercising flextime control, a positive assessment of the system of rewards in a workplace), and demands in the family (a low level of depreciation in the relationship). In turn, a high level of satisfaction with life in the case of workers employed in a single workplace depends on: ascribing lower significance to the sphere of ‘achievements’ and to the values of ‘pleasure’ and ‘talented’, attaching major importance to the values of ‘loving’, a positive assessment of the system of rewards in a workplace, the number of children and a low level of depreciation in the relationship.<br /> <br /> <b>Conclusions</b><br /> The data referred to above constitute an important source of information about the ways of strengthening the cognitive dimension of satisfaction with life in the case of workers, with particular attention being paid to portfolio workers.