The Effects of Occupational Conditions and Individual Characteristics on the Importance of Self-Esteem Sources in the Workplace

Abstract

Social-psychological theory regarding self-esteem formation posits three primary sources of self-evaluative information: reflected appraisals, social comparisons, and self-perceptions. This article explores how characteristics of the situation and of the individual affect the importance attached to each of these potential sources of self-esteem in the workplace. Survey data from workers (N = 250) in five work organizations were used to examine how the occupational conditions of routinization, control, interaction demands, and job prestige affected the importance of these sources of self-evaluative information. The effects of age, sex, self-esteem, and work enjoyment—as individual characteristics—were also examined. It was found that interaction demands on the job significantly increased the importance attached to self-perceived competence and social comparisons as sources of self-esteem and that self-perceived competence was more important to women than men.