The job satisfaction‐gender paradox revisited

Abstract

PurposeUsing Westover's job satisfaction model (based on Kalleberg's 1977 findings and Handel's 2005 study) the purpose of this paper is to re‐examine the job satisfaction‐gender paradox by analyzing cross‐national gender differences in job satisfaction, specifically as these changes relate to differences in the characteristics that men and women experience in the workplace.Design/methodology/approachThis research uses non‐panel longitudinal data from the International Social Survey Program (work orientations I, II, and III: 1989, 1997, 2005 – survey questions on job characteristics and job quality) to examine cross‐national gender differences in job satisfaction and its determinants.FindingsDescriptive statistics and regression analysis show that there is little consistent difference in mean job satisfaction and intrinsic job characteristics scores between men and women across the participating countries in the three ways of data.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitations of this research include: that the key variables are subjective single item indicators; the non‐panel longitudinal nature of the data, meaning one cannot specifically test the direction of causality among the variables examined as easily as would be possible with panel longitudinal data; and some variables of interest and other important control variables could not be included in the analysis, as data were not available for all three waves of the survey.Practical implicationsDue to the fact the worker job satisfaction impacts individual well‐being and a variety of organizational performance outcomes, organizations need to recognize gender differences in employee workplace experiences and the determinants of job satisfaction, particularly from a cross‐national perspective.Social implicationsAs there is a variety of ethical considerations related to gender differences in the workplace, as well as the fact that job satisfaction impacts a variety of societal outcomes, organizations need to recognize gender differences in job satisfaction, and its determinants cross‐nationally.Originality/valueThe main contribution of this paper is the re‐examination of the job satisfaction‐gender paradox by analyzing cross‐national gender differences in job satisfaction from 1989 to 2005, specifically as these changes relate to differences in the characteristics that men and women experience in the workplace.