Personality and job satisfaction: The mediating role of job characteristics.

TLDR

Core self‑evaluations is a broad personality construct comprising self‑esteem, generalized self‑efficacy, locus of control, and low neuroticism. The study tested a model linking core self‑evaluations, intrinsic job characteristics, and job satisfaction, hypothesizing that perceived job characteristics and job complexity mediate this relationship. Two studies were conducted to test the model, examining mediation by subjective job characteristics and job complexity. Study 1 confirmed the hypothesized mediation model, though alternative models also fit, while Study 2 showed that core self‑evaluations measured in childhood and early adulthood predicted middle‑adulthood job satisfaction, with job complexity mediating part of this effect.

Abstract

This study tested a model of the relationship between core self-evaluations, intrinsic job characteristics, and job satisfaction. Core self-evaluations was assumed to be a broad personality concept manifested in 4 specific traits: self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, locus of control, and low neuroticism. The model hypothesized that both subjective (perceived) job characteristics and job complexity mediate the relationship between core self-evaluations and job satisfaction. Two studies were conducted to test the model. Results from Study 1 supported the hypothesized model but also suggested that alternative models fit the data well. Results from Study 2 revealed that core self-evaluations measured in childhood and in early adulthood were linked to job satisfaction measured in middle adulthood. Furthermore, in Study 2 job complexity mediated part of the relationship between both assessments of core self-evaluations and job satisfaction.