International Journal of Psychology 20 (1985) 155-167 155

North-Holland

PREDICTING JOB SATISFACTION FROM LIFE SATISFACTION:

IS THERE A GENERAL SATISFACTION FACTOR?

Neal SCHMIlT and Elaine D. PULAKOS *

Michigan Stare Unioersify, USA

Job satisfaction has been shown to be related to a number of individual and organizational
effectiveness variables. Consequently, it is suggested that attempts to select individuals with
inclinations towards satisfaction would be of theoretical and practical importance. For five
samples of individuals representing a wide variety of occupations, regression analyses were used to
assess the usefulness of life satisfaction in the prediction of subsequent job satisfaction, while
statistically controlling various demographic variables, pay, tenure, and perceptions of task
characteristics. In a sixth sample of workers eligible for retirement, the hypothesis that life
satisfaction can be predicted from job satisfaction was also examined. The results showed that in
three of the first five samples, life satisfaction was a significant predictor of job satisfaction. In the
sample of retirees, significant results were also obtained using job satisfaction to predict subse-
quent life satisfaction. It is suggested that satisfaction may be a relatively stable and general aspect
of certain individuals which is a function of particular personality characteristics and/or an
inclination towards interpreting various situations in a favorable manner.

Interest in the consequences of job satisfaction has generated a

tremendous volume of research (Locke 1976). Taken cumulatively,
these studies have revealed support for the positive effects of job
satisfaction on a variety of individual and organizational effectiveness
variables. For example, satisfaction has been shown to play a signifi-
cant role in absenteeism and turnover (Mobley et al. 1978; Porter and
Steers 1973; Steers and Rhodes 1978), and dissatisfaction with work
has been recognized as a contributor to unionization activity (e.g.,
Harmer and Smith 1978; Hammer and Berman 1981). On an individ-
ual level, job satisfaction has been related to physical health (Burke
1969/1970), mental health (Kornhauser 1965), life satisfaction (Ins and

The authors would We to thank David E Bowen, Arnon E. Reichers, and Mary D. Zalesny for
their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.
Mailing address: N. Schmitt, Dept. of Psychology, Michigan State University, Snyder Hall. East
Lansing, MI 48823, USA.

0020-7594/85/S3.30 0 1985. Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.(North-Holland)

156 N. Schmirt, E. D.Pulakos / Job and life satisfaction

Barrett 1972; Weitz 1952), and longevity (Palmore 1969). In sum, the
importance of job satisfaction as a criterion of practical importance
seems well supported. In addition, many organizational researchers and
theorists would maintain that job satisfaction should be an important
criterion in its own right. That is, organizations should strive to
promote the satisfaction of their employees irrespective of its relation-
ship to organizationally relevant outcomes.
Given the large volume of research devoted to questions of worker
satisfaction, it is very surprising that few studies have attempted to
predict job satisfaction. Schmitt and Schneider (1983) have recently
noted this neglect and have suggested that research attempting to select
individuals with inclinations toward being satisfied should prove of
theoretical and practical importance. In support of this notion, Pulakos
and Schmitt (1983) have shown that job satisfaction can, in fact, be
predicted using individuals’ preemployment expectations concerning
the degree to which they believe favorable outcomes will be obtainable
from work. This particular approach to predicting job satisfaction is
unique, in that it assumes that satisfaction is partly dependent upon
individual characteristics rather than the more commonly accepted
proposition that satisfaction is due. to certain conditions such as met
versus unmet expectations regarding- work (Wanous 1980), enriched
design of jobs (Hackman and Oldham 1975), and the ability of work to
fulfill employee needs (Alderfer 1972; Porter 1964). Staw (1984) has
also echoed similar sentiments in his suggestion that researchers begin
examining various individual difference determinants of job attitudes
such as satisfaction.
Consistent with the idea that job satisfaction can, at least in part, be
individually determined, the present research is based on the proposi-
tion that individuals have generalized predispositions towards satisfac-
tion or dissatisfaction. Development of and support for this hypothesis
has obvious implications for selection, as well as for job design,
organizational development, and quality of life programs, the objective
of which usually includes a positive employee affect. If some people
are, in fact, predisposed to be satisfied or dissatisfied across situations,
reports of life satisfaction, for example, may be useful in predicting job
satisfaction and could thus be of potential value in a personnel selec-
tion mode. Positive correlations between life and job satisfaction could,
of course, be interpreted as consistent with the spillover hypothesis.
However, the spillover hypothesis does not explicate the underlying
 N. Schmin. E.D. Pulakos / Job and life satis/acrion 157

mechanism(s) responsible for some people’s reports of happiness or

unhappiness with various situations. Our hypothesis of a predisposition
towards satisfaction offers a potential explanation for this phenomenon
and, it is also consistent with research showing the stability of various
attitudes as a result of particular early experiences and/or genetic
factors (McGuire 1968).
Given the practical organizational significance of job satisfaction and
the potential value of being able to select those individuals who are
more apt to be satisfied, the primary purpose of this study was to
examine the validity of life satisfaction in predicting subsequent job
satisfaction. It is important to note that the purpose here is not to
establish or test the likelihood of any causal relationship between job
and life satisfaction, but rather to assess the generalizability of people’s
satisfaction across different circumstances. In order to provide a maxi-
mally conservative test of this hypothesis, correlates of job satisfaction
including various demographic variables, pay, tenure, and perceptions
of task characteristics were controlled statistically. Further, the present
study employed a longitudinal design and sampled a large number of
individuals who held a variety of different jobs.
In order to further establish support for the notion that both life and
job satisfaction are a function of a relatively stable individual orienta-
tion, the ‘predictability’ of life satisfaction from job satisfaction was
also examined for a group of retirees. This analysis was important for
two reasons. First, the ability to show that positive attitudes towards
one’s job are associated with positive attitudes towards one’s retirement
would lend credence to the idea that some individuals face both
situations positively, while others are consistent in their discontent.
Second, such a result, while consistent with our hypothesis, would be
counter-intuitive in that a person who likes and is satisfied with work
might be expected to be dissatisfied, rather than satisfied, upon retire-
ment.

Method

Sample

The data used in the present study were obtained as part of a larger project on job
change in the State of Michigan. Specifically, six different samples of respondents
Table 1
Means and standard deviations of the sample on demographic variables and pay.

Variable Sample
LCC CETA LOS RET HEMP WOMEN
Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD
Sex 1.45 0.50 1.62 0.49 1.62 0.49 1.20 0.40 1.39 0.49 2.00 - h
Ethnic status 1.94 0.25 1.98 0.16 0.94 0.25 1.99 0.11 1.10 0.30 1.93 0.25 P
Marital status 1.70 0.46 1.19 0.39 1.44 0.50 1.84 0.37 1.13 0.34 1.48 0.50
Socioeconomic
status 48.30 19.69 29.17 18.47 5.30 2.67 10.70 4.03 23.20 12.49 60.87 16.76
Education 3.61 1.05 2.00 1.00 3.19 1.35 3.54 1.56 1.95 0.gl 4.91 1.31 \

Age 32.90 9.06 1.98 1.55 2.78 1.60 2.49 0.67 2.33 1.30 36.13 12.60
Tenure 4.19 2.85 - - - - 5.58 1.07 - - 5.53 2.45
Pay 4.85 1.64 2.70 0.87 3.92 1.26 6.30 1.71 4.14 1.55 5.43 1.98

Note:
LCC = community college group; CETA = those employed under the Comprehensive Employment Training Act; LOS = persons who lost or left a
Civil Service job in the previous year; RET = Civil Service retirement eligible persons; HEMP = persons identified as hard-to-employ who were
participating in job skills training; and WOMEN = participants in International Women’s Year Conference.
Sex was coded as 1 for male and 2 for female; ethnic group was coded 1 for minority and 2 for white; marital status was coded 1 for single and 2 for
married; socioeconomic status was coded on a Civil Service pay grade scale ranging from 1-20 for the LOS and RET groups; all other groups were
coded on the Duncan scale (Reiss et al. 1961). Education, age, and tenure codes were unique to the sample and are described in the text.
 N . Schmitt, E. D. Puiakos / Job and IiJe satisfacrion 159

completed measures at two points in time approximately one year apart. The basic
demographics of the respondents from each sample are presented in table 1.
Because this larger project focused on j o b change, all samples were chosen so as to
maximize the likelihood that the respondents would be making, or had very recently
made, some decision about employment. The first sample consisted of a group of
community college students (LCC, N = 298) who were enrolled in practically oriented
job skills programs. These individuals completed two questionnaires with one year
between administrations. People engaged in work through the Comprehensive Employ-
ment Training Act (CETA, N=129) comprised a second sample. Two samples were
drawn from State of Michigan Civil Service files. The first of these was comprised of
individuals who had lost or left their jobs (LOS. N = 82) within the year prior to the
data collection. At the second questionnaire administration, they had obtained new
employment. The second Civil Service sample consisted of all those persons who were
eligible for retirement (RET, N =162). Employees were eligible for retirement if they
were 55 and had worked for the State 30 years. Individuals who were participating in a
large corporation’s job training program for the hard-to-employ (HEMP, N = 36)
comprised a fifth sample. Finally, women (WOMEN, N = 117) participating in an
International Womens’s Year conference concerned partly with employment opportun-
ities for women comprised the sixth sample. Excluding the RET group, all those
included in the analyses were employed at the time of completion of the second
questionnaire.
All six samples were convenience samples in that they were not chosen randomly
from some population. Rather, they were chosen to represent groups of people
undergoing some change in their work role: Representativeness of the respondent group
as a whole was also a concern. Response rates to the first questionnaire ranged from
23% in the HEMP group to 43% in the RET group. Because of assurances of
confidentiality, no follow-up of nonrespondents was possible. Further, S attrition took
place when the second questionnaires were administered. Of those reponding to the
first questionnaire, between 58 and 70% responded to the second set of instruments.
However demographic information (e.g., sex, race, age) on potential respondents was
compared to demographic characteristics of the respondent group, and no significant
differences were found.

Instruments

In all samples, j o b satisfaction was measured with the Minnesota Satisfaction Question-
naire (Weiss et al. 1967). The life satisfaction measure consisted of three items of the
G U M et al. (1961) scale and two additional items were written concerning satisfaction
with familiy and leisure activities. Responses to all five items were made o n five-point
scales ranging from ‘Strongly Disagree’ to ‘Strongly Agree’. Perceptions of j o b design
factors were measured with the Skill Variety, Autonomy, Task Significance, Task
Identity, and Feedback subscales of the Job Diagnostic Survey (Hackman and Oldham
1975).
Demographic statistics which were used as controls included those shown in table 1.
Sex, ethnic status, and marital status were coded similarly across all samples. For the
Civil Service samples (LOS and RET), data were available concerning their pay grade
160 N. Schmitt, E. D. Pulakos / Job and life satisfaction

(range of grades from 1 to 20), and these were used as the socioeconomic status
variable. For other groups, their occupation was coded using the Duncan index (Reiss
et al. 1961).
For all, education was coded on a six-point scale using the following options:
1 = Did not finish high school, 2 = Graduated from high school (or GED equivalent),
3 = Some college or other post high school education, 4 = Associate degree or comple-
tion of other post high school educational program, 5 =Four year college, and
6 = Graduate study.
Age was uncoded for the LCC and WOMEN samples. For the RET sample, age was
coded in the following manner: 1 =Under 55, 2 = 55-59, 3 = 60-64, 4 = 65-70,
5 = Over 70. Options on the age scale for the remaining samples were categorized as
follows: 1= Less than 20, 2 = 20-24, 3 = 25-29, 4 = 30-34, 5 = 35-39, 6 = 40-49,
7 = 50-59, 8 = 60-65, 9 = Over 65.
The tenure variable for the RET group had the following response options: 1 = Less
than 12 months, 2 = 1-3 years, 3 = 4-6 years, 4 = 7-10 years, 5 = 10-20 years, 6 = More
than 20 years. The WOMEN and LCC samples responded on a scale with the following
options: 1 = I do not currently have a job, 2 = Less than 6 months, 3 = 6 months-1
year, 4 =1-2 years, 5 = 2-3 years, 6 = 3-4 years, 7 = 4-5 years, 8 = 5-10 years, and
9 = More than 10 years. For the other samples, tenure data were unavailable. Pay was
the final potential correlate of job satisfaction that was assessed. In all groups, pay
response options ranged from ‘Less than $3.00/hour’ to ‘More than $13.00/hour’.

Procedure

All data were collected by mailed questionnaire at two different times approximately
one year apart. Life satisfaction measures were collected at the first questionnaire
administration, while job satisfaction and job design variables were assessed at the
second data collection. Various demographic variables were collected at both times.

Data analyses

Coefficient alpha was computed for all multi-item scales as a means of assessing the
internal consistency of each measure. The primary analyses consisted of hierarchical
regressions for each sample. Specifically,job satisfaction was regressed on demographic
variables, job design measures, and life satisfaction. In all cases, the demographics, pay,
and job design measures were entered first in order to assess the unique contribution of
life satisfaction to job satisfaction. This provided a particularly strong test of the
hypothesis concerning the prediction of job satisfaction for three reasons. First, the
demographics represent the usual correlates of job satisfaction (Locke 1976; Weaver
1977). Second, job design variables are also usually significant correlates of job
satisfaction (Hackman and Oldham 1975; Schmitt et al. 1978; Schmitt and Bedeian
1982). Third, the job design and job satisfaction measures were collected at the same
point in time, increasing the likelihood of an inflated relationship due to common
method bias. Hence, the predictability of job satisfaction from life satisfaction data
obtained the previous year should be maximally conservative.
 N. Schrnrrr. E.D. Pulakos / Job and /ye sarisjacrion 161

Since the respondents from the RET sample were moving from life-long employ-
ment to retirement, hierarchical regression for this sample consisted of the prediction of
life satisfaction from job satisfaction. Specifically, the demographic variables and
income were entered first followed by j o b satisfaction in predicting satisfaction with
life. Job design factors were obviously not relevant for this analysis.

Results

The results of the internal consistency analyses and the means and standard deviations
of the scale scores are presented in table 2. Although the Minnesota Satisfaction
Questionnaire contains subscales for intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction, their corrected
intercorrelation in each sample was above 0.80. Because of t h s high degree of
redundancy, the two subscales were combined into one satisfaction index. Coefficient
alphas were relatively satisfactory for all scales in each group with the exception of the
HEMP group’s responses to the job design variables. It is likely that the items in the
Job Diagnostic Survey were not interpretable for some respondents in this sample.
The results of the regression analyses are presented in table 3. Support for the
hypothesis that life satisfaction is a significant predictor of job satisfaction, even when
major demographic variables, pay, and j o b design factors are statistically controlled,
was obtained in three out of five samples. One exception occurred in the H E M P group
whose sample size was very small. It should be noted, however, that even in this
sample, the results were consistent with our hypothesis as evidenced by the fact that life
satisfaction increased the Multiple R from 0.73 to 0.77. In the CETA sample, not only
did life satisfaction fail to contribute to the prediction of job satisfaction, but the
zero-order correlation between the two variables was nonsignificant.
In the RET sample, we investigated an hypothesis exactly opposite to that evaluated
in the other samples; namely that satisfaction with life upon retirement can be
predicted by job satisfaction. While it may seem reasonable to suppose that a person
with high j o b satisfaction would experience decreased life satisfaction upon retirement,
recall that the central thesis of this paper is that certain people are predisposed to be
satisfied more so than others. Hence, it would follow that those individuals who report
satisfaction with their jobs would also report satisfaction with retirement. In fact,
although the demographic variables proved to be unrelated to life satisfaction, job
satisfaction was significantly related to subsequent satisfaction with life.
With respect to the zero-order correlations, the job design variables were the best
correlates of job satisfaction in all samples. This was not unexpected because of results
from previous research relating job satisfaction and job design variables and because of
the likelihood of common method bias. I t is noteworthy, however, that the zero-order
correlations between job and life satisfaction measures collected one year apart were
relatively substantial and statistically significant in all but two instances. Finally,
although the incremental R ‘s associated with life satisfaction were small, consideration
must be given to the extremely conservative procedure used here as well as the number
of previously entered predictors. As such, their significance represents strong support
for the idea that there is a unique ‘general satisfaction component’ to the life and job
satisfaction constructs.
Table 2
Means, standard deviations, and internal consistencies (IC) for life and job satisfaction and job design variables for each sample.

Variable Samole
LCC CETA LOS RET HEMP WOMEN
Mean SD IC Mean SD IC Mean SD IC Mean SD IC Mean SD IC Mean SD 1C
Job h
satisfaction 72.81 11.64 0.90 73.15 12.25 0.91 71.37 11.94 0.90 77.28 12.33 0.91 69.92 11.65 0.88 75.19 12.54 0.90 P
Life
satisfaction 20.78 3.49 0.86 20.62 3.39 0.80 20.84 3.22 0.82 22.27 2.88 0.82 19.46 3.66 0.73 21.39 3.03 0.83
Skill
variety 15.09 4.83 0.82 11.44 4.43 0.63 12.54 5.06 0.80 - - - 10.46 3.57 0.22 16.55 4.29 0.81 \
Autonomy 15.37 4.21 0.76 14.14 4.06 0.66 14.16 4.94 0.84 - - - 13.42 3.18 0.48 16.90 3.55 0.67
Feedback
fromjob 15.75 3.53 0.72 14.86 3.91 0.66 14.14 3.78 0.68 - - - 14.10 3.83 0.46 16.20 3.36 0.46
Task
identity 15.09 4.29 0.70 14.14 4.54 0.62 14.20 5.04 0.78 - - - 13.40 4.32 0.60 15.98 4.24 0.77
Task
significance 16.23 3.96 0.66 15.13 4.05 0.60 16.04 3.84 0.63 - - - 14.73 4.47 0.61 16.84 3.80 0.66

Nore: LCC = community college group; CETA = those employed under the Comprehensive Employment Training Act; LOS = persons who lost or
left a Civil Service job in the previous year; RET = Civil Service retirement eligible persons; HEMP = persons identified as hard-to-employ who
were participating in job skills training; and WOMEN = participants in International Women's Year Conference.
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164 N . Schmitt. E.D. Pulakos / Job and life satisfaction

Discussion

On a practical level, these results suggest that information about a

person’s satisfaction with his/her life experiences would be useful in
predicting one’s affective reaction to a job. Indirectly, the study should
have implications for absenteeism, turnover, and other behavioral cor-
relates of job satisfaction such as work sabotage and efforts to unionize.
Also, if a researcher/consultant attempts to improve job reactions
through organizational development efforts such as job redesign, the
results of the current study suggest that some portion of the job
satisfaction variance is likely to be independent of any effort to make
the job more rewarding, challenging, or intrinsically motivating. In fact,
our results also suggest that data concerning individuals’ general satis-
faction may actually predict the relative success/failure of job redesign
efforts. Further, given that life satisfaction was also predictable from
job satisfaction (as evidenced by the retiree sample), the results suggest
that individuals may have a general, relatively stable predisposition
towards satisfaction or dissatisfaction in a variety of situations.
While the unique variance shared by life and job satisfaction might
be attributed to ‘response bias’, it-is important to make three points
regarding such an interpretation. First, approximately one year sep-
arated the two data collection efforts. Second, the JDS variables, which
were collected at the same point in time as the job satisfaction data,
were partialled out of the job satisfaction-life satisfaction relationship.
Last, previous research (as reviewed in the introduction) has indicated
that job satisfaction is related to important organizational variables.
Thus, whether we call the unique life-job satisfaction relationship
response bias or not may not be particularly relevant. Another study,
however, that would employ objective measures of job characteristics of
independent measures of the job such as Dictionary of Occupational
Titles’ ratings on the Data, People, and Things scales might be more
informative concerning the unique contribution of person and job
situation variables to the prediction of job satisfaction.
Similar ideas have been expressed by Schneider (1976) and Blood
(1969), who have proposed that job satisfaction may partially be a
function of certain individual predispositions towards being satisfied
rather than solely dependent on organizational or job characteristics
purported to facilitate it. Locke (1969) has also maintained that the
issue of whether or not the determinants of satisfaction reside with the
worker or the job itself was unresolved.
 N . Schmitt, ED. Pulakos / Job and lije solisfaction 165

While the particular characteristics that may incline an individual to

be predisposed to satisfaction have not been specified previously and
were not explored here, it may be that certain individual characteristics
operate in the service of self-fulfilling prophecies that lead to satisfac-
tion in a wide variety of contexts. For example, persons whose world
view is generally optimistic may engage in behaviors that in effect
change the social, or even the physical environment in ways that make
it more favorable. Or, at a common sense level, there are some individu-
als who characterize what others see as tragedy as growth experiences.
Then, there are chronic complainers who view minor mishaps in
melodramatic ways. While we are unaware of any precise psychological
term for t h s phenomenon, it may be considered an optimistic versus
pessimistic orientation. This interpretation would suggest that if one’s
general outlook (gained from parents, previous experience, etc.) is
positive, then one may also encode his/her more specific ‘objective’
behaviors and experiences in a favorable manner. Reports of satisfac-
tion/dissatisfaction with a job would then be consistent with the
individual’s general schema.
The determination of whether or not these explanations are valid
would necessitate long term, developmental research. The influence of
parental attitudes, television portrayal of work environments, and for-
mal schooling as well as other early experiences may shape a person’s
attitude towards work and life in general long before s/he seeks a
full-time career. If such individually-based explanations prove to be
true, then interventions aimed at increasing job satisfaction might more
fruitfully concentrate on the ‘design of employees’ rather than the
‘design of jobs’. That is, activities such as employee counseling, training
in the power of positive thnking, etc. might be a potential avenue to
job satisfaction.
Finally, the data reported here represent responses from diverse
groups of people in terms of age, job level, and job tenure. However,
more data should be collected on samples that can be more completely
circumscribed. Carefully selected samples such as those described by
Weaver (1977, 1978) would allow more definitive statements about the
generalizability of the hypothesis discussed in this paper.

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L’on a rnontre la relation entre satisfaction du travail et un nombre de variables d’efficacite

individuelle et organisationelle. En constquence, il est suggere que les tentatives de selectionner des
individus avec inclinaisons vers la satisfaction etaient d’une importance theorique et pratique. L’on
a utilise des analyses de regression auprb de cinq ichantillons d’individus, reprkentant une large
variete d’occupations, afin de verifier I’utilite de la satisfaction dans la vie pour prklire une
satisfaction dans le travail, tant en contrblant statistiquement les diffbcntes variables
demographiques, le salaire. la position et les caracteristiques de perception de la tkhe. Dans un
sixierne khantillon de travailleurs au seuil de la retraite, I’on a examine I’hypothbe que la
satisfaction dans la vie peut ttre prtdite en fonction de la satisfaction dans le travail. Les rkultats
rnontrent que dans trois groupes des cinq premiers, la satisfaction dans la vie etait un facteur de
prediction significatif pour la satisfaction dam le travail. Dans I’khantillon dcs pensionnks, des
resultats significatifs ont egalement ete obtenus en utilisant la satisfaction dans le travail pour
predire la satisfaction dans la vie. II est suggkd que la satisfaction peut itre un aspect relativement
stable et gCnkra1 pour certains types d‘individus, ce qui est fonction des caracteristiques particulieres
de la personnalite et/ou une tendance A interpreter differentes situations d‘une r n a n i h favorable.