BUSINESS PSYCHOLOGYfoster a sense of meaning in one’s work. Over the ensuing months, staff
who completed the programme reported more job satisfaction, more
focus on residents and improved teamwork and were less likely to take
sick leave or leave their post than a control group of 34 staff at a similar
unit who didn’t take part.
Not everyone is convinced by the established job satisfaction–perform-
ance link. The psychologist Nathan Bowling at Wright State University
muddied the water somewhat in 2007 when he looked at the combined
results from several meta-analyses (studies that combine data from
numerous prior investigations).
Bowling’s combined data set involved thousands of staff at dozens of
predominantly US organizations. The usual link between satisfaction
and performance was found, but importantly, this association all but
disappeared once staff personality (especially conscientiousness) was
taken into account, along with organizational self-esteem – the extent to
which employees feel that they matter to their employer. The implica-
tion is that rather than satisfaction causing improved productivity, it’s
more accurate to think of conscientious staff with high organizational
self-esteem as being both more satisfied and more productive. Bowling
concluded that it would be a mistake for businesses to focus exclusively
on job satisfaction without bearing this in mind. Other obstacles to
success at work are boredom and procrastination. Writing in 2007, the
Job satisfaction? A crowded open-plan office at Canoga Park, California in 1963.