psychology research on job satisfaction

Job Satisfaction Theory: 6 Factors for Happier Employees

But why is it important to think about job satisfaction? Why is it important to try and optimize it?

For one, most people spend the bulk of their waking hours at work. So it might come as no surprise that not enjoying our jobs can translate into general dissatisfaction with life.

But beyond the individual level, organizations are thankfully starting to recognize the importance of paying attention to employee satisfaction. Moral imperatives aside, doing so has been linked to productivity and a reduction in absenteeism (Steptoe-Warren, 2013).

This article will look at job satisfaction theories, how it arises, and what this means for performance at work.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Work & Career Coaching Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients identify opportunities for professional growth and create a more meaningful career.

This Article Contains:

6 theories about job satisfaction, 6 proven factors that affect job satisfaction, a note on job satisfaction and performance, increasing job satisfaction with our tools, a take-home message.

Before diving into an overview of job satisfaction theory, it first helps to consider how job satisfaction is defined.

While there are numerous definitions, the consensus is that job satisfaction is a multidimensional psychological response with three main arms: cognitive, affective, and behavioral (Weiss, 2002). We form attitudes toward our job by interpreting our feelings, beliefs, and behaviors.

Bear these domains in mind while the following six job satisfaction theories are described; ideally, a complete theory will address them all at some level.

1. Locke’s range of affect theory

With origins in organizational psychology , Edwin Locke’s (1976) range of affect theory is perhaps the most well-recognized model of job satisfaction.

Locke’s theory recognized the importance of how much people value different aspects of their job, along with how well their expectations are met. In short, our values inform our expectations, and the closer these are to reality, the more satisfied we feel.

For instance, if person A greatly values a work culture of teamwork and collaboration, while person B regards this facet neutrally, person A is more likely to feel dissatisfied if this expectation isn’t met by their job.

But Locke argued that too much of a good thing also  leads to job dissatisfaction. Taking the same example, if an emphasis on teamwork comes at the expense of time for solo work, person A (and person B) could have a negative experience of their job.

2. The dispositional approach

The next job satisfaction theory takes a different view. Outlined by Barry Staw and colleagues, the dispositional approach was formed in light of evidence that affective disposition predicts job satisfaction (Staw, Bell, & Clausen, 1986). They argued that people’s tendency to experience positive or negative emotions accounts for individual differences in job satisfaction.

Being limited by its largely empirical approach, the dispositional approach has faced criticism. Yet personality researchers have shown that personality traits remain largely stable over time, and the same is true with job satisfaction, even through different jobs and careers (Staw & Cohen-Charash, 2005).

Staw’s job satisfaction research stimulated spin-off theories. One of these is the Core Self-Evaluations Model, for which there is good evidence.

Researchers have demonstrated four self-evaluations mediating stability in job satisfaction, independent of job attributes (Judge, Locke, & Durham, 1998):

• Self-esteem: with higher levels linked to greater job satisfaction
• Self-efficacy: with higher levels linked to greater job satisfaction
• Locus of control: the tendency toward an internal rather than external locus of control is linked to job satisfaction
• Neuroticism: with lower levels linked to greater job satisfaction

3. The Job Characteristics Model

The Job Characteristics Model aims to specify conditions under which people are satisfied by their work and motivated to perform effectively (Hackman & Oldham, 1976).

With meta-analyses lending support for this job satisfaction theory (Fried & Ferris, 1987), it has become commonly used to examine characteristics of work leading to job satisfaction.

Five core characteristics have been reported, along with three psychological states acting as a sort of ‘gateway’ to satisfaction:

Source: Steptoe-Warren (Occupational Psychology, 2013, p. 174)

• Skill variety: As the name implies, this characteristic refers to the presence of different kinds of challenges at work.
• Task identity: The degree to which a job calls for completion of discrete, ‘whole’ pieces of work.
• Task significance: Whether the job has substantial impact on the lives/work of other people.
• Autonomy: The degree of freedom or independence the job provides.
• Feedback: How clearly an individual is told about their performance.

4. Equity theory

Equity theory was outlined in the 1960s by workplace and behavioral psychologist John Stacey Adams (1965). He posited that jobs involve a continuous assessment of how much ‘give and take’ there is between employer and employee.

The basic premise of this model is that job satisfaction and motivation result from a fair balance between an employee’s ‘inputs’ and ‘outputs.’

Here are some common examples of inputs:

• Skill level
• Enthusiasm for the job
• Supporting colleagues
• Personal sacrifice

Common outputs include:

• Financial compensation
• Recognition and reputation
• Job security
• Other intangible benefits

The greater the imbalance (or ‘inequity’) between the two, the less likely a strong, productive relationship will emerge between employer and employee. Besides, dissatisfaction can get worse if the ratio between inputs and outputs is deemed to be more imbalanced when compared to others.

This is what makes employees happy at work

5. The social information processing theory

This brings us to the next job satisfaction theory. As social creatures, human beings pay very close attention to the opinions and behaviors of the group. In other words, we’re not living in a vacuum.

Going back to theories of social comparison, people have a drive to look to others for information that helps generate a complete picture of themselves (Festinger, 1954). Couldn’t this also apply to job satisfaction?

Social information processing theory argues this case. With links to the sociological concept of ‘constructivism,’ it recognizes that people form a picture of reality by interacting with people around them.

According to this model, people might (consciously or unconsciously) scrutinize how their colleagues feel before deciding how they feel. As you’d expect, if coworkers feel positive about the work they do and the environment they’re in, a person is more likely to feel satisfied (Jex, 2002).

6. Self-determination theory (SDT)

Self-determination theory (SDT) emerged from the work of Edward Deci and Richard Ryan. As a macro theory successfully validated in many fields of intrinsic motivation and behavior, SDT is well placed to provide insight into job satisfaction.

In contrast with extrinsic motivation, where activities are pursued for an external goal, intrinsic motivation leads to the initiation of behavior for its own reward (Deci, 1971). This reward could be interest or satisfaction, for example.

According to SDT, people can assimilate extrinsic motivations into their core sense of self and value system, changing their behavioral framework.

On the back of this, three universal needs involved in self-determination have been recognized as essential to such integration: the need for competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

SDT has led to important insights about work motivation and factors related to job performance, which will be discussed further below.

As you read, you’ll likely notice many of them intersect. Different yet similar ideas often emerge, with many of them showing two-way patterns of cause and effect. This is due to concepts among various schools of thought overlapping.

1. Work that is engaging

A 2017 report from Gallup found that just 13% of the world’s workforce felt ‘engaged’ at work. But what does it mean for work to be engaging?

Engaging activities allow people to express their natural strengths and capitalize on their current skillset. Results from a large observational study of 60 career satisfaction studies spanning two decades (Todd, 2014) matched this line of thinking, adding that engaging work must provide a sense of ‘flow’ and hold the individual’s attention.

The study noted four other factors tied to job satisfaction in meta-analyses that make work engaging. You’ll notice these intersect with the Job Characteristics Model described earlier:

• Autonomy of work schedule/style
• Tasks are clear, with an obvious start and end point
• Task are varied
• Consistent feedback on performance is provided

2. Work that is meaningful

The same study (Todd, 2014) also highlighted that work entailing help or kindness to others can be a factor in job satisfaction.

While this makes sense because of our need for relatedness (as per the self-determination theory), evidence suggests the dimension of ‘meaningfulness’ of work may have explanatory power.

Despite difficulties pinning down a definition of ‘meaningfulness’ that can be applied across individuals and cultures, a large review found it to be an influential job satisfaction determinant (Rosso, Dekas, & Wrzesniewski, 2010). This study also found meaningfulness is linked to work motivation, behavior, performance, and engagement, along with personal fulfillment and even career development.

This makes sense at an intuitive level and dovetails with both the Job Characteristics Model and Locke’s range of affect theory. If the opportunity for positive, meaningful impact is valued by an individual and that expectation is met, satisfaction will likely ensue.

3. Level of relatedness

On one hand, not everyone is a self-described ‘people person.’ But on the other, our innate need to interact with, connect to, and care for others is well recognized. According to Maslow’s (1943) theory of human motivation, human beings long for a sense of approval and belonging.

Relatedness could apply to many aspects of a person’s job, ranging from whether they feel trusting of their superiors/subordinates to whether they feel part of a meaningful cause that helps and supports people – either inside or outside their immediate environment.

The degree of relatedness in our jobs can even be used to explain how much passion we feel for work. Research by Ivan Spehar and colleagues found that while the level of ‘harmonious passion’ for work does affect job satisfaction, this can partly be explained by how much ‘belongingness’ we feel (Spehar, Forest, & Stenseng, 2016).

4. Ability to leverage character strengths

Environments bringing out the best in us will be more engaging, draw out our best work, and satisfy us most.

In accordance with a universal need to experience a sense of ‘competence’ in self-determination theory, jobs enabling people to capitalize on their unique character strengths are likelier to be satisfying.

Looking to the literature, intellectual, emotional, and interpersonal strengths in particular can buffer against work-related stress, thereby enhancing job satisfaction (Harzer & Ruch, 2015).

But this isn’t where the benefits end. Linking back to the theme of meaningfulness, a study by psychologists Claudia Harzer and Willibald Ruch (2012) showed that developing a ‘calling’ could be a byproduct of congruence between one’s character strengths and those demanded by the workplace.

Furthermore, it was found that being able to apply at least four ‘signature strengths’ at work is critical for positive experiences.

5. Tendency for ‘job crafting’

As discussed, people’s disposition may be an important piece of the puzzle in determining job satisfaction. The real question is which personality factors are most pertinent; one of these might be ‘proactivity.’

Proactive individuals are often more engaged, more satisfied, and more productive at work because of a tendency toward ‘job crafting’ (Bakkar, Tims, & Derks, 2012).

What is job crafting? Essentially, it’s the philosophy of taking the initiative to redesign the way you work. Job crafting enables people to sculpt a personalized approach to tasks, professional relationships, and even the meaning of their job as a whole. And this latter point is usually the aim: to reimagine a job and derive more positive meaning from it.

Although some may be more predisposed to job crafting, it is absolutely a skill that can be learned, like any other. Organizations can do plenty to foster job crafting in employees – and there’s good reason to do so, with studies showing it makes people happier and more satisfied (Slemp & Vella-Brodick, 2013).

6. Workplace culture

Several other factors affect job satisfaction, which can be bracketed under the umbrella of workplace culture.

Let’s look at three examples:

Work–life balance

What we do at home can invigorate our experience of work (Todd, 2014). In general, with too many negative factors like long commutes and unreasonable working hours, personal life can be eroded, bringing a risk of job dissatisfaction.

Does your workplace promote employee autonomy? Research suggests autonomy is vital in job satisfaction. We need a degree of control and flexibility in deciding how  we want to complete tasks and set our schedule.

Communication factors

Is there a culture of appreciating employee achievements? Is there a system in place for clear feedback ? Is there too much or  too little communication coming from colleagues? These have been noted as key factors in job satisfaction (Hackman & Oldham, 1976; Krayer & Westbrook, 1986).

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Having now covered some core determinants of job satisfaction, it might be tempting to equate satisfaction with productivity. Yet the two aren’t always tightly bound. A large meta-analysis found only a tenuous correlation of 0.3, weaker than many might expect (Judge, Thoresen, Bono, & Patton, 2001).

A more recent Croatian analysis replicated the weak relationship between job satisfaction and performance, which was shown to be bidirectional (Bakotić, 2016). However, there was a stronger link between satisfaction and performance than the reverse direction.

Why might this be the case? Bakotić (2016) laid out the following argument: “workers often receive the same salary and other forms of compensation, regardless of how successful a company is.” Marrying up with equity theory then, perhaps employees who don’t have the chance to directly experience the positive effects of organizational success (an output) are less likely to derive satisfaction from their inputs.

Some have suggested a better determinant of job performance could be psychological wellbeing, which itself is linked to job satisfaction. After all, performance isn’t just influenced by factors related to the job itself, but also elements of life that have nothing to do with it (Wright, Cropanzano, & Bonett, 2007).

Lending credence to the dispositional approach, another meta-analysis found personality factors related to the Five-Factor Model to be important mediators of the satisfaction–performance relationship (Bowling, 2007). While this may be, the author notes that “job satisfaction is an important end in itself and organizational leaders ought to feel obligated to enhance the wellbeing and satisfaction of their employees.”

First and foremost is our dedicated article explaining how to increase job satisfaction with strategies and tips.

Additionally, one area we’ve covered is the need for people to understand their signature strengths, which can be crucial to finding the right job or excelling in their current position.

Our Maximizing Strengths Masterclass© is a six-module, evidence-based package that can help clients in this way. With all the materials needed, it’s a thorough approach to discovering the unique blend of strengths your client possesses.

We also have an abundance of worksheets to download, one of which is the Job Crafting for Ikigai exercise. The goal of this intervention is to help clients consider potential ways to craft their current job and experience more joy in what they do.

Given the importance of strengths at work, another useful tool is the Your Best Work Self worksheet, which helps clients understand the aspects of their career that fuel their passions.

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others reach their goals, this collection contains 17 validated motivation & goals-achievement tools for practitioners . Use them to help others turn their dreams into reality by applying the latest science-based behavioral change techniques.

Whether you’re working in a large corporation, small business, or heading up a solo enterprise, there seem to be universal factors governing how positive you feel toward work.

At every level of seniority, plenty can be done to create work we love. From macro plans to overhauling workplace culture, right down to a small shift in the quality of attention brought to even the most mundane task, each of us has an important role to play in bringing about job satisfaction.

It was Aristotle who said it best:

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Work & Career Coaching Exercises for free .

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Industrial-Organizational Psychology

Job Satisfaction

Learning objectives.

• Explain the measurement and determinants of job satisfaction

Organizational psychology is the second major branch of study and practice within the discipline of industrial and organizational psychology. In organizational psychology , the focus is on social interactions and their effect on the individual and on the functioning of the organization. In this section, you will learn about the work organizational psychologists have done to understand job satisfaction, different styles of management, different styles of leadership, organizational culture, and teamwork.

Research has suggested that the work-content factor, which includes variety, difficulty level, and role clarity of the job, is the most strongly predictive factor of overall job satisfaction (Saari & Judge, 2004). In contrast, there is only a weak correlation between pay level and job satisfaction (Judge, Piccolo, Podsakoff, Shaw, & Rich, 2010). Judge et al. (2010) suggest that individuals adjust or adapt to higher pay levels: Higher pay no longer provides the satisfaction the individual may have initially felt when her salary increased.

Why should we care about job satisfaction? Or more specifically, why should an employer care about job satisfaction? Measures of job satisfaction are somewhat correlated with job performance; in particular, they appear to relate to organizational citizenship or discretionary behaviors on the part of an employee that further the goals of the organization (Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012). Job satisfaction is related to general life satisfaction, although there has been limited research on how the two influence each other or whether personality and cultural factors affect both job and general life satisfaction. One carefully controlled study suggested that the relationship is reciprocal: Job satisfaction affects life satisfaction positively, and vice versa (Judge & Watanabe, 1993). Of course, organizations cannot control life satisfaction’s influence on job satisfaction. Job satisfaction, specifically low job satisfaction, is also related to withdrawal behaviors, such as leaving a job or absenteeism (Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012). The relationship with turnover itself, however, is weak (Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012). Finally, it appears that job satisfaction is related to organizational performance, which suggests that implementing organizational changes to improve employee job satisfaction will improve organizational performance (Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012).

There is opportunity for more research in the area of job satisfaction. For example, Weiss (2002) suggests that the concept of job satisfaction measurements have combined both emotional and cognitive concepts, and measurements would be more reliable and show better relationships with outcomes like performance if the measurement of job satisfaction separated these two possible elements of job satisfaction.

Dig Deeper: Job Satisfaction in Federal Government Agencies

A 2013 study of job satisfaction in the U.S. federal government found indexes of job satisfaction plummeting compared to the private sector. The largest factor in the decline was satisfaction with pay, followed by training and development opportunities. The Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, has conducted research on federal employee job satisfaction since 2003. Its primary goal is to improve the federal government’s management. However, the results also provide information to those interested in obtaining employment with the federal government.

Among large agencies, the highest job satisfaction ranking went to NASA, followed by the Department of Commerce and the intelligence community. The lowest scores went to the Department of Homeland Security.

The data used to derive the job satisfaction score come from three questions on the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. The questions are: I recommend my organization as a good place to work. Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your job? Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your organization?

The questions have a range of six possible answers, spanning a range of strong agreement or satisfaction to strong disagreement or dissatisfaction. How would you answer these questions with regard to your own job? Would these questions adequately assess your job satisfaction?

You can explore the Best Places To Work In The Federal Government study at their Web site: www.bestplacestowork.org. The Office of Personnel Management also produces a report based on their survey: www.fedview.opm.gov.

Job stress affects job satisfaction. Job stress, or job strain, is caused by specific stressors in an occupation. Stress can be an ambigious term as it is used in common language. Stress is the perception and response of an individual to events judged as ovewhelming or threatening to the individual’s well-being (Gyllensten & Palmer, 2005). The events themselves are the stressors. Stress is a result of an employee’s perception that the demands placed on them exceed their ability to meet them (Gyllensten & Palmer, 2005), such as having to fill multiple roles in a job or life in general, workplace role ambiguity, lack of career progress, lack of job security, lack of control over work outcomes, isolation, work overload, discrimination, harrassment, and bullying (Colligan & Higgins, 2005). The stressors are different for women than men and these differences are a significant area of research (Gyllensten & Palmer, 2005). Job stress leads to poor employee health, job performance, and family life (Colligan & Higgins, 2005).

As already mentioned, job insecurity contributes significantly to job stress. Two increasing threats to job security are downsizing events and corporate mergers. Businesses typically involve I-O psychologists in planning for, implementing, and managing these types of organizational change.

Downsizing is an increasingly common response to a business’s pronounced failure to achieve profit goals, and it involves laying off a significant percentage of the company’s employees. Industrial-organizational psychologists may be involved in all aspects of downsizing: how the news is delivered to employees (both those being let go and those staying), how laid-off employees are supported (e.g., separation packages), and how retained employees are supported. The latter is important for the organization because downsizing events affect the retained employee’s intent to quit, organizational commitment, and job insecurity (Ugboro, 2006).

In addition to downsizing as a way of responding to outside strains on a business, corporations often grow larger by combining with other businesses. This can be accomplished through a merger (i.e., the joining of two organizations of equal power and status) or an acquisition (i.e., one organization purchases the other). In an acquisition, the purchasing organization is usually the more powerful or dominant partner. In both cases, there is usually a duplication of services between the two companies, such as two accounting departments and two sales forces. Both departments must be merged, which commonly involves a reduction of staff (Figure 1). This leads to organizational processes and stresses similar to those that occur in downsizing events. Mergers require determining how the organizational culture will change, to which employees also must adjust (van Knippenberg, van Knippenberg, Monden, & de Lima, 2002). There can be additional stress on workers as they lose their connection to the old organization and try to make connections with the new combined group (Amiot, Terry, Jimmieson, & Callan, 2006). Research in this area focuses on understanding employee reactions and making practical recommendations for managing these organizational changes.

Work-Family-Balance

Many people juggle the demands of work life with the demands of their home life, whether it be caring for children or taking care of an elderly parent; this is known as work-family balance . We might commonly think about work interfering with family, but it is also the case that family responsibilities may conflict with work obligations (Carlson, Kacmar, & Williams, 2000). Greenhaus and Beutell (1985) first identified three sources of work–family conflicts: time devoted to work makes it difficult to fulfill requirements of family, or vice versa, strain from participation in work makes it difficult to fulfill requirements of family, or vice versa, and specific behaviors required by work make it difficult to fulfill the requirements of family, or vice versa.

Women often have greater responsibility for family demands, including home care, child care, and caring for aging parents, yet men in the United States are increasingly assuming a greater share of domestic responsibilities. However, research has documented that women report greater levels of stress from work–family conflict (Gyllensten & Palmer, 2005).

There are many ways to decrease work–family conflict and improve people’s job satisfaction (Posig & Kickul, 2004). These include support in the home, which can take various forms: emotional (listening), practical (help with chores). Workplace support can include understanding supervisors, flextime, leave with pay, and telecommuting. Flextime usually involves a requirement of core hours spent in the workplace around which the employee may schedule his arrival and departure from work to meet family demands. Telecommuting involves employees working at home and setting their own hours, which allows them to work during different parts of the day, and to spend part of the day with their family. Recall that Yahoo! had a policy of allowing employees to telecommute and then rescinded the policy. There are also organizations that have onsite daycare centers, and some companies even have onsite fitness centers and health clinics. In a study of the effectiveness of different coping methods, Lapierre & Allen (2006) found practical support from home more important than emotional support. They also found that immediate-supervisor support for a worker significantly reduced work–family conflict through such mechanisms as allowing an employee the flexibility needed to fulfill family obligations. In contrast, flextime did not help with coping and telecommuting actually made things worse, perhaps reflecting the fact that being at home intensifies the conflict between work and family because with the employee in the home, the demands of family are more evident.

Posig & Kickul (2004) identify exemplar corporations with policies designed to reduce work–family conflict. Examples include IBM’s policy of three years of job-guaranteed leave after the birth of a child, Lucent Technologies offer of one year’s childbirth leave at half pay, and SC Johnson’s program of concierge services for daytime errands.

Link to Learning

Glassdoor.com is a website that posts job satisfaction reviews for different careers and organizations. Use this site to research possible careers and/or organizations that interest you.

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degree of pleasure that employees derive from their job

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occurs when people juggle the demands of work life with the demands of family life

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Employee satisfaction ; Well-being at work, subjective

Job satisfaction is the degree to which people like their jobs. In other words, it refers to a subjective evaluation that the worker makes of her own job, either in its entirety or with respect to its different attributes. It is related to the sociological concept of alienation and the economic concept of the (dis)utility derived from work: with respect to them, job satisfaction has a more positive connotation, is defined in a more subjective way, and has a stronger empirical orientation.

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A short history of the field.

The concept of job satisfaction comes from the field of industrial psychology and management studies. Its origins go back to the Human Relations Movement of the 1930s: in response to the increasing problems of performance and labor unrest associated with the spread of Taylorist work organization practices, Mayo and associates argued that workers’ feelings and emotions at work were...

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Department of Sociology, University of Salamanca, Campus Miguel de Unamuno, Edificio FES, 37007, Salamanca, Spain

Enrique Fernández-Macias

Department of Applied Economics, University of Salamanca, 37007, Salamanca, Spain

Rafael Muñoz de Bustillo Llorente

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Correspondence to Enrique Fernández-Macias .

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Fernández-Macias, E., Muñoz de Bustillo Llorente, R. (2014). Job Satisfaction. In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_1568

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job involvement: the mediating role of job involvement.

• Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia

We conducted an empirical study aimed at identifying and quantifying the relationship between work characteristics, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational policies and procedures in the transition economy of Serbia, South Eastern Europe. The study, which included 566 persons, employed by 8 companies, revealed that existing models of work motivation need to be adapted to fit the empirical data, resulting in a revised research model elaborated in the paper. In the proposed model, job involvement partially mediates the effect of job satisfaction on organizational commitment. Job satisfaction in Serbia is affected by work characteristics but, contrary to many studies conducted in developed economies, organizational policies and procedures do not seem significantly affect employee satisfaction.

1. Introduction

In the current climate of turbulent changes, companies have begun to realize that the employees represent their most valuable asset ( Glen, 2006 ; Govaerts et al., 2011 ; Fulmer and Ployhart, 2014 ; Vomberg et al., 2015 ; Millar et al., 2017 ). Satisfied and motivated employees are imperative for contemporary business and a key factor that separates successful companies from the alternative. When considering job satisfaction and work motivation in general, of particular interest are the distinctive traits of these concepts in transition economies.

Serbia is a country that finds itself at the center of the South East region of Europe (SEE), which is still in the state of transition. Here transition refers to the generally accepted concept, which implies economic and political changes introduced by former socialist countries in Europe and beyond (e.g., China) after the years of economic stagnation and recession in the 1980's, in the attempt to move their economy from centralized to market-oriented principles ( Ratkovic-Njegovan and Grubic-Nesic, 2015 ). Serbia exemplifies many of the problems faced by the SEE region as a whole, but also faces a number of problems uniquely related to the legacy of its past. Due to international economic sanctions, the country was isolated for most of the 1990s, and NATO air strikes, related to the Kosovo conflict and carried out in 1999, caused significant damage to the industry and economy. Transitioning to democracy in October 2000, Serbia embarked on a period of economic recovery, helped by the introduction of long overdue reforms, major inflows of foreign investment and substantial assistance from international funding institutions and others in the international community. However, the growth model on which Serbia and other SEE countries relied between 2001 and 2008, being based mainly on rapid capital inflows, a credit-fueled domestic demand boom and high current account deficit (above 20% of GDP in 2008), was not accompanied by the necessary progress in structural and institutional reforms to make this model sustainable ( Uvalic, 2013 ). The central issue of the transition process in Serbia and other such countries is privatization of public enterprises, which in Serbia ran slowly and with a number of interruptions, failures and restarts ( Radun et al., 2015 ). The process led the Serbian industry into a state of industrial collapse, i.e., deindustrialization. Today there are less than 400,000 employees working in the industry in Serbia and the overall unemployment rate exceeds 26% ( Milisavljevic et al., 2013 ). The average growth of Serbia's GDP in the last 5 years was very low, at 0.6% per year, but has reached 2.7% in 2016 ( GDP, 2017 ). The structure of the GDP by sector in 2015 was: services 60.5%, industry 31.4%, and agriculture 8.2% ( Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, 2017 ).

Taking into account the specific adversities faced by businesses in Serbia, we formulated two main research questions as a starting point for the analysis of the problem of work motivation in Serbia:

1. To what extent are the previously developed models of work motivation (such as the model of Locke and Latham, 2004 ) applicable to the transition economy and business practices in Serbia?

2. What is the nature of the relationships between different segments of work motivation (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job involvement and work characteristics)?

The Hawthorn experiment, conducted in early 1930s ( Mayo, 1933 ), spurred the interest of organizational behavior researchers into the problem of work motivation. Although Hawthorn focused mainly on the problems of increasing the productivity and the effects of supervision, incentives and the changing work conditions, his study had significant repercussions on the research of work motivation. All modern theories of work motivation stem from his study.

Building on his work, Maslow (1943) published his Hierarchy of Needs theory, which remains to this day the most cited and well known of all work motivation theories according to Denhardt et al. (2012) . Maslow's theory is a content-based theory , belonging to a group of approaches which also includes the ERG Theory by Alderfer (1969) , the Achievement Motivation Theory, Motivation-Hygiene Theory and the Role Motivation Theory.

These theories focus on attempting to uncover what the needs and motives that cause people to act in a certain way, within the organization, are. They do not concern themselves with the process humans use to fulfill their needs, but attempt to identify variables which influence this fulfillment. Thus, these theories are often referred to as individual theories , as they ignore the organizational aspects of work motivation, such as job characteristics or working environment, but concentrate on the individual and the influence of an individual's needs on work motivation.

The approach is contrasted by the process theories of work motivation, which take the view that the concept of needs is not enough to explain the studied phenomenon and include expectations, values, perception, as important aspects needed to explain why people behave in certain ways and why they are willing to invest effort to achieve their goals. The process theories include: Theory of Work and Motivation ( Vroom, 1964 ), Goal Setting Theory ( Locke, 1968 ), Equity Theory ( Adams, 1963 ), as well as the The Porter-Lawler Model ( Porter and Lawler, 1968 ).

Each of these theories has its limitations and, while they do not contradict each other, they focus on different aspects of the motivation process. This is the reason why lately they have been several attempts to create an integrated theory of work motivation, which would encompass all the relevant elements of different basic theories and explain most processes taking place within the domain of work motivation, the process of motivation, as well as employee expectations ( Donovan, 2001 ; Mitchell and Daniels, 2002 ; Locke and Latham, 2004 ). One of the most influential integrated theories is the theory proposed by Locke and Latham (2004) , which represents the basis for the study presented in this paper.

The model of Locke and Latham is show in Figure 1 . As the figure shows, it includes individual needs, values and motive, as well as personality. Incorporating the theory of expectations, the goal-setting theory and the social-cognitive theory, it focuses on goal setting, goals themselves and self-efficiency. Performance, by way of achievements and rewards, affects job satisfaction. The model defines relations between different constructs and, in particular, that job satisfaction is affected by the job characteristics and organizational policy and procedures and that it, in turn, affects organizational commitment and job involvement. Locke and Latham suggested that the theory they proposed needs more stringent empirical validation. In the study presented here, we take a closer look at the part of their theory which addresses the relationship between job satisfaction, involvement and organizational commitment. The results of the empirical study conducted in industrial systems suggest that this part of the model needs to be improved to reflect the mediating role of job involvement in the process through which job satisfaction influences organizational commitment.

Figure 1 . Diagram of the Latham and Locke model. The frame on the right indicates the part of the model the current study focuses on.

Job satisfaction is one of the most researched phenomena in the domain of human resource management and organizational behavior. It is commonly defined as a “pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of oneś job or job experiences” ( Schneider and Snyder, 1975 ; Locke, 1976 ). Job satisfaction is a key element of work motivation, which is a fundamental determinant of one's behavior in an organization.

Organizational commitment, on the other hand, represents the degree to which the employees identify with the organization in which they work, how engaged they are in the organization and whether they are ready leave it ( Greenberg and Baron, 2008 ). Several studies have demonstrated that there is a strong connection between organizational commitment, job satisfaction and fluctuation ( Porter et al., 1974 ), as well as that people who are more committed to an organization are less likely to leave their job. Organizational commitment can be thought of as an extension of job satisfaction, as it deals with the positive attitude that an employee has, not toward her own job, but toward the organization. The emotions, however, are much stronger in the case of organizational commitment and it is characterized by the attachment of the employee to the organization and readiness to make sacrifices for the organization.

The link between job satisfaction and organizational commitment has been researched relatively frequently ( Mathieu and Zajac, 1990 ; Martin and Bennett, 1996 ; Meyer et al., 2002 ; Falkenburg and Schyns, 2007 ; Moynihan and Pandey, 2007 ; Morrow, 2011 ). The research consensus is that the link exists, but there is controversy about the direction of the relationship. Some research supports the hypothesis that job satisfaction predicts organizational commitment ( Stevens et al., 1978 ; Angle and Perry, 1983 ; Williams and Hazer, 1986 ; Tsai and Huang, 2008 ; Yang and Chang, 2008 ; Yücel, 2012 ; Valaei et al., 2016 ), as is the case in the study presented in this paper. Other studies suggest that the organizational commitment is an antecedent to job satisfaction ( Price and Mueller, 1981 ; Bateman and Strasser, 1984 ; Curry et al., 1986 ; Vandenberg and Lance, 1992 ).

In our study, job involvement represents a type of attitude toward work and is usually defined as the degree to which one identifies psychologically with one's work, i.e., how much importance one places on their work. A distinction should be made between work involvement and job involvement. Work involvement is conditioned by the process of early socialization and relates to the values one has wrt. work and its benefits, while job involvement relates to the current job and is conditioned with the one's current employment situation and to what extent it meets one's needs ( Brown, 1996 ).

2.1. Research Method

Based on the relevant literature, the results of recent studies and the model proposed by Locke and Latham (2004) , we designed a conceptual model shown in Figure 2 . The model was then used to formulate the following hypotheses:

H0 - Work motivation factors, such as organizational commitment, job involvement, job satisfaction and work characteristics, represent interlinked significant indicators of work motivation in the organizations examined.

H1 - Work characteristics will have a positive relationship with job satisfaction.

H2 - Organizational policies and procedures will have a positive relationship with job satisfaction.

H3 - Job satisfaction will have a positive relationship with job involvement.

H4 - Job satisfaction will have a positive relationship with organizational commitment.

H5 - Job involvement will have a mediating role between job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

Figure 2 . The research model.

2.2. Participants

For the purpose of this study, 125 organizations from the Serbian Chamber of Commerce database ( www.stat.gov.rs ) were randomly selected to take part in this study. Each organization was contacted and an invitation letter was sent. Eight companies expressed a desire to take part and provided contact details for 700 of their employees. The questionnaire distribution process was conducted according to Dillman's approach ( Dillman, 2011 ). Thus, the initial questionnaire dissemination process was followed by a series of follow-up email reminders, if required. After a 2-month period, out of 625 received, 566 responses were valid. Therefore, the study included 566 persons, 235 males (42%) and 331 women (58%) employed by 8 companies located in Serbia, Eastern Europe.

The sample encompassed staff from both public (53%) and private (47%) companies in manufacturing (31%) and service (69%) industries. The companies were of varied size and had between 150 and 6,500 employees, 3 of them (37.5%) medium-sized (<250 employees) and 5 (62.5%) large enterprises.

For the sake of representativeness, the sample consisted of respondents across different categories of: age, years of work service and education. The age of the individuals was between 20 and 62 years of age and we divided them into 5 categories as shown in Table 1 . The table provides the number of persons per category and the relative size of the category wrt. to the whole sample. In the same table, a similar breakdown is shown in terms of years a person spent with the company, their education and the type of the position they occupy within the company (managerial or not).

Table 1 . Data sample characteristics.

2.3. Ethics Statement

The study was carried out in accordance with the Law on Personal Data Protection of the Republic of Serbia and the Codex of Professional Ethics of the University of Novi Sad. The relevant ethics committee is the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Technical Sciences of the University of Novi Sad.

All participants took part voluntarily and were free to fill in the questionnaire or not.

The questionnaire included a cover sheet explaining the aim of the research, ways in which the data will be used and the anonymous nature of the survey.

2.4. Measures

This study is based on a self reported questionnaire as a research instrument.

The questionnaire was developed in line with previous empirical findings, theoretical foundations and relevant literature recommendations ( Brayfield and Rothe, 1951 ; Weiss et al., 1967 ; Mowday et al., 1979 ; Kanungo, 1982 ; Fields, 2002 ). We then conducted a face validity check. Based on the results, some minor corrections were made, in accordance with the recommendations provided by university professors. After that, the pilot test was conducted with 2 companies. Managers from each of these companies were asked to assess the questionnaire. Generally, there were not any major complaints. Most of the questions were meaningful, clearly written and understandable. The final research instrument contained 86 items. For acquiring respondents' subjective estimates, a five-point Likert scale was used.

The questionnaire took about 30 min to fill in. It consisted of: 10 general demographic questions, 20 questions from the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), 15 questions from the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ), 10 questions from the Job Involvement Questionnaire (JIQ), 18 questions of the Brayfield-Rothe Job Satisfaction Scale (JSS), 6 questions of the Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) and 7 additional original questions related to the rules and procedures within the organization.

The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), 20 items short form ( Weiss et al., 1967 ), was used to gather data about job satisfaction of participants. The MSQ – short version items, are rated on 5-points Likert scale (1 very dissatisfied with this aspect of my job, and 5 – very satisfied with this aspect of my job) with two subscales measuring intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction.

Organizational commitment was measured using The Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ). It is a 15-item scale developed by Mowday, Steers and Porter ( Mowday et al., 1979 ) and uses a 5-point Likert type response format, with 3 factors that can describe this commitment: willingness to exert effort, desire to maintain membership in the organization, and acceptance of organizational values.

The most commonly used measure of job involvement has been the Job Involvement Questionnaire (JIQ, Kanungo, 1982 ), 10-items scale designed to assess how participants feel toward their present job. The response scale on a 5-point scale varied between “strongly disagree/not applicable to me” to “strongly agree/fully applicable”.

The Brayfield and Rothe's 18-item Job Satisfaction Index (JSI, Brayfield and Rothe, 1951 ) was used to measure overall job satisfaction, operationalized on five-point Likert scale.

Psychometric analysis conducted showed that all the questionnaires were adequately reliable (Cronbach alpha > 0.7). The suitability of the data for factor analysis has been confirmed using the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) Test (see Table 2 ).

Table 2 . Basic psychometric characteristics of the instruments.

For further analysis we used summary scores for the different scales. Job satisfaction was represented with the overall score of MSQ, as the data analysis revealed a strong connection between the extrinsic and intrinsic motivators. The overall score on the OCQ was used as a measure of organizational commitment, while the score on JDS was used to reflect job characteristics. The JSS and JIQ scales have been modified, by eliminating a few questions, in order to improve reliability and suitability for factor analysis.

Statistical analysis was carried out using the SPSS software. The SPSS Amos structural equation modeling software was used to create the Structural Equation Models (SEMs).

The data was first checked for outliers using box-plot analysis. The only outliers identified were related to the years of employment, but these seem to be consistent to what is expected in practice in Serbia, so no observations needed to be removed from the dataset.

3.1. Exploratory Factor Analysis

Although research dimensions were empirically validated and confirmed in several prior studies, to the best of our knowledge, the empirical confirmation of the research instrument (i.e., questionnaire) and its constituents in the case of Serbia and South-Eastern Europe is quite scarce. Furthermore, the conditions in which previous studies were conducted could vary between research populations. Also, such differences could affect the structure of the research concepts. Thus, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted in order to empirically validate the structure of research dimensions and to test the research instrument, within the context of the research population of South-Eastern Europe and Serbia.

Using the maximum likelihood method we identified four factors, which account for 67% of the variance present in the data. The scree plot of the results of the analysis is shown in Figure 3 . As the figure shows, we retained the factors above the inflection point.

Figure 3 . Scree plot of the EFA results.

The communalities for the variables loading into the factors are shown in Table 3 and the questions corresponding to our variables are listed in Table 4 . Initial communalities are estimates of the proportion of variance in each variable accounted for by all components (factors) identified, while the extraction communalities refer to the part of the variance explained by the four factors extracted. The model explains more of the variance then the initial factors, for all but the last variable.

Table 3 . Communalities.

Table 4 . Questions that build our constructs.

More detailed results of the EFA for the four factors, are shown in Table 5 . The unique loadings of specific items measured with the different questions in the questionnaire on the factors identified are shown in the pattern matrix (Table 6 ). As the table shows, each factor is loaded into by items that were designed to measure a specific construct and there are no cross-loadings. The first factor corresponds to job characteristics, second to job satisfaction, third to job involvement and the final to organizational commitment. The correlation between the factors is relatively low and shown in Table 7 .

Table 5 . Total variance explained by the dominant factors.

Table 6 . Pattern matrix for the factors identified.

Table 7 . Factor correlation matrix.

3.2. Confirmatory Factor Analysis

In the next part of our analysis we used Structural Equation Modeling to validate and improve a part of the model proposed by Locke and Latham (2004) that focuses on work characteristics, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job involvement.

Although the EFA suggest the existence of four, not five, dominant factors in the model, diverging from the model proposed by Locke and Latham (2004) , in our initial experiments we used their original model, shown in Figure 4A , taking into account also organizational policies and procedures.

Figure 4 . The evolution of our model (the path coefficients are standardized): (A) the initial model based on Locke and Latham (2004) , (B) no partial mediation, and (C) partial mediation introduced.

In this (default) model, the only independent variable are the job characteristics. The standardized regression coefficients shown in Figure 4A (we show standardized coefficients throughout Figure 4 ) indicate that the relationship between the satisfaction and organizational commitment seems to be stronger (standard coefficient value of 0.54) than the one between satisfaction and involvement (standard coefficient value of 0.37). The effect of job characteristics and policies and procedures on the employee satisfaction seems to be balanced (standard coefficient values of 0.31 and 0.30, respectively).

The default model does not fit our data well. The Comparative Fit Index (CFI) for this model is 0.759, the Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) is 0.598, while the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) is 0.192.

A more detailed analysis of the model revealed that it could indeed (as the EFA suggests) be improved by eliminating the organizational policies and procedures variable, as it has a high residual covariance with job involvement (−3.071) and organizational commitment (−4.934).

We therefore propose to eliminate the “Organizational policies and procedures” variable from the model. Dropping the variable resulted in an improved model shown in Figure 4B . The improved model fits the data better, but the fit is still not good ( RMSEA = 0.125, CFI = 0.915 and TLI = 0.830).

We then hypothesized that job involvement influences organizational commitment, yielding the final model tested in this study (Figure 4C ). This model turned out to be the one that fits our data very well ( RMSEA = 0.000, CFI = 1 and TLI = 1.015).

4. Mediation Analysis

In the final part of the study we conducted the mediation analysis, to understand the relationship between job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational commitment. We used bootstrapping, based on 5000 samples and the confidence interval of 95%.

We started with a model that contains just one relation between satisfaction and commitment (Figure 5A ), then tested for full mediation (Figure 5B ) and finally partial mediation as indicated in out proposed model (Figure 5C ). The unstandardized, direct effect regression weights and the p -values obtained in these experiments are shown in Table 8 . As the p -values show, all the connections in our three models are significant and that they remain so throughout the evolution of the model. Therefore, job involvement mediates the influence of satisfaction on organizational commitment, but this is a partial mediation and a major part of the effect of satisfaction on the organizational commitment is achieved directly.

Figure 5 . Mediation analysis models. (A) , Model 1; (B) , Model 2; (C) , Model 3.

Table 8 . Mediation analysis regression weights.

5. Discussion

We conducted an empirical study aimed at exploring the relationship between employee satisfaction, job involvement, organizational commitment, work characteristics and organizational policies and procedures.

Based on the relevant scientific literature, recent studies in the area and the integrative model of work motivation of Locke and Latham (2004) , we have formulated an initial conceptual model for our research and hypothesized the connections between the relevant variables. The initial model has been improved iteratively, with the goal of increasing its fit to the empirical data collected in the study.

Starting from the model proposed by Locke and Latham (2004) we determined that their model does not fit our experimental data well and that we observe a connection between job involvement that is not present in their model. In addition, our data does not support the hypothesis that organizational procedures and policies affect employee satisfaction in the organizations considered. As a result we propose a 4 factor model shown in Figure 4C for the relationship between the concepts of work characteristics, employee satisfaction, job involvement and organizational commitment.

We analyzed the results of the study based on 1 general and 5 specific hypotheses. The research confirms that there is a link between work characteristics and job satisfaction (H1), but that it is weak, suggesting that a dominant effect of the material factors of motivation exists.

We have also determined that there is a connection between the rules and procedures variable (H2) and the rest of the variables, indicating that it should be considered in future studies, but that the constructs need to be operationalized better.

The third specific hypothesis (H3) that job satisfaction has a positive relationship with job involvement has been confirmed and we have observed that extrinsic work motivation has a stronger effect than intrinsic, which can be explained by low wages and insufficient funds for everyday life. Other research has confirmed this link ( Govender and Parumasur, 2010 ) and showed that most of the employee motivation dimensions have significant links with the dimensions of job involvement (9 out of 10 pairs).

The fourth specific hypothesis (H4 - Job satisfaction will have a positive relationship with organizational commitment) has also been confirmed and we can conclude that a positive relationship exists, which is in line with recent research in this area. The subscale focused on identification with the organization is strongly connected with both intrinsic and extrinsic factors of job satisfaction, but this cannot be said for the subscale focused on organizational attachment. Our research supports the existence of a weak connection between job satisfaction and organizational attachment, both when intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction is considered as a motivator. A study of work motivation and organizational commitment conducted in Bulgaria (Serbia's neighbor) showed that extrinsic factors are key sources of organizational commitment ( Roe et al., 2000 ), as well as that job involvement and the chances for the fulfillment o higher-order needs pay a very important part in the motivation of the employees.

One of the reasons for such a result can be the economic situation in Serbia, which has a severely detrimental effect on work motivation. The transition and economic crisis is accompanied by the shrinking purchasing power of the population, higher unemployment rates and a rising disparity in the salary levels, all of which causes the adjustment of the behavior of the employees to these conditions. Under the economic conditions that exist in Serbia it is to be expected that the individuals will put more value on the salary and advancement prospects than on the opportunities for growth and development, which do not present a direct financial benefit.

The research did not reveal any differences with respect to the sex of the participants, regardless of the variable considered. Other research has not reached a consensus on the matter, as a part of the studies suggests that there are differences in job involvement between men and women ( Lodahl and Kejnar, 1965 ; Hall and Mansfield, 1975 ; Rabinowitz and Hall, 1977 ; Saal, 1978 ).

Regarding the ownership of the organizations examined, the research revealed statistically significant differences between the employees working in public and private companies, i.e., that the participants working in the private sector scores significantly higher on every variable except work characteristics, meaning that they are more committed to work, more involved and more satisfied.

In addition, we have determined that there are statistically significant differences when it comes to the position of the employees in the organization's hierarchy, i.e., whether they occupy a managerial or a non-managerial position. The study shows that managers have higher scores for organizational attachment, organizational commitment, intrinsic motivators, extrinsic motivators, job satisfaction and job involvement. We can, therefore, conclude that the managers are more satisfied with their work in general and that they are more committed to the organization than other employees. This can be explained by the fact that, due to the nature of the work they do, they are able to make decisions, they have a more varied job and have better material and non-material rewards. A more detailed analysis of the commitment of the managers, focused on identifying if we are dealing with normative, continuous or affective commitment would provide more insight into the structure and nature of the relationship between the organization and the individual.

Considering the type of the company (manufacturing or service) our study showed that the participants working in manufacturing companies are the ones who identify more with the company, are more committed to the company, more satisfied with their work and more involved.

Our study also identified a significant difference with respect to the vocation of the participants, showing that those with training in humanistic sciences awarded most positive scores to the characteristics of their work, while the opposite was true for those of technical vocations.

The part of our analysis focused on the age of the participants revealed that there is a statistically significant connection between the age and job satisfaction, where the older the employee, the less satisfied he/she is with their job and cares less about the characteristics of work. A reason for such a result could again be found in the economic situation of Serbia and the high unemployment rate (over 20%), causing the younger people to be satisfied with the simple fact that they managed to get a job, rather than being satisfied with the job itself. Another reason could be the difference in the perception of desires and possibilities that exists between the younger and older employees.

The years with the company are negatively linked with employee satisfaction, as well as job characteristics, which is in line with the effect discussed in the previous paragraph, as those with more time spent in the company are less satisfied with their job and care less about the characteristics of their work.

Considering the level of education of the participants, our study showed that the more educated the employees are, the less involved they are in their work and that they seem to care more about the characteristics of their work.

Our research showed that links exist between all the variables studied and that the weakest of these links is between work characteristics and other constructs. Of those, the weakest link in turn is the link between the work characteristics and the subscale of organizational commitment related to the identification with the organization. Thus, we can conclude that work characteristics do not exhibit a significant influence on whether and to what extent the employee will identify with the organization in which he/she works, i.e., whether he/she will be committed to the organization.

A moderate to strong connection exists between organizational commitment and job satisfaction, which is in line with the results of numerous previous studies ( Currivan, 1999 ; Meyer et al., 2002 ; Malhotra and Mukherjee, 2004 ; Saari and Judge, 2004 ; Chen, 2007 ; Falkenburg and Schyns, 2007 ; Moynihan and Pandey, 2007 ; Getahun et al., 2008 ; Colakoglu et al., 2010 ; Yücel, 2012 ; Fu and Deshpande, 2014 ).

Our study confirms the existence of a strong connection between job satisfaction and job involvement ( Moynihan and Pandey, 2007 ; Wegge et al., 2007 ; Griffin et al., 2010 ; Raymond and Mjoli, 2013 ; Zopiatis et al., 2014 ). Many studies have been carried out in an attempt to examine and define the relationship between job involvement and organizational commitment. Our results are in line with previous studies, which diverge only on the strength of the connection, ranging from moderate to strong ( Blau and Boal, 1989 ; Brewer and Lok, 1995 ; Sjöberg and Sverke, 2000 ; Brooks and Swailes, 2002 ; Toga, 2011 ). Our study provides more evidence for the existence of such a relationship, which is moderately strong. Such a relationship does not exist in the integrative model of Locke and Latham (2004) , which served as a starting point for this study.

In addition, we have determined that job involvement has a mediating role between job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Job involvement mediates the influence of satisfaction on organizational commitment, but this is a partial mediation and a major part of the effect of satisfaction on the organizational commitment is achieved directly.

The construct related to organizational policies and procedures seems not to have significant bearing on employee satisfaction, based on the data collected. Two plausible explanations exist for this. The first is the fact that this was the only construct in our study for which a suitable standard questionnaire could not be found, so one had to be constructed specifically, meaning that the construct should be operationalized better in future studies and that this represents the limitation of our study. The other is the fact that in Serbia, as in most transition economies, the lack of suitable institutional and legislative framework at the national level is often accompanied with lax, not clearly defined and even less adhered-to business policies and procedures. In such a state of affairs, the employees seldom have a relatively clear idea of what the policies and procedures of their organization are and are unable to evaluate them with respect to those of other organizations, making this construct very hard to measure. At the same time it can be argued that, in such a situation, the policies and procedures are not perceived by the employees as a significant factor of their organizational behavior and indeed do not affect their work motivation. Whatever the reason, the relationship of policies and procedures to the other variables of work motivation within the transition economies merits further investigation.

Author Contributions

JĆ and SM designed the study. JĆ collected the data and conducted the bulk of the research. MD and DĆ conducted the statistical analysis and modeling. All authors took part in the manuscript writing, led by JĆ and DĆ.

The research leading to these results has received funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2012-2016/ under REA grant agreement n° 295220.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Keywords: work, job, satisfaction, involvement, employee, commitment, organizational, behavior

Citation: Ćulibrk J, Delić M, Mitrović S and Ćulibrk D (2018) Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment and Job Involvement: The Mediating Role of Job Involvement. Front. Psychol . 9:132. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00132

Received: 07 November 2017; Accepted: 29 January 2018; Published: 16 February 2018.

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Copyright © 2018 Ćulibrk, Delić, Mitrović and Ćulibrk. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Milan Delić, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

• Open access
• Published: 18 April 2024

Relationship between resilience at work, work engagement and job satisfaction among engineers: a cross-sectional study

• Bassma Abdelhadi Ibrahim 1 &
• Sarah Mohamed Hussein 1  

BMC Public Health volume  24 , Article number:  1077 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Workplace challenges can negatively affect employees and the organization. Resilience improves work-related outcomes like engagement, satisfaction, and performance. Gaps exist in studying resilience at work, particularly in relation to engagement and satisfaction. Therefore, this study aims to investigate relationship between Resilience at Work, Work Engagement and Job Satisfaction among engineers in an Egyptian Oil and Gas Company.

It was a cross-sectional study. The target population was the engineers who are working in Egyptian Oil and Gas Company. The study was performed on 100 engineers. Participants were enrolled by simple random sampling technique via an online questionnaire. The study was conducted from May 2023 to the end of September 2023. The data were collected in the duration of June to August 2023. Data was obtained through a structured and personally accomplished questionnaire, which was disseminated electronically via email. The questionnaire comprises of personal information, work experience, a Resilience at Work scale consisting of 20 items, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale with nine items to evaluate work engagement, and the 20-item Short-Form Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire was utilized to determine employee satisfaction. The bivariate analysis employed independent samples t-test and Mann-Whitney U test. The associations between scores were measured by Spearman rho correlation. Simple linear and multiple linear regressions were used to predict work engagement and job satisfaction.

A statistically strong positive correlation was observed among all the aspects of work engagement, including vigor, absorption, and dedication. This study demonstrated a significant correlation between resilience and work engagement ( r  = 0.356, p  < 0.05). There was a strong correlation between resilience and job satisfaction ( r  = 0.608, p  < 0.05). A significant moderate correlation was determined between job satisfaction and work engagement ( r  = 0.396, p  < 0.05). Both gender with a female coefficient of -15.517, and resilience with a coefficient of 0.235 significantly predicted work engagement. Whereas, the significant predictors of job satisfaction were resilience (β = 0.294), and work engagement (β = 0.283).

Conclusions

Resilience greatly affects work engagement and job satisfaction. Thus, organizations need to promote resilience in employees to create a positive work environment and increase productivity.

Peer Review reports

Resilience has become an essential element in the success and well-being of employees in today’s fast-paced and demanding work environment. This is especially evident in high-pressure industries like oil and gas sector. Most oil and gas industry workers experience various stressful conditions and encounter numerous challenges and pressures in their daily work, impacting their health [ 1 , 2 , 3 ].

The Oil and Gas industry is widely recognized for its challenging and hazardous work environment in terms of safety and occupational risks. Consequently, employees in this field especially engineers frequently encounter intricate obstacles such as working under immense pressure, complying with strict safety protocols, meeting tight project timelines, and keeping up with evolving technologies and market dynamics. An Egyptian survey conducted on a group of 409 workers in the oil and gas industry showed that the work environment had a high level of psychosocial hazards, as well as mild levels of anxiety and moderate levels of depression and stress [ 4 ]. Similar studies in Nigeria and Iran also found high levels of occupational stress among employees in the Oil and Gas industry [ 5 , 6 ]. One important factor that has been found to be crucial to deal with these challenges and stress is the development of resilience and positive psychological well-being among employees. This is necessary to ensure operational efficiency, safety, and overall wellness for professionals in the industry.

Resilience is commonly referred to as the ability to recover from adversity, conflict, or failure. It can also apply to positive events, progress, and increased responsibilities. So, resilient employees have better awareness and ability to be more flexible, improvise, and adjust quickly to change [ 2 ]. Resilience has a positive impact on work outcomes like engagement, satisfaction, and performance [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Resilient personnel could create a problem-solving pattern that allows them to contribute best to their workplace. Also, resilient individuals are successful in dealing with workplace adversity, producing persistent and favorable work attitudes leading to engagement [ 10 ].

Work engagement is a state of mind that involves concentration, energy, and enthusiasm in one’s work. It is described as being vigorous, dedicated, and absorbed. It is beneficial for both individuals and organizations as it promotes motivation and commitment [ 10 , 11 ]. In Indonesia, a study conducted among 205 respondents working as merchandisers in Fast Moving Consumer Goods field under outsourcing companies demonstrated a positive association between employee resilience and work engagement ( r  = 0.346, p  < 0.01). The findings showed that employees who possess high resilience levels tend to exhibit greater work engagement [ 12 ]. Another study by Aggarwal (2022) unveiled a significant correlation between resilience and work engagement among employees ( r  = 0.024, p  < 0.05) suggesting that resilience and work engagement are interrelated and have a mutual impact on each other [ 13 ]..

Furthermore, resilience not only serves as a protective factor, but it can also influence employee job satisfaction. Job satisfaction can be defined as a positive feeling about one’s job as an outcome of an individual’s perception and evaluation of his work. Its level is closely associated with employee motivation and productivity [ 14 ]. An Iranian study conducted among employees of an Iranian petrochemical company revealed that the level of employees’ job satisfaction was moderate [ 6 ]. Also, a research conducted by Bernard (2021) aimed to investigate the connections between resilience, job satisfaction, and anticipated turnover among chief nursing officers throughout the United States and found a significant link between resilience and job satisfaction, with a positive correlation coefficient of 0.28 [ 15 ].

While there is existing literature on resilience, work engagement, and job satisfaction in various industries, there is a significant research gap in specifically addressing these constructs within the unique context of the oil and gas industry. Furthermore, in this context understanding engineers’ resilience, work engagement, and job satisfaction as well the factors that contribute to them is essential for maintaining a highly skilled and motivated workforce [ 2 ]. So, this study aims to investigate the complex relation between resilience, work engagement, and job satisfaction among engineers working in the oil and gas company with core concerns revolving around understanding how resilience affects work engagement and job satisfaction, and how these relationships manifest within this organizational setting. This study holds significant implications for both organizational leaders and employees. By gaining insights into the interplay of these constructs, organizations can develop targeted interventions and strategies to enhance employee well-being and performance, leading to a more resilient and satisfied workforce. The subsequent sections of this research will begin by the methodological approach employed in this study. Following this, the findings and their implications will be discussed, concluding with recommendations for future research and practical applications.

Study design

It was a cross-sectional study to examine the relation between workplace resilience, work engagement and job satisfaction. The study was conducted from May 2023 to the end of September 2023. The data were collected in the duration of June to August 2023.

The study was carried out on engineers working in an Egyptian Oil and Gas Company. Among the 3,000 employees working in the Egyptian Oil and Gas Company, 500 were engineers.

Inclusion criteria

Both males and females with the job title “engineer” and who graduated from the faculties of Engineering, Science, and Computers and Information were eligible to participate in the study.

Exclusion criteria

New engineers hired for less than a year, part-time engineers were excluded from the population.

Sample size

G*Power 3.1.9.7 software calculated sample size using exact test family, two tails, and the α error was determined at 0.05 and power = 0.80, r = correlation ρ H1 was determined twice based on correlation between resilience at work and job satisfaction ( r  = 0.28) [ 15 ],, and correlation between resilience and work engagement ( r  = 0.346) [ 12 , 16 ].

After estimation of the sample size for each outcome, the largest sample size = 97 participants. We added 10% of the sample size to adjust for non-response, so the sample size was raised into108 participants. The questionnaire was sent to those engineers, only 100 engineers responded and agreed to participate in the study which covers the required sample. So, the final recruited number of participants were 100 engineers, which represents 92.5% response rate.

Sampling technique

Engineers were recruited into the study by simple random sampling. A sampling frame of all eligible engineers was formulated by contacting the human resources department. By random generator of SPSS software program version 22, the authors selected the chosen engineers. Through the technology information department, the authors received the email addresses of the engineers. The authors sent invitations to the chosen engineers including the titles of the study, its purpose researchers’ contact information, and informed consent. By accepting the informed consent, the respondents took part in the research.

Tool of data collection

We gathered data by using a well-structured and self-administered questionnaire. The structure of the study consisted of four distinct sections. Three tools used to assess resilience, work engagement and job satisfaction are valid and reliable tools [ 17 , 18 , 19 ]. The initial section encompassed personal data, while the second section evaluated resilience by using the Resilience at Work (RAW) scale created by Winwood et al. (2013) [ 17 ]. This scale consisted of 20 items and employed a seven-point Likert scale for rating. The scores on the scale ranged from 1, indicating strong disagreement, to 7, indicating strong agreement. It is reliable instrument as the calculated Cronbach’s alpha = 0.94.

The third section explored work engagement, utilizing the nine-item Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) established by Schaufeli et al. (2006) [ 18 ]. This scale encompassed the three aspects of work engagement: vigor, absorption, and dedication. The scoring of responses is done on a 6-point Likert scale that ranges from ‘0’ (never) to ‘6’ (always), with a reliability coefficient of α = 0.96. Lastly, the assessment of job satisfaction involved the utilization of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (twenty-item Short-Form) (MSQ). The items on this scale were rated on a five-point Likert scale, with 1 indicating very dissatisfied and 5 indicating very satisfied. Item responses were aggregated to create a total score, where lower scores indicated lower levels of job satisfaction [ 19 ]. The MSQ is a reliable questionnaire whereas the calculated Cronbach’s alpha for MSQ was 0.91.

The original questionnaire in English was bidirectionally “back–back” translated into Arabic. The English-to-Arabic translation was first done by a bilingual translator. Face validity of the Arabic translated version was tested whereas it was reviewed by another bilingual translator for accuracy. Discrepancies resolved through discussion. The questionnaire was back-translated from Arabic to English by a third translator. Adjustments are made to ensure meaning is preserved. A pilot study was carried out on 10 engineers to test the questionnaire to ensure language clarity and feasibility. Data from the pilot study was excluded from the final analysis. After performing any modification in the question’s language according to the pilot participants’ response. The final form of the translated questionnaire was distributed. It was an online Google form survey that was sent to the employees through their emails. The researchers will obtain the participants’ informed consent before starting to fill out the questionnaire.

Data management

The SPSS software program version 22 was utilized for data entry and statistical analysis. Qualitative variables were described in frequency and percentage form. While quantitative variables were summarized in the form of mean (standard deviation) or median (interquartile range). The normality of continuous data was tested by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The bivariate analysis employed independent samples t-test and Mann-Whitney U test. The associations between resilience, work engagement and job satisfaction scores were measured by Spearman rho correlation. Simple linear and multiple linear regressions were used to predict work engagement and job satisfaction. A significance level of p -value less than 0.05 was used to determine statistical significance.

This work has been carried out on 100 engineers working in Egyptian Oil and Gas Company. Table  1 displays the participants’ characteristics. Most were male (87%) and married (87%), had a university education (88%), and lived in urban areas (88%). The average work experience was 14.34 ± 5.93 years. Table  1 also shows the scores for resilience, work engagement, and job satisfaction: 109.25 ± 18.97, 39.82 ± 12.41, and 79.53 ± 11.67, respectively. The scores for vigor, absorption, and dedication were 12.88 ± 4.14, and 13.40 ± 4.38, 13.54 ± 4.50, respectively.

As seen in Fig.  1 , the median resilience score was 113.00 and the interquartile range (IQR) was 21.75. While the median work engagement score was 43.00 and the IQR was 20.75. However, the job satisfaction median and IQR were 80.00 and 14.75; respectively.

Box-and-whisker plot of resilience, work engagement, and job satisfaction scores ( n  = 100)

Table  2 summarizes the relation between the sociodemographic characteristics and the 3 parameters of the study. By using Mann-Whitney U test, the only significant factor was the gender for work engagement, whereas the work engagement was significantly higher among males 41.95 (11.54) than females 25. 54 (8.00).

As shown in Table  3 , there were significant correlations observed between resilience, work engagement, job satisfaction, and the subscales of work engagement such as vigor, dedication, and absorption. The correlation between resilience and work engagement was found to be significantly positive with a moderate correlation coefficient of rho = 0.356. Similarly, the correlation between work engagement and job satisfaction was also significant with a correlation coefficient of rho = 0.396. Furthermore, there was a strong correlation observed between resilience and job satisfaction (rho = 0.608). Additionally, all the subscales of work engagement showed a significant positive strong correlation.

Table  4 demonstrates the significant predictors of work engagement by simple linear and multiple linear regressions as follows: gender, (female coefficient = -16.416, 95% CI= -23.00 - -9.83, -15.517, 95% CI=-21.597 - -9.436; respectively), resilience (coefficient = 0.254, 95% CI = 0.133–0.375, 0.235, 95% CI= -21.597- -9.436; respectively).

With regards to job satisfaction predictors, as seen in Table  5 , resilience and work engagement were significant predictors, resilience coefficient by univariate analysis was 0.366, 95% CI = 0.266–0.465, and by multivariate regression was 0.294, 95% CI = 0.192–0.395. Moreover, the coefficients of work engagement were 0.457, 95% CI = 0.293–0.622 and 0.283, 95% CI = 0.128–0.438 by univariate and by multivariate analyses respectively.

Engineers in oil and gas industry may face high pressures at work due to ongoing global change, economic recession, and work intensification.These pressures can negatively impact their psychological and physical health, as well as their engagement at work. In this study, we aimed to examine the relation between resilience, work engagement, and job satisfaction among engineers working in an Egyptian gas and oil company.

This study therefore set out in a sample of 100 engineers. The mean age was 39.02 ± 6.92 years. The male gender constituted the majority (87%) of the sample population, while an equal proportion of the sample (87%) were reported to be married, and the sample’s educational attainment was a university education (88%). The mean duration of employment was 14.34 ± 5.93.

Resilience refers to individuals’ ability to effectively handle significant change, adversity, or risk by raising the threshold at which stress arousal occurs [ 20 , 21 ]. Based on the present study, the mean resilience score among the surveyed engineers was 109.25 ± 18.97. This indicates that, on average, the engineers in our study demonstrated a relatively high level of resilience. In contrast, an Ethiopian study examining burnout and resilience levels among healthcare professionals reported a lower mean resilience score compared to our study’s engineers, with a score of 78.36 ± 17.78 [ 22 ]. The difference can be explained by various factors. These factors include differences in the sampled populations, like the specific industry or qualifications of the engineers and the challenges faced by health professionals. Cultural and contextual factors, such as societal norms and work environments, may also have affected resilience levels differently in the two groups. Additionally, Chen et al. (2017) conducted a study on Canadian construction workers and found that higher resilience scores were linked to better stress management abilities at work [ 23 ].

Work engagement is made up of three dimensions: vigor, dedication, and absorption. Employees who are engaged demonstrate a high level of energy and mental resilience, and they willingly put in a significant amount of effort into their assigned tasks. Additionally, they express enthusiasm and take pride in their work [ 24 ]. In our study, the mean work engagement score among engineers was 39.82 ± 12.41. While, the mean job satisfaction score was 79.53 ± 11.67. Regarding, dimensions of work engagement, the most obvious finding was that vigor was strongly linked to both absorption and dedication ( r  = 0.835, 0.865, p  < 0.05), respectively. Also, a strong correlation was observed between dedication and absorption ( r  = 0.885, p  < 0.05). A similar finding has been identified by Abd Elhamed and Hessuin, (2022) who reported a significantly strong positive correlation between all features of work engagement vigor, dedication, and absorption [ 25 ].

Another important finding was the presence of a statistically significant and moderate correlation between resilience and work engagement ( r  = 0.356, p  < 0.05). The multivariate analysis further revealed that resilience significantly predicted work engagement, as indicated by the coefficient value (B = 0.235), indicating that engineers with higher levels of resilience were more likely to experience higher levels of work engagement. It is worth mentioning that vigor, absorption, and dedication exhibited significant correlations with resilience ( r  = 0.393, r  = 0.286, r  = 0.296, p  < 0.05), respectively. This can be clarified by referring to the conservation of resources theory (COR) which focuses on resources and suggests that individuals are motivated to protect and develop their personal resources in order to flourish and deal with stress. Individuals with high levels of personal resources are more likely to show resilience [ 26 ]. As a result, resilient individuals are better prepared to handle job demands and setbacks, preserving their resources and maintaining high levels of work engagement. Additionally, resilience can positively affect work engagement as they allow employees to maintain positive attitudes and create conditions that facilitate achieving goals, also enable individuals to appraise themselves and adapt to their environment effectively [ 10 ]. This association was confirmed in a study of German healthcare professionals, showing a significant link between resilience and work engagement [ 27 ]. Similarly, in a study conducted on 106 South African call center employees, Simons and Buitendach provided evidence of a statistically significant strong correlation between work engagement and resilience ( r  = 0.82, p  ≤ 0.01). In relation to the subscales of work engagement, They found a statistically significant correlation between vigor and resilience ( r  = 0.48, p  ≤ 0.01). A statistically significant link was also observed between dedication and resilience ( r  = 0.33, p  ≤ 0.01), while absorption showed a similar statistically significant correlation with resilience ( r  = 0.34; p  ≤ 0.01) [ 28 ]. In previous studies conducted by Malik and Garg (2018) focusing on Indian employees in the Information technology sector, as well as Abd Elhamed and Hessuin (2022) examining Egyptian nurses, a noteworthy correlation between work engagement and resilience was observed [ 2 , 25 ].

Contemporary evidence indicates that a significant relationship can be observed between resilience and work happiness, job satisfaction, job performance, and organizational commitment [ 21 , 29 , 30 ]. Interestingly, we also noticed a strong correlation ( r  = 0.608, p  < 0.05) between resilience and job satisfaction. This implies that as resilience is enhanced, job satisfaction also increases. It is worth noting that also resilience emerged as a significant predictor of job satisfaction (B = 0.294).

One potential reason is that resilience enables the maintenance of effective performance and the ability to deal with challenges. Additionally, it promotes the fulfillment of developmental objectives and is related to mental well-being and overall wellness. Accordingly, highly resilient people have good self-esteem and health and can handle work challenges well, leading to increased efficiency, productivity, and eventually job satisfaction. The relationship could also be clarified using the job demands-resources (JD-R) model. In this model, job characteristics are divided into job demands and resources. Job demands, such as workplace adversity and demands, along with job resources, like resilience, can predict a range of positive and negative job-related outcomes, including burnout and job satisfaction, as well as personal outcomes such as health and well-being [ 31 ]. Piotrowski et al. (2022) have employed a similar design to examine resilience, occupational stress, and job satisfaction among nurses and midwives in Poland during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to their findings, there is an average correlation between job satisfaction and resilience ( r  = 0.30, p  < 0.01). In addition, their study has identified resilience as a statistically significant predictor of job satisfaction (coefficient = 0.17, p  < 0.001) [ 14 ]. Similarly, Srivastava and Madan (2020) have investigated the relationship between resilience and career satisfaction among middle-level managers in private banks in India. They have discovered a significant association between resilience and job satisfaction (B = 0.22, p  < 0.01) [ 9 ]. Kim et al. (2011), Rahmawati (2013), Hudgins (2016), and Ghandi et al. (2017) have all found evidence to support the notion that there is a significant correlation between job satisfaction and resilience. These researchers have reported correlation coefficients of 0.380, 0.366, 0.51, and 0.56, respectively, all of which are statistically significant at p  < 0.05 [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ]. Comparably, research conducted in Singapore revealed a strong correlation between resilience and the level of job satisfaction experienced by psychiatric nurses (B = 0.109, p  = 0.003) [ 36 ]. The varying degrees of correlations could be partly related to the nature of the job as well as different tools used to assess job satisfaction and resilience.

This study’s findings further indicated a significant moderate association between job satisfaction and work engagement ( r  = 0.396, p  < 0.05). In this study, vigor, dedication, and absorption had significantly moderate correlation with job satisfaction ( r  = 0.416, r  = 0.341, r  = 0.322, p  < 0.05), respectively. It is worth noting that work engagement was a significant predictor of job satisfaction (B = 0.283). This implies that engineers who were more involved in their work expressed greater levels of satisfaction with their job. Consequently, these findings highlight the significance of work engagement as a crucial factor in determining job satisfaction. A likely explanation for this might be that work engagement contributes to a sense of accomplishment, experience of personal growth and job enrichment as well as perceiving work as rewarding and meaningful, resulting in job satisfaction. Similarly, job satisfaction enhances motivation, commitment, and enthusiasm toward work, creating a positive environment. It leads to increased work engagement and a sense of belonging. Together, job satisfaction and work engagement create a positive cycle. Our findings align with the work done by Jenaro et al. (2011), which concluded that vigor and dedication were significantly linked to job satisfaction [ 37 ]. Similarly, a study in Turkey revealed that work engagement of certified public accountants is positively relate with job satisfaction demonstrating that employee’s higher resilience and work engagement were more satisfied with their job [ 38 ]. In line with the findings, a study by Ge et al. (2021) on Chinese healthcare workers also discovered that work engagement and job satisfaction are correlated ( r  = 0.525, p  < 0.01) [ 39 ].

Clearly, it is evident that comparable trends have been identified in numerous sectors in numerous research studies which have demonstrated a positive correlation between resilience, work engagement, and job satisfaction across various occupations. This suggests that these factors play a crucial role in overall job satisfaction and well-being. Moreover, despite the diverse demands and stressors faced by different professions, the overarching theme of the significance of resilience and work engagement in improving job satisfaction remains constant.

Regarding the relationship of sociodemographic and work-related characteristics with resilience, work engagement, and job satisfaction, this study showed that gender specifically being male was significantly associated with higher mean work engagement ( p  < 0.05). Additionally, in this study, the multivariate analysis revealed that among demographic and work-related variables only gender was a significant predictor of work engagement (female coefficient =-15.517). Males may seem more engaged at work for various reasons. Stereotypes and biases linking engineering to masculinity may deter women from pursuing careers in this field. Consequently, there may be fewer female engineers and potentially lower engagement levels among those who do enter the field. Furthermore, Societal expectations and traditional gender roles can hinder women from balancing work and family responsibilities, making it harder for them to fully engage in their careers.

However, this study has been unable to demonstrate associations between other sociodemographic, work-related characteristics, resilience, work engagement, and job satisfaction. The reason for this is not clear but it might be explained in this way; sociodemographic data (e.g., age, gender, education) and work duration may shed some light on individuals’ experiences, but they do not fully determine job satisfaction, resilience, or work engagement. Also, multiple factors, including the nature of the work, work-life balance, relationships with colleagues and supervisors, growth opportunities, and personal characteristics (e.g., psychological factors, emotional intelligence), can influence job satisfaction, resilience, as well as work engagement [ 40 ].

The objective of our research was to examine the relationship between resilience, work engagement, and job satisfaction among engineers in an Oil and Gas company. By investigating these relationships, we aimed to provide insights into the factors that contribute to engineers’ job satisfaction within this specific industry context. Our findings successfully addressed this objective and shed light on the interplay between resilience, work engagement, and job satisfaction among engineers. Therefore, the results of our study have important implications for occupational psychology. Our research provides evidence of the relationship between resilience, work engagement, and job satisfaction, which improves our understanding of these concepts. The findings also emphasize the significance of resilience and work engagement in boosting job satisfaction for engineers. Accordingly, it is crucial to the Oil and Gas sector which is a high-pressure industry to implement strategies to support and enhance these factors among its employees by offering opportunities for growth, and creating a supportive work environment.

Study limitations

While this study sheds light on the link between resilience, work engagement, as well as job satisfaction, several limitations should be acknowledged. Firstly, this study utilized a cross-sectional survey design, which makes it challenging to establish causal relationships among the variables. To address this issue, future research should employ longitudinal designs to examine the temporal relationships between these variables. Secondly, the study was performed within a specific oil and gas company, limiting the generalizability of the findings to other organizations within the industry or to engineers in different sectors. Further research should explore these relationships in diverse companies and industries to provide a broader understanding of the associations between resilience, work engagement, and job satisfaction. Thirdly, the data were gathered through self-report measures, which may introduce information bias. Future research could incorporate objective measures or multiple sources of data to enhance the validity of the findings.

In conclusion, our study highlights the positive associations between resilience, work engagement, and job satisfaction among engineers within an Oil and Gas company with resilience was a significant predictive factor of both work engagement and job satisfaction. Additionally, this study indicates a significant positive correlation between work engagement and job satisfaction, highlighting the crucial role of resilience and work engagement in fostering job satisfaction among employees.

Recommendations

Overall, this research strengthens the idea that organizations particularly in the Oil and Gas sector should prioritize initiatives and programs that focus on improving the resilience of their staff members. This can involve providing resources for stress management, workshops or training to enhance resilience, and promoting a culture that values emotional well-being and personal growth. Furthermore, it is recommended that companies actively promote work-life balance in order to assist employees in building and sustaining resilience and engagement at work, with a particular emphasis on female workers. In the future. Longitudinal studies could be conducted to examine the causal relationships between resilience, work engagement, and job satisfaction among engineers in the Oil and Gas industry. Moreover, qualitative research could be employed to delve into the specific mechanisms and factors that contribute to resilience and work engagement within this particular industry. Lastly, it would be beneficial to examine the effects of organizational interventions and support systems on resilience, work engagement, and job satisfaction in order to develop evidence-based practices and policies.

Data availability

The datasets utilized and/or analyzed in the present study can be accessed by reaching out to the corresponding author through a reasonable inquiry.

Abbreviations

Resilience at Work

Utrecht Work Engagement Scale

Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire

Standard Deviation

Interquartile Range

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Both authors, BAI and SMH, actively participate in the selection of the topic, formulation of the research proposal, and collection of data. SMH takes charge of analyzing the data and composing the results, while BAI assumes responsibility for writing the discussion. The manuscript is a collaborative effort between both authors, who diligently work together to ensure its quality. Furthermore, they thoroughly review and give their approval to the final version.

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Ibrahim, B.A., Hussein, S.M. Relationship between resilience at work, work engagement and job satisfaction among engineers: a cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health 24 , 1077 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-18507-9

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Maximization strategies in relationship and career enhances life satisfaction through meaning making among established adults in South Korea

• Yerin Shim   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4976-0882 1 ,
• Yun-Jeong Shin   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1236-1781 2   na1 &
• Ji-yeon Lee   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3728-9808 3   na1  

BMC Psychology volume  12 , Article number:  214 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Choosing a partner and job have long been regarded as important developmental milestones to reach in adulthood. In a collective cultural context with high familial and societal expectations to commit to a relationship and job by age 30, maximizing on such life decisions might potentially harm one’s well-being. The literature on maximization-well-being association is complex, and recent research suggests that this relationship might differ by its dimensions and cultural context. In the present study, we examined how engaging in a maximization strategy in relationship and career domains predicts life satisfaction and whether this pathway is mediated by a meaning-making process (search-to-presence of meaning) among established adults in South Korea.

Survey data on measures of relational maximization strategy, career maximization strategy, search for meaning, presence of meaning, and life satisfaction was collected from 264 South Korean unmarried, working adults in their 30 s to 40 s. A two-step structural equation modeling method was applied to test the hypothesized serial mediation model.

Tests of the measurement and structural model showed good fit with the data (CFI = .96, TLI = .95, RMSEA = .07, SRMR = .05). Further bootstrapping results supported significant indirect effects of the serial mediation model in the paths between maximization strategy and life satisfaction via a search-to-presence of meaning in both relational ( b  = .16, 95% CI [.01, -.16], p  < .05) and career ( b  = .26, 95% CI [.11, -.26], p  < .01) domains.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that for established adults in a collectivist culture who may experience familial and social pressure on these life choices, searching for alternative options to make the best relationship and career decisions could potentially lead to higher life satisfaction, when done through an intentional meaning-making process.

Peer Review reports

Love and work have been historically regarded as two fundamental themes in an individual’s successful development by psychologists. Sigmund Freud, famously known by the quote “to love and to work ( zu lieben und zu arbeiten ),” viewed these as capacities that characterize a mature and psychologically healthy person [ 1 ]. Erik Erikson also named intimacy and generativity as major developmental milestones to be reached in adulthood [ 2 ]. Empirical research confirms that these two developmental tasks are salient for successful adult development [ 3 ], and modern psychological theories on well-being and flourishing commonly identify positive relationships and work as key indicators and pathways to a good life [ 4 , 5 , 6 ]. However, mixed results are found regarding whether attaining such developmental goals may or may not lead to well-being in adulthood [ 7 , 8 ], suggesting that simply achieving these goals may not be a guaranteed condition for happiness.

While life choices in romantic relationships and career can provide one an opportunity for tremendous growth and positive change when done right, it could also lead to more intense regret when it goes awry [ 9 ]. Because of these two potential contrasting outcomes, decision-making in relationships and career may increase one’s tendency to maximize. Maximization is a personality trait that reflects the pursuit of an optimal choice by seeking out and comparing alternatives in decision-making contexts [ 10 ]. While some people are happy with a “good enough” option, maximizers tend to exhaustively search for, and examine alternative options with the goal of choosing “the best” [ 11 ]. Despite this effort to make the best decision, however, high maximization tendency has been found to be associated with detrimental psychological effects which is referred to as the “maximization paradox” [ 12 ]. This paradox has led researchers to extensively study the relationship between maximization and well-being. Moreover, according to a recent study which investigated maximization across different decision domains, deciding on a partner and job were among the few domains in which people generally showed the highest maximization tendencies [ 13 ], which may have important implications for the well-being of adults who are expected to have made these decisions by their age.

Dimensions of maximization and well-being

The body of literature on maximization and well-being is quite complex, with mixed findings based on the dimension of maximization and well-being. Regarding maximization dimensions, a two-component model of maximization suggests that the maximization goal of choosing the best and the maximization strategy of searching alternatives should be examined separately as they tend to have opposing psychological experiences [ 10 , 14 ]. A recent meta-analysis that examined the relationship between maximization dimensions and well-being further confirm that maximization strategy (i.e., alternative search) has a stronger and negative relationship with overall well-being than maximization goal (i.e., choosing the best) which had a weaker and even positive association with overall well-being [ 15 ]. Thus, maximization strategy appears to be the active ingredient in the maximization paradox.

Maximization also tends to show different relationships with various indicators of well-being. Two traditions of well-being (i.e., hedonic and eudaimonic well-being) are widely cited in the literature [ 5 , 16 ] and the maximization-well-being association has also been primarily studied within this framework. For example, in the abovementioned meta-analytic study, general maximization showed stronger detrimental effects on hedonic indicators of well-being such as life satisfaction than eudaimonic indicators of well-being such as meaning in life [ 15 ]. However, previous research which examined the relationship between maximization and well-being has either measured maximization as a whole without differentiating maximization goal and strategy (e.g., [ 17 , 18 ]), or have only measured only one type of well-being (either hedonic or eudaimonic) (e.g., [ 19 ]), which makes it difficult to know the specific relationship between maximization dimensions and hedonic/eudaimonic indicators of well-being. In our study, we focus on the dimension of maximization strategy and its relationship between two representative indicators of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, life satisfaction and meaning in life, respectively.

Maximization and life satisfaction in relationships and career decision-making

The current research synthesis on the relationship between maximization and well-being has mostly focused on decision-making in consumer behavior, and research on maximization in specific life domains such as career and romantic relationships are relatively in its nascent stage. Existing research on relational maximization has found that people with higher relational maximization tendency tend to be less satisfied with their romantic relationship [ 20 ] and are likely to get married later than those with lower maximizing tendencies [ 21 ]. Maximization strategy in relationship decision-making has also been found to be negatively correlated with life satisfaction, while maximization goal had the opposite pattern [ 22 ], supporting previous findings in general maximization research. Several studies have also explored the negative consequences of maximization in a career context. General maximization was found to be associated with negative career thoughts [ 23 ], and negative vocational consequences for both colleges students and working adults [ 24 ]. However, no study to date has directly examined the relationship between career maximization and life satisfaction, which warrants more research to clarify this relationship.

The role of meaning-making in maximization

Based on these initial studies on maximization and life satisfaction in relationship and career domains, we can speculate that people who use maximization strategies in relationship and career-related decision-making may be vulnerable to sacrificing their life satisfaction. This warrants a need for an investigation on specific psychological routes that could enable those individuals to maintain their life satisfaction while thoughtfully engaging in the decision-making process. One such hypothesized route is through a meaning-making process through an intentional search for meaning, which leads to a presence of meaning.

While the presence of meaning has been a robust, positive predictor of life satisfaction across many cultures [ 25 ], the search for meaning tend to show different patterns in its relationship with life satisfaction depending on the cultural context. According to a meta-analytic study based on 147 studies from countries that varied in their individualism level, individualism significantly moderated the relationship between search for meaning and subjective well-being (which includes life satisfaction) but not with presence of meaning [ 26 ]. That is, the more collectivistic the culture, search for meaning played a significant role in enhancing one’s satisfaction with life. This pattern has also replicated in empirical research with Korean adults, which consistently show that search for meaning positively predicts presence of meaning [ 27 , 28 ]. Even in individualistic cultures which tend to show negative associations between search for meaning and well-being indices, it has been found that the positive relationship between presence of meaning and life satisfaction becomes even stronger when one is actively seeking meaning in life [ 29 ]. Also, recent daily diary research has shown that when examining the relationship between search for, and presence of meaning in the level of changes within an individual, search for meaning led to more presence of meaning the next day (e.g., [ 30 ]). Thus, we could expect that an active search for meaning can lead to a higher presence of meaning regardless of cultural context, and more so in the South Korean context.

While there is a scarcity of research on the relationship between maximization and meaning in the literature, few studies have begun to examine this link. For example, two studies conducted with cross-sectional adult samples from a collectivist culture (i.e., Filipino and Chinese college students) have found that maximization was positively associated with both search for, and presence of meaning in life [ 31 ], and with overall meaning in life [ 18 ]. A recent study with Chinese adult samples further tested the causal relationship between maximization and meaning with cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental designs and found that maximization tendency positively predicted meaning in life consistently across methods [ 32 ]. Together, these studies suggest that the meaning-making process may function positively in the link between maximization strategies and life satisfaction. However, whether these paths would be valid in career and relationship domains and specific developmental and cultural contexts remains as an empirical question.

Understanding maximization in a developmental and cultural context

Although maximization is typically understood as an individual trait [ 11 ], a developmental period that may be of particular interest in understanding maximization in career and relationship domains is established adulthood . This developmental term has been recently introduced by Mehta et al. to indicate adults from age 30 to 45 in developed countries, which is described as a distinctive period of high commitment to career and relationship [ 33 ]. Embedded in this concept, there is an expectation that adults in their 30 s to 40 s would have chosen their field of work and marriage partner by this age. There are, however, also obvious variations of established adults such as people who remain unmarried either by choice or resistance to cultural expectations [ 33 ].

Mayseless and Keren [ 34 ] argued that finding meaning is as an important developmental task in adulthood in the domains of love and work across diverse cultures. They note, however, how much an individual will invest in making such decisions in those life domains may differ by cultural expectations and significance placed on those decisions.

In South Korea, where collective, family-centric, and patriarchal traditions prevail, unmarried individuals in their 30 s and beyond often opt for a lifestyle that offers flexibility while maintaining meaningful intimacy outside their immediate family circle [ 28 , 35 , 36 , 37 ]. Growing up in a societal framework that assigns predetermined milestones based on age, such as education, employment, marriage, and parenthood, individuals are likely to feel pressured to fit into a set schedule. However, a growing trend towards single-person households, witnessing a tenfold increase over the past three decades has led to the emergence of neologisms like “ honjok ”, a combined Korean word, by myself and tribe, and “ bihon ”, which refers to people who choose to remain single rather than marry [ 38 ]. This shift underscores a desire among Korean individuals to carve out a life path that aligns with personal values rather than societal expectations. Indeed, research by Doh and Chung [ 39 ], employing a mixed-methods approach, revealed that Korean adults in their 20 s and older who actively pursued individual meaning and fulfillment, such as a sense of purpose or belonging, reported higher levels of happiness. A study of unmarried Korean job seekers in their 30 s [ 40 ] also found that when searching for a job, they place more importance on whether the job is one that allows them to utilize their uniqueness and strengths than on the criteria of a socially desirable job, reflecting the phenomenon of wanting to give meaning to their lives even when looking for a job. Park and Lee’s [ 41 ] study of unmarried men and women in their 30 s in South Korea also found that while self-awareness did not directly affect psychological well-being, self-awareness affect psychological well-being through higher levels of meaning in life.

Thus, in the South Korean context, people may be more likely to utilize a maximization strategy because family and social expectations and influences tend to be strong in choosing one’s partner and job [ 35 , 42 , 43 , 44 ]. This can make the individual more vulnerable in sacrificing their satisfaction with life, as they may either make a decision too swiftly or postpone their decision much longer than they want. However, if one can find meaning in the process of maximizing, it may buffer the harmful effect of using a maximization strategy on life satisfaction, and rather make it useful strategy to fulfill their values in love and work.

Present study

In the present study, we sought to extend and clarify previous research by exploring the relationships between maximization strategy and indicators of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being in two major life domains among unmarried, established adults in South Korea. Specifically, we tested a model which explore the mediating role of a meaning-making pathway (i.e., search-to-presence of meaning in life) in the link between relationship and career maximization strategies and life satisfaction, building on prior research. In this model, we expected that relationship and career maximization strategies would be significantly associated with life satisfaction and that this path would be sequentially mediated by the search for, and presence of meaning in life.

Participants and procedure

Participants were recruited via a survey company based in South Korea after receiving IRB approval. Participants who voluntarily registered to the nationwide pool completed an online questionnaire and were provided monetary rewards for participating in the survey. The inclusion criteria were South Korean adults who were in their 30 s to 40 s, currently unmarried with a full-time job. Our sample ( n  = 264) consisted of 143 (54.2%) men and 121 (45.8%) women, and the mean age was 37.27 years old ( SD  = 5.46). For the age range, participants in their 30 s were 175 (66.3%) and in their 40 s were 89 (33.7%). Participants’ relationship status included 158 single (59.8%), 54 dating (20.5%), 34 seriously dating for marriage (12.9%) and 17 casual dating (6.4%). Participants’ household monthly income was reported as follows: less than $2,000 (14.8%), $2,000–4,000 (64.4%), $4,000–6,000 (15.5%), $6,000–8,000 (4.1%) and more than $8,000 (1.1%). The sample size of this study has enough statistical power as it meets the criteria of having five observations per estimated parameter [ 45 ].

Relational maximization strategy

We used the alternative search subscale of the Relational Maximization Scale (RMS) [ 22 ] to measure relational maximization strategy, which consists of five items. A 7-point Likert scale (1 =  not at all , 7 =  very much ) was used. The scale was translated into Korean and evaluated for its construct validity through exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis [ 46 ], which confirmed that the 5-item Korean version of the alternative subscale is reliable and valid. In this study, the Cronbach alpha of the alternative search subscale was 0.80.

Career maximization strategy

Career maximization strategy was measured using five items of the 10-item Career Maximizing Scale (CMS) [ 47 ]. The CMS measures the degree of evaluating options in pursuit of career decisions, and we selected five items measuring alternative search in the CMS to capture career maximization strategy. The CMS uses a five-point Likert scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree . Because the CMS was not validated in Korean yet, the items were independently translated from English to Korean and the forward translation was modified. English-Korean bilingual back-translated the translated items into English and verified their equivalence with the original items (see Additional file 1 for the Korean translation of CMS). The original scale shows good internal consistency ( \(\alpha\) =0.88) [ 7 ], and the Cronbach alpha for the Korean translation was 0.87 in this study.

Search for and presence of meaning

The Korean version of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (K-MLQ) [ 48 ] which translated and validated the original MLQ [ 49 ] was used to measure the presence and search for meaning in life. The presence and search subscales consist of five items each and items were rated on a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 ( absolutely untrue ) to 7 ( absolutely true ). The reliability of each subscale in Won et al. [ 50 ] was reported as both 0.88 with a Korean college student sample [ 48 ]. In this study, the reliability of each subscale was reported as 0.94 and 0.91 for search for meaning and presence of meaning, respectively.

• Life satisfaction

In this study, Lim’s Korean version of the Satisfaction with the Life Scale (K-SWLS) was used to measure life satisfaction, which confirmed to be a valid and reliable measurement [ 51 ]. Items are rated on a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 7 ( strongly agree ). High scores indicate a higher life satisfaction. The reliability of the K-SWLS was tested with diverse groups in South Korea which ranged from 0.77 to 0.90 [ 51 ]. In this study, the Cronbach’s alpha of the K-SWLS was 0.93.

Data analytic plan

We tested the hypothesized model following the two-step procedure of structural equation modeling [ 52 ] using several recommended goodness-of-fit measures (e.g., χ 2 , CFI, NFI, RMSEA) to evaluate how well the hypothesized model fit the observed data [ 48 ]. In the first step, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test whether the measurement model had an acceptable fit. After confirming the measurement model, the structural model of the hypothesized model was tested. Additionally, a bootstrapping procedure was conducted to test the generalizability and indirect effects in the hypothesized model.

Preliminary analyses

Prior to the main analyses, we conducted preliminary analyses and deleted five outliers which were identified using Mahalanobis distance. Our sample ( n  = 264) data were univariate and multivariate normal, thereby meeting SEM assumptions. Pearson correlations revealed positive significant associations ranging from 0.15 to 0.68 for relational maximization strategy, career maximization strategy, search for meaning, presence of meaning, and life satisfaction (see Table  1 ). Significant correlations were below 0.85, so multicollinearity is likely not a problem [ 53 ].

Measurement model

The proposed mediation model followed the two-step procedure. In the first step, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to develop a measurement model with an acceptable fit. The confirmatory model consisted of five latent variables and 19 observed variables. For relationship and career maximization strategy, we used the item-to-construct balance method to create parcels [ 54 ]. For search for meaning, presence of meaning, and life satisfaction, we used each item as indicators. Observed variables were examined for whether their path coefficient from the latent variables was below 0.5 to see if latent variables were well measured by their indicators [ 55 ]. The last item in the presence of meaning was deleted from the presence of meaning latent variable because the path coefficient was below 0.5 (0.33). The measurement model without the item in the presence of meaning resulted an adequate fit, χ 2 (125) = 269.72 ( p  < 0.001), CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.07, SRMR = 0.05. The factor analysis loading ranged from 0.75 to 0.91, providing evidence for validity of the Korean translations of the measures. Because the revised model was a better fit to the data, it was used as the baseline model for testing the structural model.

Structural model

Since the measurement model was supported, we tested the fit of the structural model of the hypothesized model. As shown in Fig.  1 , the results indicated that the serial mediation model had good fit to the data, χ 2 (128) = 273.93 ( p  < 0.001), CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.07, SRMR = 0.05, AIC = 395.93. All paths except the direct paths from both relational and career maximization strategy to life satisfaction were significant.

Path estimates of the structural model ( n  = 264). Note. RMS = Relational Maximization Strategy; CMS = Career Maximization Strategy; SFM = Search for Meaning; POM = Presence of Meaning; LS = Life Satisfaction; ** p  < .01, * p  < .05

Bootstrapping was used to assess the significance of mediated effects in multiple mediator models, allowing for the estimation of both the overall indirect effect and the significance of each individual indirect effect [ 2 ]. To test the indirect effects of search for meaning and presence of meaning, bootstrap resampling ( N  = 5,000) was used. Bootstrapping results indicated that both indirect paths were significant (Table  2 ). As recommended by MacKinnon & Willams [ 56 ], we reported the confidence intervals in Table  2 . Given that these indirect effects were significant, the results supported a serial mediation effect via a meaning-making process (i.e., search for meaning and presence of meaning) between both relational/career maximization strategies on life satisfaction.

This study aimed to explore the relationship between maximization strategy and well-being in two important life decision domains (i.e., romantic relationship and career) with a sample of South Korean established adults in their 30 s to 40 s, and the mediating role of meaning-making in this relationship through structural equation modeling. Our findings have several important implications. First, by shedding light on the psychological process of meaning-making, this study allowed us to reassess the impact of maximization strategies on well-being [ 12 ]. While previous research has shown that higher levels of maximization tend to be associated with lower levels of well-being, our findings suggest that maximization can increase life satisfaction through the meaning-making process. For example, Kokkoris reported that maximizers have a strong hope for success which is positively correlated with subjective well-being [ 17 ]. Diab et al. found that maximization was not associated with lower psychological adjustment and life satisfaction [ 57 ], and Lai confirmed that maximization is not always negative [ 58 ]. Specifically, Lai found a positive correlation between maximization and several positive psychological indicators, including intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy [ 58 ]. Taken together, these findings suggest that maximizers seek optimal possibilities and are not satisfied with what they have achieved. They also expect good decision-making outcomes and work performance and may be more motivated to achieve through the process of finding and maintaining meaning than the satisfaction type. In other words, these findings suggest that maximizers may be more satisfied with their lives when they act proactively with positive hopes for success rather than dwelling on failure through the process of finding and giving meaning to their actions in the areas of their lives that matter to them – their careers and relationships. Taken together with previous findings, the results of our study indicate the importance of the process of searching for meaning in utilizing the maximization strategy compared to mindlessly searching for alternatives, which is consistent with previous research on the beneficial effects of search for meaning (e.g., [ 29 ]). Our results also support a strong association between presence of meaning and life satisfaction, which imply the importance of ultimately finding meaning through the search for meaning. In other words, our findings show some similarity to the notion of pleasure derived from efforts to overcome difficulties.

Secondly, the results of this study further extend the research on maximization and well-being to domain-specific maximization, particularly relational and career maximization. Interestingly, the path from career maximization strategy to search for meaning was stronger than that of relational maximization strategy. These findings seem to indicate that searching for better alternatives in relationships and career might have different meanings and thus influences individuals’ well-being in different ways. Compared to relationships, career may be related to a more basic need that has more to do with making a living. Thus, career decisions are likely to be made after proper consideration, cautious evaluation of pros and cons, and prudent decision-making before taking any trivial actions privately or officially. Mostly, career or vocation-related decisions are made under an uncertain condition, so people with career maximization tendency are likely to utilize positive cognition, such as positive future orientation [ 37 ], willingness to approach career-related opportunities (e.g., proposing a new project, negotiating salary or higher-ranking position, deepening or expanding network with related professionals) confidently, which will help them to manage uncertainty [ 59 ]. In other words, career maximization tendency might be highly related to indicators of confident decision-making, such as ambiguity tolerance [ 36 ] and career decision-making self-efficacy [ 59 ]. Therefore, as suggested in our findings, it is expected that career maximizers will put more thought and care into finding meaning and making them.

We also found that the path between relationship maximization strategy and search for meaning, while not as strong as the path between career maximization strategy and search for meaning, had a statistically significant positive relationship and a positive effect on life satisfaction, mediated by search for meaning. This finding is inconsistent with previous research that reports that relationship maximizers who are open to other relationships are likely to have a low level of life satisfaction because they have to make a large investment in their decisions [ 20 , 60 ]. However, our findings do not necessarily suggest that relationship maximizers are less satisfied with their lives because they have to spend more time and to deliberate decisions about their relationships. Our findings suggest that relationship maximizers may be more satisfied with their lives if they are open to other relationship alternatives but acknowledge and find meaning in their life, which emphasizes giving and receiving love, by looking more closely at their readiness for commitment in their current romantic relationships. Further research is needed to confirm that relationship maximizers, who are established adults with a variety of relationship experiences, can be more satisfied with their lives as they go through the meaning-making process of accepting their own values and dispositions about love that do not preclude the possibility of other relationships. In sum, these results imply the unique domain-specific characteristics of the maximization and well-being relationship, in which the career domain might require more active search for meaning for individuals in their 30 to 40 s to be satisfied with their life.

Finally, this finding showed that established South Korean adults are more satisfied with their lives as they struggle to make better choices in work and love despite the implicit norms inherent in Korean culture about age-specific developmental tasks. In collectivistic cultures such as South Korea, people tend to think more importantly about how they are reflected by others and define themselves through external standards [ 61 ]. In such cultural contexts, maximizing behavior in relationships and career may be strongly influenced by social norms [ 21 ], such as being expected to obtain a decent job and getting married at a certain age. Additionally, the opportunities and value of individual choice may differ by cultural context which may moderate the relationship between maximization and well-being [ 11 ]. The South Korean culture is often described as ‘relational’ in nature, which emphasizes harmony with family and close friends [ 62 ]. Because it might be harder to keep individual standards in making important life decisions under such social pressure, people who try to search for the best option for their career and romantic partner with a clear intention may be more satisfied with their life than those who compromise their decision to societal expectations. Considering that the sample of this study were unmarried established adults in their 30-40 s, they might have received social pressure to choose a good enough option rather than maximizing their decision. Thus, those who utilized a high level of maximization strategy in relationship and career may be people who pursued their own standards while resisting to conform to social pressure.

Study limitations and directions for future research

Despite the meaningful results of the current study, several limitations need to be addressed. First, although our sample was drawn from a nationwide pool in South Korea and equally represented gender and a range of income levels, the data may not be representative of the average South Korean unmarried, working established adult. Since this was the first study examining the mediating effect of the meaning-making process in domain-specific maximization and life satisfaction, future studies should replicate the findings by testing the model with nationally representative samples, and further examine its generalizability. Second, while our sample size demonstrated enough power given conventional criteria for structural equation modeling, a larger sample size may have detected a direct effect between relational/career maximization strategy and life satisfaction given their moderate sized correlations. Power analysis in SEM is complicated, and new apps are being developed to better deal with this issue (e.g., [ 63 , 64 ]). In future work, conducting an a priori power analysis will be beneficial to ensure that the sample size has enough power to detect the effect of interest. Third, although our study did not show significant group differences based on demographic variables such as gender and income level, social expectations on career and relationship decision-making may differ by these demographic factors and thus would benefit from future exploration. Fourth, we used the original RMS [ 20 ] with a sample that included both participants in initial and ongoing decision-making processes in relationships. According to a recent study on the Revised Relational Maximization Scale (RRMS) [ 65 ], the original RMS reflects a pre-choice decision-making for singles. Therefore, future studies should use the RRMS for those who are in an ongoing decision-making process despite being in committed relationships. Finally, the significant positive relations between alternative search in both romantic relationship and career domains, and life satisfaction in this study were not consistent with previous findings that reported a negative significant relationship between them (e.g., [ 22 ]). Considering that maximization can be an adaptive or non-adaptive strategy depending on the cultural context and age group, more research is needed in diverse contexts.

The findings of this study add to the literature on maximization and well-being by examining the specific relationship between relational and career maximization and life satisfaction, and the role of meaning-making in the relationship and career decision-making process. These findings have practical implications for established adults in their 30 s to 40 s who are continuing to explore options for a romantic partner and career. Instead of making important life decisions in the sake of making a choice, it would be beneficial to make meaning in the decision-making process. Particularly in a culture where it is socially encouraged to make choices in marriage or occupation at an early age like South Korea, it would be necessary to help individuals utilize their maximization strategy as a positive resource.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available because the data collection process was funded by a national institute but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Ji-yeon Lee’s work was supported by Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Research Fund.

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Department of Psychology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, South Korea

Department of Education, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

Yun-Jeong Shin

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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Conceptualization, literature review and writing were provided by Yerin Shim and Yun-Jeong Shin. Material preparation, data collection and analysis as well as writing were performed by Ji-yeon Lee. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. We'd like to have both Yerun Shim and Ji-yeon Lee as first authors.

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Shim, Y., Shin, YJ. & Lee, Jy. Maximization strategies in relationship and career enhances life satisfaction through meaning making among established adults in South Korea. BMC Psychol 12 , 214 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-01672-2

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The majority (86%) of employees believe empathetic leadership boosts morale while 87% of employees say empathy is essential to fostering an inclusive environment.

As many employees face downsizings, restructurings and a looming global recession, most say that empathic leadership is a desired attribute but feel it can be disingenuous when not paired with action, according to the 2023 Ernst & Young LLP ( EY US )  Empathy in Business Survey .

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The evolving state of empathy in the workplace

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To fulfill the authenticity equation, previous EY research indicates offering flexibility is essential. In the 2022 EY US Generation Survey, 92% of employees surveyed across all four workplace generations said that company culture has an impact on their decision to remain with their current  employer.

Lead with empathy  now  to combat the workplace challenges ahead

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The Impact of Work Environment on Job Satisfaction

Nursing is challenging work. Burnout, dissatisfaction, disengagement, as well as exodus from the profession are rampant, and COVID-19 has amplified these issues. Although nurse leaders cannot change the work, they can create work environments that support nurse satisfaction, enjoyment, and meaning at work. A literature review on work environment and job satisfaction conducted pre-COVID for a dissertation project revealed several factors that support healthy work environments. This article defines and describes the qualities of both unhealthy and healthy work environments, discusses the impact they have on employees, and offers suggestions for nurse leaders to improve the work environment in their organization.

• • The psychosocial work environment is created by the interactions of staff and leadership and impacts how people behave and how they feel about their work.
• • Work environment and the experience one has at work impact employee health, well-being, and satisfaction.
• • Managers play a key role in creating and supporting the psychosocial work environment.

Health care is challenging work; it is emotionally and physically demanding. The environment within which work is performed can either support or hinder productivity and worker health. Toxic and unhealthy work environments create negative outcomes for staff, management, and the organization, as well as the community at large because the individual returns to the community following interactions in the work environment. Facing escalating suicide rates, burnout, turnover, and exodus from health care professions, leaders seek new ways of managing staff to support personal and professional well-being.

COVID-19 has amplified and intensified these issues, especially within the nursing profession. The pandemic has shined a spotlight on the problems faced by nursing professionals and the damage the problems cause physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Strategies for improving the nursing work environment are more important than ever before.

Although nurse leaders cannot necessarily change the work, they can behave in ways that support the workforce by creating safe, healthy work environments where all staff can be their best, be productive, and thrive. Managers play a key role in shaping the work environment through the procedures they implement and how they behave as a leader. A literature review conducted pre-COVID on work environment and job satisfaction revealed several factors that support a healthy work environment. Nurse leaders can use this information to inform decisions that will shape the future of health care today by creating work environments that support staff well-being and increase employee engagement and organizational commitment.

The Demands of the Work

Health care workers must create a safe space for patients to heal and improve. Because the nature of nursing service work is about caring for people, there is great personal responsibility for providing good, high quality service; connecting with patients; and caring for patient well-being. 1 High workloads, increased acuity, and emotional demands for caring for other’s well-being places physical and emotional demands on staff. Because nursing professionals typically assume great responsibility in providing quality care, they often put the needs of others first and do whatever is necessary to help the patient. This often means working long hours with little opportunity to rest and recover.

The nature of health care places staff at risk due to the stressful situations faced daily. Combine the normal demands of health care service with a lack of teamwork, poor communication, bullying, lateral violence, lack of support from leadership, equipment issues, a blaming and fearful culture, an inability to share one’s expertise or make decisions, and a work environment that discourages free expression of ideas and concerns, and this becomes a recipe for disaster.

Work Environment Defined

The work environment is the space that we create within which people come together to perform their work and achieve outcomes. It’s how we experience our work together. Also known as psychological climate, the work environment causes a psychological impact on the individual’s well-being. 2 The person–environment interaction determines the psychological and social dimensions of that environment, which then influences how one behaves in that environment. 3 This is an important definition because how the individual behaves in the environment and the reactions to that behavior then determines how the environment supports continued actions within that environment.

Nursing Job Satisfaction

Feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction occur in response to the individuals’ experience within the environment. In other words, satisfaction is an emotional response to the job and results from mentally challenging and interesting work, positive recognition for performance, feelings of personal accomplishment, and the support received from others. 4 This corresponds with the research on burnout, which is contrary and includes cynicism, exhaustion, and inefficacy. 5 Researchers found burnout to be a function of factors within the organizational context including work environment and leader effectiveness. 6 Whether positive or negative, research concludes that leader effectiveness and work environment affect employee outcomes.

The Impact of the Work Environment

As social beings, the environment created by the interactions of staff and leadership impacts how people behave and how they feel about their work. The experience people have at work impacts their personal well-being as well as job satisfaction. The occupational health movement of the 1960s grew from a need to explore the environmental hazards that created dangerous conditions for workers and to provide adequate safety interventions for protecting employees. 7 Over the past few decades, much research has focused on the psychosocial impact of the work environment on individual health and well-being.

The psychosocial work environment encompasses those factors that impact individuals and contribute to worker health, including both individual factors and the social work environment. Psychosocial factors include work demands; work organization including influence, freedom, meaning of work, and possibilities for development; interpersonal relations such as leadership and coworkers, a sense of community, role clarity, feedback, and support; and individual health and personal factors, including one’s ability to cope and family supports. 8 All these factors come together to create a space within which people interact and perform. Depending on how these elements support or hurt the individual determines the outcomes to that individual and how effectively they perform.

The pandemic has forced people to explore their personal resources for well-being and resilience and implement self-care strategies. People are taking more of an interest in health affirming activities. Family time has a different meaning today and people are re-exploring their priorities. Restorative practices have been found to lessen the sufferings, anxieties, and concerns generated in the workplace and provide inner peace and spiritual support. 9 Assuming responsibility for one’s health and well-being is important to being a contributing member of the workforce and to society at large. Managers must find ways to support these efforts as part of life at work.

Contributions to and Costs of Unhealthy Work Environments

Several factors contribute to a negative work environment. Traditionally, poor salaries and working conditions, and a lack of respect for nurses have led to high turnover and an increase in nurses leaving the profession. 10 Other factors include the lack of support, being short staffed, and an increased workload. 11 Lateral violence, bullying, and abuse by coworkers and physicians, as well as ineffective responses to such incidents by leadership, cause job strain, turnover, and exodus from the profession. 12

Much research has been done on bullying and its impact on the individuals involved, the organization, as well as the quality of patient care. Researchers found these negative behaviors led to increased errors, decreased quality, absenteeism, lost productivity, and turnover. 12 As the profession of nursing is already struggling to retain the nursing workforce and attract needed newcomers, creating a work environment that is supportive, satisfying, and one where people feel a sense of belonging is essential.

The stress and strain of work has been linked to physical and mental health issues. Unhealthy work environments lead to increased use of sick time, lost productivity, turnover, increased cost to care provision, and strain felt in personal relationships. 13 The costs in terms of absenteeism, turnover, and lost productivity are estimated in the billions of dollars annually. 14

Nurse leaders play a key role in creating work environments where people feel safe by implementing procedures for minimizing bullying and lateral violence and facilitating harmonious relationships by supporting respectful interactions. 12 , 13 , 15 Left unattended, the cycle of bullying and bad behavior is perpetuated as nurses move into academia from the bedside and continue the behaviors. 15 Although one of the toughest things to do as a leader, and the most time-consuming, upholding expectations and following through on such procedures is critical for creating a supportive and safe work environment.

Qualities of a Healthy Work Environment and Its Impact on Employee Outcomes

A healthy work environment is described as one where people are valued, treated respectfully and fairly, where personal and professional growth is supported, communication and collaboration are championed, and there is a sense of community and trust at all levels, which enables effective decision-making. A healthy work environment comprises competent employees, appropriate workloads, effective communication, collaboration, and empowerment, which leads to positive outcomes for patients, employees, and the organization. 14 The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses identified 6 areas for establishing and sustaining a healthy work environment including skilled communication, true collaboration, effective decision-making, appropriate staffing, meaningful recognition, and authentic leadership. 16 These align with the practices identified in psychologically healthy workplaces which emphasize employee involvement, work-life balance, employee growth and development, employee recognition, and health and safety. 17

A healthy and safe work environment correlates significantly with job satisfaction as well as other positive employee outcomes including engagement, productivity, and organizational commitment. Additionally, when people feel good and experience satisfaction at work, they report increased self-efficacy, autonomy, higher levels of personal accomplishment, and organizational commitment.

Significant qualities identified in the literature on healthy work environments are presented in Table 1 . Those include areas of collaboration and teamwork, growth and development, recognition, employee involvement, accessible and fair leaders, autonomy and empowerment, appropriate staffing, skilled communication, and a safe physical workplace. 18 Other factors contributing to satisfaction and retention include positive orientation experiences, good teamwork, clear procedures and instructions, appropriate workloads, managerial support, and autonomy. 11 Additionally, leader support and leader effectiveness protect against negative consequences from a stressful environment, 19 contribute to the provision of high quality and timely care, 20 decrease burnout, 6 and reduce turnover. 21

Table 1

Key Qualities Found in Healthy Work Environments

What Nurse Leaders Can Do to Improve the Work Environment

Nurse leaders can take a proactive role to shift the work environment and create the space for health and well-being, and for nurses to thrive at work. There are 2 aspects to changing the work environment. The first is creating and communicating a new vision, setting the tone, being clear about expectations, and ensuring staff understand that what was tolerated previously may no longer be acceptable. Nurse leaders must ensure staff know what is being asked of everyone and paint a picture for how it will feel in the new environment. And second, nurse leaders must uphold the new standards by teaching staff new ways of interacting and correcting behaviors when they do not align with the new vision.

A collaborative approach with positive interactions and active participation requires nurse leaders to encourage and facilitate teamwork. Staff rely heavily on interpersonal relationships and teamwork for cooperation, collaboration, and safety. 20 Interpersonal relationships are a key element of satisfaction at work. Collaboration, professional cohesion, and positive interactions with colleagues help create a sense of value and become a buffer for the demands of managing complex and challenging patients. 21 Nurse leaders need to champion teamwork and collaboration to ensure that staff work together to accomplish required work demands. Respectful interactions must be encouraged, and disrespectful ones addressed promptly and eliminated.

Nurse managers, through their behaviors and attitudes, create an environment which induces motivation, they demonstrate belief in their ability, listen thoughtfully, and bring out the best in the team. Nurse leader behavior directly impacts job satisfaction, morale, and employee performance which are critical factors to organizational success. Effective communication by leaders includes honesty, respect, good listening, and empathy, which impacts team effectiveness and outcomes and can create an environment of inclusiveness that supports team members to aid in their retention. 22 The leaders’ failure to address employee feelings and not win their respect leads to the failure of the manager, increases the stress of the team, and decreases organizational effectiveness. 15

Other themes in the literature include the use of acknowledgement and appreciation to help employees feel valued. Nurse leaders can find ways to coach, encourage, recognize, and support their staff and create an environment that reinforces the positive feelings that come from celebrating one another. It requires attention and consistent effort, but the effects are very impactful. Formal and informal acknowledgement serves to garner positive feelings within the work environment and can spread throughout the team.

Another important factor for job satisfaction is autonomy or job control, the ability of the individual to make decisions impacting their work. Staff who are permitted a sense of autonomy, and the perceived capacity to influence decisions at work, reported higher levels of personal accomplishment and lower rates of burnout. 11 Nurses need a work environment that offers respect and supports their scope of practice. Nurse managers can assist individuals to gain job control by ensuring adequate onboarding and orientation, ongoing training, and promoting an environment where questions and asking for help are encouraged and supported.

Organizations that offer opportunities for personal growth and professional development have a competitive advantage. Some individuals enjoy the bedside and want to remain there for their careers, yet they still want to learn, grow, and develop within that scope of practice and they want to be recognized and appreciated for their years of service. Other persons may want to advance in their roles and responsibilities. Nurse managers must take an interest in the individuals on their team, discover their desires for learning and growth, and identify their strengths so they can find ways to maximize them.

Healthy Work Environments Post-pandemic

Although the pandemic has shifted people’s attention to the self-care strategies implemented by individual employees, caring for employee well-being must include management strategies that support a healthy, safe work environment. The problems facing the health care workforce—burnout, stress, disengagement, and dissatisfaction—existed well before the pandemic and will continue to exist after it unless leaders change their approach to the work environment and how people behave within the workspace. Now is the time to envision a new work environment and to do things differently so that nurses, health care leaders, and workers at all levels can be productive, engaged, and thrive at work. By attending to the psychosocial work environment, health care can course correct for the factors troubling the health care workforce today and produce different outcomes—satisfaction, enjoyment, growth, joy, and meaning.

Julie Donley, EdD, MBA, BSN, RN, PCC, is an ICF professional certified coach, certified team coach, author, speaker, award-winning thought leader, adjunct professor, and prior executive nurse in behavioral health. She partners with established and aspiring leaders so they lead with confidence, communicate effectively, and create work environments that support the wellbeing and productivity of employees and create a fulfilling work experience. Visit her online at www.DrJulieDonley.com .