Which work factors determine job satisfaction?

BACKGROUND Job satisfaction is associated with mental health. Employees could be counselled on how they feel about their work. If specific aspects of their job are causing particular dissatisfaction, they could be assisted to appropriately change these aspects. OBJECTIVE There is no 'gold standard' indicating the aspects that should be taken into account when job satisfaction is measured. This study investigated which work factors determine job satisfaction. METHOD A self-report questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 822 out of 1908 active employees. The questionnaire examined overall job satisfaction as well as satisfaction with specific work aspects using valid single-item measures. RESULTS The response rate was 63%. Overall job satisfaction was 5.3 +/- 1.3 on a Likert-scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The work factors explained 54% of the variance in job satisfaction. Specific satisfaction with task variety, colleagues, working conditions, and workload were positively related to overall job satisfaction, as were career perspectives and job autonomy. CONCLUSION Task variety, working conditions, workload, and career perspectives determine the greater part of job satisfaction. An instrument including these factors would provide beneficial information beyond current measures of job satisfaction.