Dispositional Affect and Job Satisfaction: A Review and Theoretical Extension

Over the past 15 years, researchers have paid increasing attention to the dispositional source of job satisfaction. This research, though not without its controversies, has provided strong evidence that job satisfaction is, in part, dispositionally based. In this article we review past research on dispositional influences on job satisfaction. The two areas most in need of future research attention are (a) which trait(s) should be included in investigations of the dispositional source of job satisfaction and (b) elucidating the theoretical processes underlying the effect of dispositions on job satisfaction. In attempting to facilitate future research in these two areas, we first provide an integrative review of the personality and affective traits relevant to the dispositional source of job satisfaction. Second, we discuss a number of theoretical processes and mechanisms, drawn largely from personality psychology, which may further illuminate the dispositional source of job satisfaction. We pay particular attention to a model that seeks to unify the literature on affect and personality and discuss how applications of this model may lead to greater understanding of the personological basis of job satisfaction.