The dispositional sources of job satisfaction: A comparative test

Abstract

This study related three personality taxonomies - positive affectivity and negative affectivity (PA and NA), the five-factor model (the "Big Five"), and core self-evaluations - to job satisfaction in an integrative test. In a longitudinal design with multi-source data, results indicated that the traits from all three taxonomies generally were significantly related to job satisfaction, even when the traits and job satisfaction were measured with independent sources. However, when all three typologies were examined concurrently, the core self-evaluations typology was the only typology that was significantly related to job satisfaction. The study extends research on the validation of these frameworks by assessing convergent and discriminant validity issues, and shows that core self-evaluations adds to our understanding of the dispositional source of job satisfaction. © 2008 International Association of Applied Psychology.