The job satisfaction-job performance relationship for creative tasks: An empirical investigation of the role of attitude and behavior in job performance among scientists

Abstract

The relationship between job satisfaction and job performance has attracted the attention of many organizational researchers in recent decades. However, gaps in the research still remain. Contrary to the common intuitive assumption that happy workers who are satisfied with their jobs will work harder, previous studies have shown few consistent results regarding the correlation between job satisfaction and job performance. After Iaffaldano and Muchinsky (1985) conducted a meta-analysis and concluded that there was little correlation between the two, studies exploring this relationship temporarily declined. Judge et al. (2001) conducted a meta-analysis and reported a higher correlation between job satisfaction and job performance, presenting an average correlation coefficient of 0.30. Encouraged by their findings, research interest in this area began to increase once again. While many empirical examinations exploring the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance have been conducted and have reported a correlation between the two variables, many researchers still hold the This study examines whether job satisfaction-job performance relationship models vary when creativity considered as a task characteristic. Although previous studies have pointed out the possibility of a difference in the correlation strength between these two variables based on job complexity, the evidence is incomplete. Using data from a survey of Japanese scientists, we evaluated scien-tists' performance by categorizing their tasks into two types, creative tasks and formulaic tasks according to creativity demands, and used publication productivity as an objective indicator. We then investigated their relationships with job satisfaction. While the tasks differed in the level of creativity required, they both were high-complexity tasks. The results showed that a job satisfaction-job performance relationship was observed only for job performance related to creative tasks. Furthermore, we examined the need for considering the relationship at both individual and group levels. Our results were consistent for both levels.