人格特质、员工满意度与情感承诺【外文翻译】

人格特质、员工满意度与情感承诺【外文翻译】

外文翻译

原文

Personality Traits, Employee Satisfaction and Affective

Commitment Material Source: Total Quality Management Vol. 18,

No. 5, 589–598, July 2007

Author: KURT MATZLER& BIRGIT RENZL

ABSTRACT: In this paper we focus on personality traits as

predictors of employee satisfaction, and on effects of employee

satisfaction on affective commitment towards an organization.

The results of the empirical study within a company in the utility

sector (N=199) show that Neuroticism is negatively related to

employee satisfaction, Conscientiousness has no impact and

Agreeableness positively influences satisfaction. Employee

satisfaction has a strong impact on affective commitment. While

considerable attention has been given to environmental,

especially managerial influences on employee satisfaction, our

findings illuminate important connections between enduring

characteristics of individuals and individuals’ satisfaction in the

workplace. The results are of importance to theory and practice,

as it has been shown that more than 20% of the variance of

employee satisfaction is caused by personal differences, i.e.

personality traits.

KEY WORDS: Personality traits, employee satisfaction,

affective commitment

Introduction

Employee satisfaction has received considerable attention in

the last few years. Many companies invest considerable amounts

of resources in programmes to monitor and increase employee

satisfaction (e.g. Heskett et al., 1997). It is assumed that employee

satisfaction leads to motivated and committed employees, to

more effective and efficient work, and in turn to higher process

and product quality (Eskildsen & Dahlgaard, 2000). Ultimately,

employee satisfaction is expected to lead to higher customer

Homburg & Stock, 2004), which directly impacts

firm performance (Anderson et al., 1994, 2004; Eklo¨ f et al., 1999;

Matzler et al., 2005). Especially in the service industry, a number

of studies found a positive relationship between employee

satisfaction,customer satisfaction and company performance. A

very

popular conceptualization is the ‘service-profit chain’

(Heskett et al., 1994, 1997), which includes several relationships

involving employee satisfaction, customer loyalty and company

performance. The importance of employee satisfaction has been

well recognized in modern management models such as the

EFQM Excellence Model (European Foundation for Quality

Management,1999) or the Balanced Scorecard (Kaplan & Norton,

1996).

Therefore, considerable attention has been paid to

environmental and managerial predictors of employee

satisfaction, in both theory and practice (Eskildsen &

Dahlgaard,2000; Eskildsen & Nu¨ ssler, 2000; Martensen &

Gronholdt, 2001; Matzler et al., 2004;Westlund & Lo¨thgren,

2001). Typically, employee satisfaction surveys test satisfaction

with and impact of different facets of satisfaction, such as

relationship with superiors and peers, job content, remuneration,

recognition, etc. (e.g. Matzler et al., 2004). There is, however,

mounting evidence that personality traits are strongly related to

job-related attitudes and behaviours (Barrick & Mount, 1991;

Furnham et al., 2002; Judge et al.,2002; Tokar et al., 1998).

Therefore, in this study, we illuminate the relationship between

three personality traits (Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and

Conscientiousness) and employee satisfaction, as well as the

impact of employee satisfaction on affective commitment

towards an organization. In the next section, we discuss the

theoretical foundations of our hypotheses. Then we present the

results of an empirical study which tested the hypothesized

relationships using structural equation modelling (SEM) with the

Partial Least Squares (PLS) approach based on a sample of 199

employees of a company in the utilities sector.

Personality Traits and Employee Satisfaction

Within the last 20 years, consensus has emerged that the

most salient aspects of an individual’s personality can be

described with a five-factor model, often termed the Big Five

(Goldberg, 1990), consisting of Neuroticism, Extraversion,

Agreeableness, Openness and Conscientiousness. These five

broad factors of higher order, identified in numerous empirical

studies (Tupes & Christal, 1992), constitute the pattern of traits

across individuals and are considered the fundamental

dimensions of personality (McCrae & John,1992). Numerous

researchers from many traditions were able to replicate the

findings, thereby sustaining the theory of five basic dimensions

of personality. The Big Five taxonomy received considerable

evidence over the last

decades across different theoretical frameworks, measures,

occupations, cultures, and sources of ratings (e.g. Barrick &

Mount, 1991; De Raad & Doddema-Winsemius, 1999; John &

Srivastava, 1999; Liao & Chuang, 2004).

People who score high on Agreeableness are good-natured,

forgiving, courteous, helpful, generous, and cooperative.

Neuroticism is associated with being anxious, depressed, angry,

embarrassed, emotional, worried, and insecure. Openness to

experiences includes being imaginative, cultured, curious,

original, broad-minded, intelligent, and artistically sensitive.

Individuals with high Conscientiousness have been reported to

be dependable, responsible, organized, hardworking, and

achievement-oriented. Extraversion, finally, is associated to traits

like being sociable, gregarious, assertive, talkative, and active

(Barrick & Mount, 1991; Goldberg, 1990).

Although many studies in industrial-organizational

psychology have examined the role of personality traits, most

studies focus on the impact of individual differences on job

performance (e.g. Barrick & Mount, 1991) and the link between

personality traits and employee satisfaction is much less studied

(Judge et al., 2002). In their meta-analysis on the relationship

between personality-traits and job satisfaction, Judge et al. (2002)

found very mixed empirical findings. Whereas Neuroticism and

Extraversion were the strongest correlates of job satisfaction, the

relationship between Conscientiousness and Agreeableness with

job satisfaction did not fully generalize across studies. Openness

to experiences showed a very weak correlation with job

satisfaction that was not distinguishable from zero. In summary,

it can be concluded that empirical studies did not find consistent

results.

In this study we investigate the role of three personality traits

in the formation of employee satisfaction: Neuroticism,

Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. As this study was part of

a larger ongoing research project that is investigating the impact

of these three personality traits on organizational behaviour,

Openness and Extraversion were not included in the study. The

NEO-FFI approach to measurement of personality traits,

originally developed by Costa & McCrae (1992) and translated

into the German language and validated by Borkenau &

Ostendorf (1993), includes 12 statements for each personality

trait. Due to the length of the questionnaire, therefore, it was not

possible to include all five personality traits. Nevertheless, the

results are highly interesting, as alongside the strongest predictor

of employee satisfaction (Neuroticism)

two traits are included that in previous studies showed highly

inconsistent results (Conscientiousness and Agreeableness).

Neuroticism is expected to lower employee satisfaction, as

because of their essentially negative nature, individuals that

score high on Neuroticism experience more negative life events

than other individuals (Magnus et al., 1993), partly because they

select themselves into situations that foster negative affect

(Emmons et al., 1985). In psychology, a number of studies have

aimed at correlating personality traits with affective states (e.g.

Larsen & Katelaar, 1991; Rusting & Larsen, 1997) and it has been

found that Neuroticism strongly correlates with negative

emotions. In their meta-analysis, Connolly & Viswesvaran (2000)

concluded that negative emotions are related to low job

satisfaction. Similar results have been found in the marketing

literature, where Neuroticism was related to negative emotions,

which in turn affected customer satisfaction (Matzler et al., 2005a;

Mooradian & Olver, 1997). Therefore, it can be expected that

Neuroticism negatively affects employee satisfaction.

Regarding Conscientiousness, positive effects on work

performance have clearly been demonstrated (Barrick & Mount,

1991; Tokar et al., 1998). Empirical studies also found positive

relationships between Conscientiousness and organizational

citizenship behaviour (Organ, 1994), i.e. the individual

contributions that go beyond role requirements and

contractually rewarded job achievements (Organ & Ryan, 1995).

Organ & Lingl (1995) argue that Conscientiousness is related to

job satisfaction because it leads to higher general work

involvement, and thus to a greater likelihood of obtaining

satisfying work rewards. In a more general context, DeNeve &

Cooper (1998) found that the literature on subjective well-being

suggests a positive relationship between Conscientiousness and

job satisfaction. Finally, Judge et al. (2002) found in their meta-analysis that Conscientiousness is significantly related to job

satisfaction. Thus, we can hypothesize that this personality trait

predicts job satisfaction.

Agreeable individuals are altruistic, sympathetic, and eager

to help others, and they strive for cooperation rather than

competition (Liao & Chuang, 2004). Hence, Agreeableness

involves getting along with others in pleasant, satisfying

relationships (Organ & Lingl, 1995). On a more general level,

McCrae & Costa (1991) found that Agreeableness is positively

related to life satisfaction as agreeable individuals have greater

motivation to achieve interpersonal intimacy, which should relate

to greater

levels of well-being. Thus, it can be expected that

Agreeableness is also positively related to employee satisfaction.

Study

Sample

A standardized, self-administered questionnaire was sent to

815 employees of a company in the utility sector. The employees

received a covering letter from the research team explaining the

scope of the study and a standardized, self-administered

questionnaire was included. The employees were asked to

complete the questionnaire and to drop it in one of the boxes

that were positioned at a central place in the building. The

employees were explicitly allowed to fill in the questionnaire

during working hours. The box containing the questionnaires was

picked up one week later by a member of the research team. In

this way, anonymity and confidential treatment of the answers

were guaranteed. 199 fully completed and usable questionnaires

were returned within one week, this corresponds to a return rate

of 24.4%.

Measures

All constructs were measured using existing and tested

scales. Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Neuroticism were

measured using the subscales from the German version of the

NEO-FFI, originally developed by Costa & McCrae (1992) and

translated into the German language and validated by Borkenau

& Ostendorf (1993). The NEO-FFI trait items were all presented

with five-point, Likert-type response formats (from ‘strong

approval’ to ‘strong disapproval’).

Employee satisfaction was measured with a six-item scale

that reflects overall satisfaction rather than any specific

dimension of employee satisfaction (Homburg & Stock,

2004,2005). Affective commitment was measured using Allen and

Meyer’s six-item scale of affective commitment to an

organization (Allen & Meyer, 1990; Meyer & Allen, 1997).

Satisfaction and commitment were both measured with five-point Likert scales anchored with ‘strongly agree’ and

‘strongly disagree’.

Data Analysis and Results

The causal relationships between the constructs were

analyzed through structural equation modelling using the Partial

Least Squares (PLS) approach. The software used was SmartPLS

(Hansmann & Ringle, 2004). A PLS model is usually analysed and

interpreted in two stages, following the procedure proposed by

Hulland (1999). To