Job characteristics as satisfiers and dissatisfiers

Abstract

It is often assumed that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are opposites, and that one is the mere negation of the other. This assumption of convertible bipolarity is examined by administration of 2 questionnaires to 80 Ss in which the importance to satisfaction and the importance to dissatisfaction of various job characteristics are compared. Correlational and variance analyses both indicate that satisfaction and dissatisfaction are, for the most part, unrelated and not complementary functions, rather than negatively related poles of a single bipolar continuum. Results of studies and theories utilizing a single satisfaction-dissatisfaction continuum are thus questionable. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)