Individual Characteristics and Job Satisfaction: Measuring Relationships Described in a Job Satisfaction Tripod Framework

Abstract

The present paper is concerned with the study of job satisfaction;specifically,job satisfaction of employees who are working for an Australian telecommunications company in Western Australia.As the title suggests, the specific focus of the paper is on the analysis of the relationships between an individual's characteristics and the level of job satisfaction.By the term 'individual's characteristics' is meant the personal characteristics of an individual such as age, gender and educational level. The current research emphasises the relationships between specific individual characteristics and the level of job satisfaction measured by two instruments,viz.,the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) and this study, the author proposes a conceptual framework for analysing the determinants of job satisfaction. This conceptual framework - which the author has named the Job Satisfaction Tripod (JST) model - attempts to identify factors affecting the level of job satisfaction. Using the Job Satisfaction Tripod model as a framework for the analysis, the study is designed to explore the strength and the significance of relationships between independent variables such as age, gender, educational level, organisational tenure, managerial rank, and the dependent variable, job satisfaction level.