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Unhappy People may Not Find Satisfaction in Their Work

by Savitha C Muppala on Apr 6 2010 12:00 AM

Those who are not happy with their life are not likely to be satisfied in their work, according to a new review study.

The research analysed the findings of 223 studies conducted between 1967 and 2008 that investigated some combination of job satisfaction and life satisfaction.

"We used studies that assessed these factors at two time points, so that we could better understand the causal links between job satisfaction and life satisfaction," Live Science quoted psychologist Nathan Bowling of Wright State University, who led the meta-analysis, as saying.

He added: "If people are satisfied at work, does this mean they will be more satisfied and happier in life overall? Or is the causal effect the opposite way around?"

Bowling and his team at Wright State - Kevin Eschleman and Qiang Wang - looked at sub-dimensions of job satisfaction, which included satisfaction with the work itself, supervision, co-workers, pay and promotion - and examined the relationship between the subjects' self-reported happiness, or "subjective well-being," and overall job satisfaction.

The team discovered a positive relationship between job satisfaction and life satisfaction, indicating that the two are linked.

The review also provided telling results about the causal link between the two forms of happiness.

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// The causal link between subjective well-being and subsequent levels of job satisfaction was found to be stronger than the link between job satisfaction and subsequent levels of subjective well-being.

"However, the flip side of this finding could be that those people who are dissatisfied generally and who seek happiness through their work, may not find job satisfaction.... Nor might they increase their levels of overall happiness by pursuing it," Bowling noted.

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The findings of the research have appeared in the online edition of the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology on April 1.

Source-ANI
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