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Abstract
Job satisfaction is a topic that garners quite a lot of attention in the literature as researchers and practitioners alike seek to understand, predict and improve employees' contentment with their jobs. Similarly, in the decade and a half since its introduction, affective events theory (AET, Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) is also sainin$ attention as it is recognized as a theoretically rigorous framework (Humphrey, 2006) and the prominent theory relating to workplace affect (Ashton-James & Ashkanasy, 2005). AET supplies a framework for investisatins the relationship between work events, emotions and the resulting attitudes and behaviors - a structure which several investigations have empirically tested. The current paper reviews research conducted on job satisfaction within the AET framework and identifies areas in need of additional investigation.
Introduction
Job satisfaction, a commonly-studied organizational attitude, is defined quite succinctly as an attitude towards one's job (Brief, 1998), Although there is debate among scholars regarding a universally-accepted definition (see Weiss, 2002 for a review), Brief's definition best suits this paper's objective as it does not contain affectively- laden words - which may confound the construct as it is studied within an affective framework. Perhaps the most important employee attitude in both research and practice, job satisfaction is also the organizational attitude most often related to several organizational outcomes (Saari & Judge, 2004), A recent meta-analysis (Whitman, Van Rooy & Viswesvaran, 2010) suggests that employees reporting high levels of job satisfaction are also less likely to voluntarily leave the organization, more likely to engage in organizational citizenship (extra-role) behaviors and, less likely to engage in counterproductive or deviant work behaviors. Not surprisingly, then, managers and leaders alike are invested in understanding, assessing, predicting and increasing the job satisfaction of their employees.
Other common organizational attitudes are organizational commitment - the degree to which one feels attached or loyal, and therefore, obligated to remain with one's organization (Porteret, al,, 1974)) - and job involvement - the extent to which an employee psychologically identifies with his or her job (Kanungo, 1982), Although these attitudes each receive their share of research attention, neither is as significant as job satisfaction, At the time of this paper's preparation, an online search conducted via a popular database used in social science research (Psychlnfo) for...