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8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullantecedents-of-employee-job-satisfaction-do-they-matter 16
Antecedents of employee job satisfaction Do they matter
Ineacutes Alegre Marta Mas-Machuca Jasmina Berbegal-Mirabent
Department of Economy and Business Organization Universitat Internacional de Catalunya C Immaculada 22 Barcelona 08017 Spain
a b s t r a c ta r t i c l e i n f o
Article history
Received 1 February 2015
Received in revised form 1 July 2015
Accepted 1 September 2015
Available online xxxx
Keywords
Job satisfaction
Organizational goals Workndashfamily balance
Autonomy Supervisor support Teamwork
Supervisor support
Teamwork
Thisresearch investigatesthe collective effect of (1) the employeendashorganization relationship (2) the employeendash
supervisor relationship and(3) the employeendashcoworkerrelationship on employee jobsatisfaction Theempirical
application considers a data sample comprising 374 valid observations and usesqualitative comparative analysis
(QCA) in its fuzzy set variant to test the model A second-stage analysis compares the results with the results of
alternative methodologies The 1047297ndings reveal that three different paths explain job satisfaction (1) teamwork
identi1047297cation with the strategy and the absence of employee workndashfamily balance (2) employee workndashfamily
balance autonomy and identi1047297cation with the strategy and (3) supervisor support and identi1047297cation with the
strategy The study concludes with a discussion of managerial applications
copy 2015 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved
1 Introduction
The academic literature has a long history of investigating employee
job satisfaction According to Locke (1976) job satisfaction is a pleasur-able or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of ones job
or job experiences Spector (1997) adds that employee satisfaction is
now a common concern among companies As this emotional state is
a key factor in an employees life job satisfaction is a stimulating topic
to study
Most academic research on this topic focuses on measuring and
assessing job satisfaction (Chang amp Cheng 2014 Fila Paik Griffeth amp
Allen 2014 Macintosh amp Krush 2014 Spagnoli Caetano amp Santos
2012) Researchers from 1047297elds such as industrial-organizational psy-
chology organizational behavior and human resource management
(HRM) devoteconsiderable effort to analyzing theantecedents andcon-
sequences of job satisfaction
Previous studies however provide a partial view of job satisfaction
since they usually focus on the one-to-one relationship between an an-
tecedent condition and job satisfaction without taking a global view to
show how different factors simultaneously affect job satisfaction This
research posits that a combination of factors (eg organization co-
workers and supervisor) affects employee job satisfactionAccordingly
this empirical study adopts a qualitative comparative analysis using
fuzzy sets (fsQCA) to explorethe association between employee job sat-
isfactionand the different relationships that employeesdevelop in orga-
nizations In addition this study uses regression and structural equation
models (SEM) and compares the results of the different methodologiesThis study contributes to theliterature by investigating thecollective
effect of different employee relationships on job satisfaction Second
the study extends the literature by using an uncommon methodology
in the 1047297eld of management the fuzzy set methodology Finally the
paper compares the results from the fsQCA with those obtained by
using regression analysis and SEM to show the commonalities and dif-
ferences in the application of fsQCA
2 Theoretical background
Three main relationships affect employee satisfaction (1) the em-
ployeendashorganization relationship (2) the employeendashsupervisor rela-
tionship and (3) the employeendashcoworker relationship (Tang Siu amp
Cheung 2014) Following Adams King and King (1996) and Allen
Shore and Griffeth (2003) the employeendashorganization relationship un-
derlines the importance of employee identi1047297cation with and commit-
ment to organizational strategy and company goals This relationship
also includes other factors such as a companys support of employee
workndashfamily balance Authors such as Edgar and Geare (2005) and
Fila et al (2014) consider the employeendashsupervisor relationship a key
factor that in1047298uences employee job satisfaction In this regard factors
such as the extent to which a supervisor delegates and gives autonomy
to employees greatly in1047298uence employees assessments of their jobs Fi-
nally the relationship between employees and colleagues is also an
Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndashxxx
Theauthors thank thetwo anonymous reviewers fortheirconstructivecommentsand
suggestions
Corresponding author
E-mail addresses ialegreuices (I Alegre) mmasuices (M Mas-Machuca)
jberbegaluices (J Berbegal-Mirabent)
JBR-08681 No of Pages 6
httpdxdoiorg101016jjbusres201510113
0148-2963copy 2015 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Business Research
Please cite this article as Alegre I et al Antecedents of employee job satisfaction Do they matter Journal of Business Research (2015) httpdxdoiorg101016jjbusres201510113
8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullantecedents-of-employee-job-satisfaction-do-they-matter 26
important source of job satisfaction (Kirkman amp Shapiro 2001 Sageer
Rafat amp Agarwal 2012) Fig 1 shows these relationships
To foster employee commitment to and identi1047297cation with organi-
zational goals organizations must clearly de1047297ne their objectives
(Patterson et al 2005) Organizational identity refers broadly to what
organizational members perceive feel and think about their organiza-
tions (Hatch amp Schultz 1997) Organizational commitment exists
when individuals identify with organizational goals Allen et al (2003)
suggest that employees organization commitment and identity explainemployee satisfaction and Bart Bontis and Taggar (2001) link employ-
ee satisfaction to the organizational mission and strategy
Most employees divide their daily life between work and family
Thus organizational responses to workndashfamily (WF) con1047298ict in1047298uence
employees attitudes toward their jobs (Ornstein amp Isabella 1993) Ex-
ploring the relationships among WF con1047298ict organizational policies
and job and life satisfaction Kossek and Ozeki (1998) 1047297nd a consistent
negative relationship between WF con1047298ict and job and life satisfaction
Dixon and Sagas (2007) further empirically demonstrate the theorized
relationship between WF con1047298ict and job-life satisfaction and Qu and
Zhao (2012)investigate the impact of life satisfaction on job satisfaction
in different situations of WF con1047298ict
Rowold Borgmann and Bormann (2014) propose that the leader-
ship style of an employees supervisor positively affects the employees
organizational commitment and job satisfaction In particular the ex-
tent to which an employees supervisor provides encouragement and
support to theemployeeconcerning theemployees workis a strongde-
terminant of the employees attitude toward his or her job (Grif 1047297n
Patterson amp West 2001) Numerous studies investigate this relation-
ship in various job contexts (Yukl 1989) For instance Kirkman and
Rosen (1999) underline the importance of promoting a supportive
work environment and adequate supervisor support as these factors af-
fect employees work-related attitudes and perceptions Tang et al
(2014) further suggest that WF enrichment fully mediates the relation-
ship between job satisfaction and both supervisor and organizational
support
Autonomy refers to the extent to which individual employees can
structure and control how and when they perform their speci1047297c job
Highly autonomous jobs increase bothjob performance and satisfaction(Spector 1986) Accordingly autonomy and1047298exibility are common an-
tecedents of job satisfaction (Chang amp Cheng 2014 Grif 1047297n Patterson amp
West 2001)
Finally teamwork involves cooperative work between interdepen-
dent groups to obtain an outcome thus it re1047298ects the relationship
between employees and colleagues (Parker amp Wall 1998) Much of
the research interest in teamwork is due to the idea that work teams
are able to generate greater returns than individuals alone (Ilgen
Hollenbeck Johnson amp Jundt 2005) Communicating and collaborating
within a team sharing information and knowledge and prioritizing the
group over individual outcomes are important team features that en-
hance the bene1047297ts of teamwork According to Grif 1047297n et al (2001) job
enrichment can result from teamwork partly explaining the link be-
tween teamwork and job satisfaction Work policies that promote em-
ployees initiatives foster higher levels of autonomy
All in all job satisfactions stands as an emotion that involves a
persons overall evaluation with respect their work environment Be-cause previous studies mainly use SEM hierarchical regression analysis
or meta-analytic combinations to examine job satisfaction this study
adopts fsQCA to better understand the antecedents of job satisfaction
3 Data and methods
31 Sample and procedure
The sample of the study includes employees of a Spanish pharma-
ceutical company and the1047297eldwork contains informationfrom 463 sur-
veys (March 2013) using both online and paper-and-pencil formats
After the exclusion of incomplete questionnaires data for the analysis
comprises 374 valid surveys (a response rate of 8078) The empirical
application uses the mean of nearby points to treat missing data points
Managers interest in the study allows theuse of participative strategies
such as a raf 1047298e facilitating a high response rate
32 Scales
The survey includes six scales (identi 1047297cation with and commitment to
organizational goals workndash family balance autonomy supervisor support
teamwork and job satisfaction) in the form of statements to which
respondents indicate their level of agreementdisagreement on a four-
point Likert scale All item loadings are higher than 06 As the original
language of the items in the scales is English this study applies
forwardbackward translation (FBT) to adapt the questionnaire (Chen
amp Bates 2005)
An extensive review of the relevant literature supports the validity
of the scales (see Table 1)Finally one single-item overall measure captures job satisfaction
According to Dolbier Webster McCalister Mallon and Steinhardt
(2005) and Wanous Reichers and Hudy (1997) from a psychometric
perspective the use of single-item measures to operationalize this
construct compares favorably with the use of multiple-item measures
33 Methodology
This study uses fsQCA as the study methodology QCA addresses
complex causality perspectives by assuming asymmetric relationships
among observations This approach facilitates the determination of
which combination of antecedent conditions is most likely to cause an
outcome The result is a number of combinations that enable the pro-
duction of the outcome under analysis (Longest amp Vaisey 2008)QCAentails the analysis of the necessary and suf 1047297cient conditionsto
produce an outcome (Meyer Tsui amp Hinings 1993 Wu Yeh Huan amp
Woodside 2014) and involves variousstages First a calibration process
transforms variables into sets according to their degree of membership
to each of the conditions (Ragin 2008) A score of ldquo1rdquo indicates full
membership and ldquo0rdquo indicates full non-membership Breakpoints
allow for the calibration of all original values into membership values
Typically 095 indicates full membership and 005 denotes full non-
membership The crossover point (05) designates cases with the max-
imum ambiguity regarding their membership in the set
The second stage includes the analysis of the truth table which con-
sists of all logically possible combinations of condition sets (Fiss 2011)
Next using Boolean algebra QCA computes the commonalities among
the con1047297gurations that lead to the outcome Finally the Quinendash
Source Self-reported
Identification with
the strategy (I)
Supervisor
support (S)
Work-family
balance (W)
Teamwork
(T)Autonomy
(A)
TWISA
Fig 1 Relationships between employees at different levels
2 I Alegre et al Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndash xxx
Please cite this article as Alegre I et al Antecedents of employee job satisfaction Do they matter Journal of Business Research (2015) httpdxdoiorg101016jjbusres201510113
8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
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McCluskey algorithm provides a logical reduction of statements (Fiss
2007 Quine 1955) At this stage two parameters are in order
(a) coverage and (b) consistency The former indicates the empirical
relevance of a solution (the higher the better) and the latter quanti1047297es
the extent to which cases that share similar conditions yield the same
outcome
The STATA software package (version 13) supports the statistical
treatment of the data
4 Results
Table 2 shows the calibration process and indicates the transforma-
tion of both the outcome and the antecedent conditions into fuzzy
terms
Tables 2 and 3 display the relationship between the outcome (job
satisfaction) and the various antecedent conditions considered As
Table 3 shows all causal conditions relate to the outcome variable
with coincidence scores above 085 in all cases Notwithstanding
Table 4 indicates that no single set (alone) is most suf 1047297cient for
predicting the outcome suggesting that the analysis can proceed to
examine the consistency of different con1047297gurations when combining
causal conditions
The 1047297rst step involves the identi1047297cation of con1047297gurations with y-
consistencies (positive outcome) that are signi1047297cantly greater than
their n-consistencies (negation of the outcome) According to Table 4
23 con1047297gurations ful1047297ll the requirements
The second stage involves the determination of which con1047297gura-
tions have y-consistency levels signi1047297cantly higher than a thresholdvalue According to Ragin (2008) a minimum consistency of 08 is
suf 1047297cient to indicate goodness of 1047297t In order to restrict the number of
conditions that ful1047297ll the requirement this study employs a more
stringent cutoff point 09 As Table 4 shows twelve con1047297gurations are
consistent at the 005 level of signi1047297cance
The next step consists of selecting only those con1047297gurations that
pass both tests This step yields twelve common sets however they
may overlap The QuinendashMcCluskey algorithm then provides a logical
reduction of the con1047297gurations The 1047297nal reduction set includes three
con1047297gurations indicating that the con1047297gurations in Table 4 collapse
into three Table 5 presents theresults In this tableeach rowrepresents
a con1047297guration of causal conditions with their corresponding raw
coverage unique coverage and solution consistency The numbers at
the bottom of the table represent the coverage and consistency of thesolution as a whole According to the results of the analysis the solution
yields coverage close to 60 and consistency of 916
The 1047297rst con1047297guration of the solution teamworkstrategy ~
workfamily represents the combination of factors that lead to job
satisfaction teamwork and cooperationbetween employees identi1047297ca-
tion with the strategy of the company and absence of employee workndash
family balance This con1047297guration indicates that when employees iden-
tify with the organizational strategy and when a positive relationship
exists between employees and bothcolleagues and team members em-
ployees can achieve positive levels of job satisfaction even if their job is
demanding and even if reconciling work and family is dif 1047297cult These
employees enjoy being at work even at certain personal cost
The second combination of antecedent conditions is autonomy
strategyworkfamily In contrast to theprevious recipe in this combina-
tion employee workndashfamily balance is relevant for job satisfaction as
are autonomy and identi1047297cation with the organizational strategy The
implications of this combination are that employees value job autono-
my because it allows them to make their own decisions about their
work and schedule and thereby facilitates workndashfamily balance Thus
according to this combination employees appreciate their job because
of theautonomy inherent in the job whereas according to theprevious
con1047297guration employees value team membership and collaboration
The third con1047297guration that emerges from the analysis (supervisor
strategy) indicates that a combination of supervisor support and identi-
1047297cationwith theorganizational strategy also lead to jobsatisfaction This
combination addressesanother source of support for employees in addi-
tion to colleagues supervisor support In this sense supervisor support
enhances job satisfaction Notably in all three con1047297gurations employee
identi1047297cation with the organizational strategy is a signi1047297cant factor
through which employees achieve positive levels of job satisfaction
To further corroborate the results additional tests use regression
analysis andSEM to examine thedata Although allthesemethodologiesdiffer in scope and purpose comparing the results of dissimilar ap-
proaches might lead to interesting results not only in terms of the
models but also in terms of the inherent methodological issues
First this study conducts a regression analysis to examine the ex-
planatory power of the1047297ve antecedentconditions in explaining theout-
come(job satisfaction) The1047297ndings reveal that both supervisorsupport
( p-value = 0003) and employees identi1047297cation with the organization-
al strategy ( p-value = 0000) positively relate to job satisfaction Nor-
mal probability plots of the residuals corroborate that residuals follow
a normal distribution Additionally the data do not suffer from collin-
earity problems as the maximum VIF is 246 (Rogerson 2001)
Concerning the use of SEM this study adopts the maximum likeli-
hood method from the asymptotic variancendashcovariance matrix to esti-
mate the model by using EQS software version 61 The 1047297t indices inthe measurement model estimation show good general 1047297t χ
2 =
87580 with 63deg of freedom and a p-value of 00220 χ2df is 139
which is under the acceptable limit of 5 RMSEA is 0032 and the CFI is
0988 Although the model 1047297t is acceptable the results show that
Table 1
Scales measurements
Construct Original construct Adapted from Cronbachs alpha
Autonomy Autonomy Organizational climate measure (OMC)
Patterson et al (2005)
068
Teamwork Integration 074
Supervisor support Supervisor support 0816
Identi1047297cation with the strategy Clarity of organizational goals 080
Employee workndashfamily balance Workndashfamily Hayman (2005) 074
Table 2
Distribution of each variable and its corresponding set
Variable Coding Full non-membership (005) Crossover point (05) Full membership (095)
Job satisfaction Jobsat 0150 1500 2850
Autonomy Autonomy 0248 2484 4719
Teamwork Teamwork 0308 3075 5843
Supervisor support Supervisor 0314 3137 5960
Identi1047297cation with the strategy Strategy 0358 3578 6797
Employee workndashfamily balance Workfamily 0232 2315 4398
3I Alegre et al Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndash xxx
Please cite this article as Alegre I et al Antecedents of employee job satisfaction Do they matter Journal of Business Research (2015) httpdxdoiorg101016jjbusres201510113
8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
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Table 3
Coincidence matrix and suf 1047297ciency and necessity matrix
Jobsat Autonomy Teamwork Supervisor Strategy Workfamily
Coincidence matrix
Jobsat 1000
Autonomy 0869 1000
Teamwork 0888 0809 1000
Supervisor 0897 0832 0831 1000
Strategy 0874 0790 0805 0806 1000
Workfamily 0834 0768 0726 0750 0757 1000
Suf 1047297ciency and necessity matrix
Jobsat 1000 0626 0608 0645 0674 0595
Autonomy 0869 1000 0770 0831 0790 0760
Teamwork 0888 0809 1000 0831 0805 0726
Supervisor 0897 0832 0831 1000 0806 0743
Strategy 0874 0790 0805 0806 1000 0700
Workfamily 0834 0768 0726 0750 0757 1000
Table 4
Suf 1047297ciency and necessity matrix
y-consistency vs n-consistency
Set YCons NCons F P
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisor ~ strategyworkfamily 0915 0439 9645 0
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0944 0383 18524 0
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0950 0363 2182 0
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0908 0455 8585 0
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0931 0393 14672 0
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0926 0395 12964 0
~autonomyteamworksupervisor ~ strategy ~ workfamily 0922 0406 11797 0
~autonomyteamworksupervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0927 0394 13013 0
~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0952 0342 24309 0
~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0952 0328 26865 0
autonomy ~ teamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0926 0421 12462 0
autonomy ~ teamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily 0943 0367 19259 0
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisor ~ strategy ~ workfamily 0913 0427 9904 0
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0928 0372 14782 0autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0936 0368 16955 0
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0953 0301 30467 0
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0910 0403 10364 0
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0933 0377 15164 0
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily 0943 0339 22031 0
autonomyteamworksupervisor ~ strategy ~ workfamily 0913 0373 11731 0
autonomyteamworksupervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0922 0327 16536 0
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0953 0268 34343 0
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0946 0213 46472 0
y-consistency vs set value
Set YConsist Set value F P
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0944 09 1554 0
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0950 09 2077 0
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0931 09 542 0020
~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0952 09 2706 0~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0952 09 2569 0
autonomy ~ teamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily 0943 09 1178 0001
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0936 09 647 0011
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0953 09 2064 0
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0933 09 466 0032
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily 0943 09 1114 0001
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0953 09 2107 0
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0946 09 1558 0
Common sets
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily ~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily ~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily ~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy
workfamily
autonomy ~ teamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy
workfamily autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily
Note ldquo
~rdquo
indicates the negation of the condition
4 I Alegre et al Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndash xxx
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8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
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employees identi1047297cation with the organizational strategy is the only
factor that exerts a signi1047297cant in1047298uence on job satisfaction Supervisor
support is almost signi1047297cant but does not enter in the model
In both cases the results from these two complementary methodol-
ogies seem to support the above argument that employee identi1047297cation
with organizational strategy is a key factor that affects job satisfaction
5 Discussion
The present results contribute to research on job satisfaction by
outlining several combinations of antecedents that affect employee
job satisfaction Speci1047297cally a high level of teamwork and high levels
of organizational identi1047297cation and commitment foster a high level of
job satisfaction even in the presence of a low level of workndashfamily bal-
ance Thus when an employee has a good relationship with hisher col-
leagues and identi1047297es with the companys objectives and goals despite a
possible WF con1047298ict the employee can achieve high job satisfaction In
this way having a good relationship with ones coworkers and identify-
ingwith thedirection andaim of thecompany compensate forthe inter-
ference of WF con1047298ict For employees working in a company may
require effort to meet family obligations and achieve life satisfaction
nevertheless working in a friendly environment and identifying with
the companys goals can improve job satisfaction
In addition the empirical results indicate that higherlevels of auton-
omy in the decision-making process higher levels of organizational
identi1047297cation and commitment and higher levels of WF balance lead
to high levels of job satisfaction for employees Thus when employees
share the organizations strategy and mission have autonomy to struc-ture and manage their work and have the ability to balance their work
with family or leisure their job satisfaction will be high
The collective effect of identi1047297cation with organizational goals and
supervisor support is also notable When a companys strategy aligns
with managerial support job satisfaction increases Employees feel
comfortable in a company if they share the organizations mission
(Bart et al 2001) Furthermore employees need to be comfortable
with their supervisor These two factors can thus explain employee
job satisfaction
As predicted the 1047297ndings clearly support the view that job satisfac-
tion is a complex construct and that many types of relationships shape
job satisfaction According to these 1047297ndings to achieve employee satis-
faction and well-being organizationsshould develop practices or initia-
tives aimed at increasing perceptions of organizational commitmentWF balance autonomy supervisor support and collaboration through
teamwork
6 Conclusion
This study contributes to a large body of work on the antecedents of
job satisfaction The results corroborate previous research on employee
satisfaction examining important relationships such as the employeendash
organization employeendashcoworker and employeendashsupervisor relation-
ships However while previous studies focus on the one-to-one associ-
ations between these relationships and job satisfaction this study
contributes to different streams of research on job satisfaction by study-
ingthe effectof all of these relationships simultaneously In addition re-
search on HRM psychology and management can also bene1047297t from the
approach and methodology that this study adopts Although informa-
tion science and operations research applies QCA this methodology is
largely absent from the management literature The application of the
fuzzy set methodology in an area dominated by regressions and SEM
can offer multiple research opportunities to business and management
scholars This study thus contributes to widening the scope and applica-
tion of new quantitative techniques by comparing several methodolo-
gies and results
The results of this research also have practical implications for man-agers because they may provide them with a more holistic understand-
ing of the antecedents of job satisfaction How can 1047297rms satisfy their
employees This question is relevant for practice
This research has several limitations the most critical of which re-
lates to the data source The data in this study come from a single Span-
ish company which may diminish the generalizability of the results
Nevertheless the subject of interest is at the individual level and the
company has several sites and different departments which adds nec-
essary variability to the variables studied such as employees relation-
ships with their team members and supervisors
Future research could replicate this study in other companies and
countries or regions Additionallyfuture studies could include other or-
ganizational variables (eg leadership communication and internal
processes) to examine the possible mediating or moderating roles of
such variables in the associations with job satisfaction
References
Adams G A King L A amp King D W (1996) Relationships of job and family involve-ment family social support and workndashfamily con1047298ict with job and life satisfaction
Journal of Applied Psychology 81(4) 411ndash420Allen D GShore LM amp Griffeth RW (2003) The roleof perceived organizationalsup-
port and supportive human resource practices in the turnover process Journal of Management 29(1) 99ndash118
Bart C K Bontis N amp Taggar S (2001) A model of the impact of mission statements on1047297rm performance Management Decision 39(1) 19ndash35
Chang M amp Cheng C (2014) How balance theory explains high-tech professionals so-lutions of enhancing job satisfaction Journal of Business Research 67 (9) 2008ndash2018
Chen H amp Bates R A (2005) Instrument translation and development strategies forcrosscultural studies Proceedings of the 2005 Academy of Human Resource Develop-
ment International Conference (pp 693ndash
700) (USA)DixonM A amp Sagas M (2007) The relationship between organizational support workndash
family con1047298ict and the job-life satisfaction of university coaches Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 78(3) 236ndash247
Dolbier C L Webster J A McCalister K T Mallon M W amp Steinhardt M A (2005)Reliability and validity of a single-item measure of job satisfaction American Journalof Health Promotion 19(3) 194ndash198
Edgar F amp Geare A (2005) HRM practice and employee attitudes DifferentmeasuresmdashDifferent results Personnel Review 34(5) 534ndash549
Fila M J Paik L S Griffeth R W amp Allen D (2014) Disaggregating job satisfaction Ef-fects of perceived demands control and support Journal of Business and Psychology
29(4) 639ndash649Fiss P C (2007) A set-theoretic approach to organizational con1047297gurations Academy of
Management Review 32(4) 1180ndash1198Fiss P C (2011) Buildingbettercausaltheories A fuzzy set approachto typologiesin or-
ganization research Academy of Management Journal 54(2) 393ndash420Grif 1047297n M A Patterson M G amp West M A (2001) Job satisfaction and teamwork The
role of supervisor support Journal of Organizational Behavior 22(5) 537ndash550Hatch M amp Schultz M (1997) Relations between organizational culture identity and
image European Journal of Marketing 31(56) 356ndash365HaymanJ (2005) Psychometric assessment of an instrument designed to measure work
life balance Research and Practice in Human Resource Management 13(1) 85ndash91Ilgen D R Hollenbeck J RJohnsonM amp Jundt D (2005) Teams in organizations From
inputndashprocessndashoutput models to IMOI models Annual Review of Psychology 56 517ndash543
Kirkman B L amp Rosen B (1999) Beyond self-management Antecedents and con-sequences of team empowerment Academy of Management Journal 42(1)58ndash74
Kirkman BL amp ShapiroD L(2001) The impactof cultural values on jobsatisfaction andorganizational commitment inself-managing work teams The mediating role of em-ployee resistance Academy of Management Journal 44(3) 557ndash569
Kossek E amp Ozeki C (1998) Workndashfamily con1047298ict policies and the job-life satisfactionrelationship A review and directions for organizational behaviorndashhuman resourcesresearch Journal of Applied Psychology 83(2) 139ndash149
Locke E A (1976) The nature and causes of job satisfaction In M D Dunnette (Ed)Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology Chicago IL Rand McNally
Longest K C amp Vaisey S (2008) Fuzzy A program for performing qualitative compara-
tive analyses (QCA) in Stata Stata Journal 8 79ndash
104
Table 5
Suf 1047297ciency and necessity matrix
Set con1047297gurations Raw
coverage
Unique
coverage
Solution
consistency
tea mworkstrategy ~ workfamily 0301 0025 0933
autonomystrategyworkfamily 0425 0022 0930
supervisorstrategy 0538 0070 0929
Total coverage = 0591
Solution consistency = 0916
5I Alegre et al Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndash xxx
Please cite this article as Alegre I et al Antecedents of employee job satisfaction Do they matter Journal of Business Research (2015) httpdxdoiorg101016jjbusres201510113
8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullantecedents-of-employee-job-satisfaction-do-they-matter 66
Macintosh G amp Krush M (2014) Examining the link between salesperson networkingbehaviors job satisfaction and organizational commitment Does gender matter
Journal of Business Research 67 (12) 2628ndash2635Meyer A D Tsui A S amp Hinings C R (1993) Con1047297gurational approaches to organiza-
tional analysis Academy of Management Journal 36 (6) 1175ndash1195Ornstein S amp Isabella L A (1993)Making sense of careers A review 1989ndash1992 Journal
of Management 19(2) 243ndash267ParkerG amp WallT D (1998) Job and workdesign Organizing work to promote well-being
and effectiveness 4 London UK SagePatterson M G West M A Shackleton V J Dawson J F Lawthom R Maitlis S
Wallace A M (2005) Validating the organizational climate measure Links to
managerial practices productivity and innovation Journal of OrganizationalBehavior 26 (4) 379ndash408Qu H amp Zhao X (2012) Employees workndashfamily con1047298ict moderating life and job
satisfaction Journal of Business Research 65(1) 22ndash28Quine W V (1955) A way to simplify truth functions The American Mathematical
Monthly 62(9) 627ndash631Ragin C C (2008) Redesigningsocial inquiry Fuzzy sets and beyond Chicago IL University
of Chicago PressRogerson P (2001) Statistical methods for geography London UK Sage PublicationsRowold J Borgmann L amp Bormann K (2014) Which leadership constructs are impor-
tant for predicting job satisfaction affective commitment and perceived job
performance in pro1047297t versus nonpro1047297t organizations Nonpro 1047297t Management andLeadership 25(2) 147ndash164
Sageer A Rafat S amp Agarwal P (2012) Identi1047297cation of variables affecting employeesatisfaction and their impact on the organization IOSR Journal of Business andManagement 5 32ndash39
Spagnoli P Caetano A amp Santos S C (2012) Satisfaction with job aspects Do patternschange over time Journal of Business Research 65(5) 609ndash616
Spector P E (1986) Perceived control by employees A meta-analysis of studies concerningautonomy and participation at work Human Relations 39(11) 1005ndash1016
Spector P E (1997) Job satisfaction Application assessment causes and consequencesSolid Action on Globalization and Environment 3 (London UK)
Tang S Siu O amp Cheung F (2014) A study of workndash
family enrichment among Chineseemployees The mediating role between work support and job satisfaction AppliedPsychology 63(1) 130ndash150
Wanous J P Reichers A E amp Hudy M J (1997) Overall job satisfaction How good aresingle-item measures Journal of Applied Psychology 82(2) 247ndash252
Wu P Yeh S Huan Tamp Woodside A G (2014) Applying complexity theory to deepenservice dominant logic Con1047297gural analysis of customer experience-and-outcome as-sessments of professional services for personal transformations Journal of BusinessResearch 67 (8) 1647ndash1670
Yukl G (1989) Managerial leadership A review of theory and research Journal of Management 15(2) 251ndash289
6 I Alegre et al Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndash xxx
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8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullantecedents-of-employee-job-satisfaction-do-they-matter 26
important source of job satisfaction (Kirkman amp Shapiro 2001 Sageer
Rafat amp Agarwal 2012) Fig 1 shows these relationships
To foster employee commitment to and identi1047297cation with organi-
zational goals organizations must clearly de1047297ne their objectives
(Patterson et al 2005) Organizational identity refers broadly to what
organizational members perceive feel and think about their organiza-
tions (Hatch amp Schultz 1997) Organizational commitment exists
when individuals identify with organizational goals Allen et al (2003)
suggest that employees organization commitment and identity explainemployee satisfaction and Bart Bontis and Taggar (2001) link employ-
ee satisfaction to the organizational mission and strategy
Most employees divide their daily life between work and family
Thus organizational responses to workndashfamily (WF) con1047298ict in1047298uence
employees attitudes toward their jobs (Ornstein amp Isabella 1993) Ex-
ploring the relationships among WF con1047298ict organizational policies
and job and life satisfaction Kossek and Ozeki (1998) 1047297nd a consistent
negative relationship between WF con1047298ict and job and life satisfaction
Dixon and Sagas (2007) further empirically demonstrate the theorized
relationship between WF con1047298ict and job-life satisfaction and Qu and
Zhao (2012)investigate the impact of life satisfaction on job satisfaction
in different situations of WF con1047298ict
Rowold Borgmann and Bormann (2014) propose that the leader-
ship style of an employees supervisor positively affects the employees
organizational commitment and job satisfaction In particular the ex-
tent to which an employees supervisor provides encouragement and
support to theemployeeconcerning theemployees workis a strongde-
terminant of the employees attitude toward his or her job (Grif 1047297n
Patterson amp West 2001) Numerous studies investigate this relation-
ship in various job contexts (Yukl 1989) For instance Kirkman and
Rosen (1999) underline the importance of promoting a supportive
work environment and adequate supervisor support as these factors af-
fect employees work-related attitudes and perceptions Tang et al
(2014) further suggest that WF enrichment fully mediates the relation-
ship between job satisfaction and both supervisor and organizational
support
Autonomy refers to the extent to which individual employees can
structure and control how and when they perform their speci1047297c job
Highly autonomous jobs increase bothjob performance and satisfaction(Spector 1986) Accordingly autonomy and1047298exibility are common an-
tecedents of job satisfaction (Chang amp Cheng 2014 Grif 1047297n Patterson amp
West 2001)
Finally teamwork involves cooperative work between interdepen-
dent groups to obtain an outcome thus it re1047298ects the relationship
between employees and colleagues (Parker amp Wall 1998) Much of
the research interest in teamwork is due to the idea that work teams
are able to generate greater returns than individuals alone (Ilgen
Hollenbeck Johnson amp Jundt 2005) Communicating and collaborating
within a team sharing information and knowledge and prioritizing the
group over individual outcomes are important team features that en-
hance the bene1047297ts of teamwork According to Grif 1047297n et al (2001) job
enrichment can result from teamwork partly explaining the link be-
tween teamwork and job satisfaction Work policies that promote em-
ployees initiatives foster higher levels of autonomy
All in all job satisfactions stands as an emotion that involves a
persons overall evaluation with respect their work environment Be-cause previous studies mainly use SEM hierarchical regression analysis
or meta-analytic combinations to examine job satisfaction this study
adopts fsQCA to better understand the antecedents of job satisfaction
3 Data and methods
31 Sample and procedure
The sample of the study includes employees of a Spanish pharma-
ceutical company and the1047297eldwork contains informationfrom 463 sur-
veys (March 2013) using both online and paper-and-pencil formats
After the exclusion of incomplete questionnaires data for the analysis
comprises 374 valid surveys (a response rate of 8078) The empirical
application uses the mean of nearby points to treat missing data points
Managers interest in the study allows theuse of participative strategies
such as a raf 1047298e facilitating a high response rate
32 Scales
The survey includes six scales (identi 1047297cation with and commitment to
organizational goals workndash family balance autonomy supervisor support
teamwork and job satisfaction) in the form of statements to which
respondents indicate their level of agreementdisagreement on a four-
point Likert scale All item loadings are higher than 06 As the original
language of the items in the scales is English this study applies
forwardbackward translation (FBT) to adapt the questionnaire (Chen
amp Bates 2005)
An extensive review of the relevant literature supports the validity
of the scales (see Table 1)Finally one single-item overall measure captures job satisfaction
According to Dolbier Webster McCalister Mallon and Steinhardt
(2005) and Wanous Reichers and Hudy (1997) from a psychometric
perspective the use of single-item measures to operationalize this
construct compares favorably with the use of multiple-item measures
33 Methodology
This study uses fsQCA as the study methodology QCA addresses
complex causality perspectives by assuming asymmetric relationships
among observations This approach facilitates the determination of
which combination of antecedent conditions is most likely to cause an
outcome The result is a number of combinations that enable the pro-
duction of the outcome under analysis (Longest amp Vaisey 2008)QCAentails the analysis of the necessary and suf 1047297cient conditionsto
produce an outcome (Meyer Tsui amp Hinings 1993 Wu Yeh Huan amp
Woodside 2014) and involves variousstages First a calibration process
transforms variables into sets according to their degree of membership
to each of the conditions (Ragin 2008) A score of ldquo1rdquo indicates full
membership and ldquo0rdquo indicates full non-membership Breakpoints
allow for the calibration of all original values into membership values
Typically 095 indicates full membership and 005 denotes full non-
membership The crossover point (05) designates cases with the max-
imum ambiguity regarding their membership in the set
The second stage includes the analysis of the truth table which con-
sists of all logically possible combinations of condition sets (Fiss 2011)
Next using Boolean algebra QCA computes the commonalities among
the con1047297gurations that lead to the outcome Finally the Quinendash
Source Self-reported
Identification with
the strategy (I)
Supervisor
support (S)
Work-family
balance (W)
Teamwork
(T)Autonomy
(A)
TWISA
Fig 1 Relationships between employees at different levels
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8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
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McCluskey algorithm provides a logical reduction of statements (Fiss
2007 Quine 1955) At this stage two parameters are in order
(a) coverage and (b) consistency The former indicates the empirical
relevance of a solution (the higher the better) and the latter quanti1047297es
the extent to which cases that share similar conditions yield the same
outcome
The STATA software package (version 13) supports the statistical
treatment of the data
4 Results
Table 2 shows the calibration process and indicates the transforma-
tion of both the outcome and the antecedent conditions into fuzzy
terms
Tables 2 and 3 display the relationship between the outcome (job
satisfaction) and the various antecedent conditions considered As
Table 3 shows all causal conditions relate to the outcome variable
with coincidence scores above 085 in all cases Notwithstanding
Table 4 indicates that no single set (alone) is most suf 1047297cient for
predicting the outcome suggesting that the analysis can proceed to
examine the consistency of different con1047297gurations when combining
causal conditions
The 1047297rst step involves the identi1047297cation of con1047297gurations with y-
consistencies (positive outcome) that are signi1047297cantly greater than
their n-consistencies (negation of the outcome) According to Table 4
23 con1047297gurations ful1047297ll the requirements
The second stage involves the determination of which con1047297gura-
tions have y-consistency levels signi1047297cantly higher than a thresholdvalue According to Ragin (2008) a minimum consistency of 08 is
suf 1047297cient to indicate goodness of 1047297t In order to restrict the number of
conditions that ful1047297ll the requirement this study employs a more
stringent cutoff point 09 As Table 4 shows twelve con1047297gurations are
consistent at the 005 level of signi1047297cance
The next step consists of selecting only those con1047297gurations that
pass both tests This step yields twelve common sets however they
may overlap The QuinendashMcCluskey algorithm then provides a logical
reduction of the con1047297gurations The 1047297nal reduction set includes three
con1047297gurations indicating that the con1047297gurations in Table 4 collapse
into three Table 5 presents theresults In this tableeach rowrepresents
a con1047297guration of causal conditions with their corresponding raw
coverage unique coverage and solution consistency The numbers at
the bottom of the table represent the coverage and consistency of thesolution as a whole According to the results of the analysis the solution
yields coverage close to 60 and consistency of 916
The 1047297rst con1047297guration of the solution teamworkstrategy ~
workfamily represents the combination of factors that lead to job
satisfaction teamwork and cooperationbetween employees identi1047297ca-
tion with the strategy of the company and absence of employee workndash
family balance This con1047297guration indicates that when employees iden-
tify with the organizational strategy and when a positive relationship
exists between employees and bothcolleagues and team members em-
ployees can achieve positive levels of job satisfaction even if their job is
demanding and even if reconciling work and family is dif 1047297cult These
employees enjoy being at work even at certain personal cost
The second combination of antecedent conditions is autonomy
strategyworkfamily In contrast to theprevious recipe in this combina-
tion employee workndashfamily balance is relevant for job satisfaction as
are autonomy and identi1047297cation with the organizational strategy The
implications of this combination are that employees value job autono-
my because it allows them to make their own decisions about their
work and schedule and thereby facilitates workndashfamily balance Thus
according to this combination employees appreciate their job because
of theautonomy inherent in the job whereas according to theprevious
con1047297guration employees value team membership and collaboration
The third con1047297guration that emerges from the analysis (supervisor
strategy) indicates that a combination of supervisor support and identi-
1047297cationwith theorganizational strategy also lead to jobsatisfaction This
combination addressesanother source of support for employees in addi-
tion to colleagues supervisor support In this sense supervisor support
enhances job satisfaction Notably in all three con1047297gurations employee
identi1047297cation with the organizational strategy is a signi1047297cant factor
through which employees achieve positive levels of job satisfaction
To further corroborate the results additional tests use regression
analysis andSEM to examine thedata Although allthesemethodologiesdiffer in scope and purpose comparing the results of dissimilar ap-
proaches might lead to interesting results not only in terms of the
models but also in terms of the inherent methodological issues
First this study conducts a regression analysis to examine the ex-
planatory power of the1047297ve antecedentconditions in explaining theout-
come(job satisfaction) The1047297ndings reveal that both supervisorsupport
( p-value = 0003) and employees identi1047297cation with the organization-
al strategy ( p-value = 0000) positively relate to job satisfaction Nor-
mal probability plots of the residuals corroborate that residuals follow
a normal distribution Additionally the data do not suffer from collin-
earity problems as the maximum VIF is 246 (Rogerson 2001)
Concerning the use of SEM this study adopts the maximum likeli-
hood method from the asymptotic variancendashcovariance matrix to esti-
mate the model by using EQS software version 61 The 1047297t indices inthe measurement model estimation show good general 1047297t χ
2 =
87580 with 63deg of freedom and a p-value of 00220 χ2df is 139
which is under the acceptable limit of 5 RMSEA is 0032 and the CFI is
0988 Although the model 1047297t is acceptable the results show that
Table 1
Scales measurements
Construct Original construct Adapted from Cronbachs alpha
Autonomy Autonomy Organizational climate measure (OMC)
Patterson et al (2005)
068
Teamwork Integration 074
Supervisor support Supervisor support 0816
Identi1047297cation with the strategy Clarity of organizational goals 080
Employee workndashfamily balance Workndashfamily Hayman (2005) 074
Table 2
Distribution of each variable and its corresponding set
Variable Coding Full non-membership (005) Crossover point (05) Full membership (095)
Job satisfaction Jobsat 0150 1500 2850
Autonomy Autonomy 0248 2484 4719
Teamwork Teamwork 0308 3075 5843
Supervisor support Supervisor 0314 3137 5960
Identi1047297cation with the strategy Strategy 0358 3578 6797
Employee workndashfamily balance Workfamily 0232 2315 4398
3I Alegre et al Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndash xxx
Please cite this article as Alegre I et al Antecedents of employee job satisfaction Do they matter Journal of Business Research (2015) httpdxdoiorg101016jjbusres201510113
8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
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Table 3
Coincidence matrix and suf 1047297ciency and necessity matrix
Jobsat Autonomy Teamwork Supervisor Strategy Workfamily
Coincidence matrix
Jobsat 1000
Autonomy 0869 1000
Teamwork 0888 0809 1000
Supervisor 0897 0832 0831 1000
Strategy 0874 0790 0805 0806 1000
Workfamily 0834 0768 0726 0750 0757 1000
Suf 1047297ciency and necessity matrix
Jobsat 1000 0626 0608 0645 0674 0595
Autonomy 0869 1000 0770 0831 0790 0760
Teamwork 0888 0809 1000 0831 0805 0726
Supervisor 0897 0832 0831 1000 0806 0743
Strategy 0874 0790 0805 0806 1000 0700
Workfamily 0834 0768 0726 0750 0757 1000
Table 4
Suf 1047297ciency and necessity matrix
y-consistency vs n-consistency
Set YCons NCons F P
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisor ~ strategyworkfamily 0915 0439 9645 0
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0944 0383 18524 0
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0950 0363 2182 0
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0908 0455 8585 0
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0931 0393 14672 0
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0926 0395 12964 0
~autonomyteamworksupervisor ~ strategy ~ workfamily 0922 0406 11797 0
~autonomyteamworksupervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0927 0394 13013 0
~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0952 0342 24309 0
~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0952 0328 26865 0
autonomy ~ teamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0926 0421 12462 0
autonomy ~ teamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily 0943 0367 19259 0
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisor ~ strategy ~ workfamily 0913 0427 9904 0
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0928 0372 14782 0autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0936 0368 16955 0
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0953 0301 30467 0
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0910 0403 10364 0
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0933 0377 15164 0
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily 0943 0339 22031 0
autonomyteamworksupervisor ~ strategy ~ workfamily 0913 0373 11731 0
autonomyteamworksupervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0922 0327 16536 0
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0953 0268 34343 0
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0946 0213 46472 0
y-consistency vs set value
Set YConsist Set value F P
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0944 09 1554 0
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0950 09 2077 0
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0931 09 542 0020
~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0952 09 2706 0~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0952 09 2569 0
autonomy ~ teamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily 0943 09 1178 0001
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0936 09 647 0011
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0953 09 2064 0
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0933 09 466 0032
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily 0943 09 1114 0001
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0953 09 2107 0
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0946 09 1558 0
Common sets
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily ~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily ~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily ~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy
workfamily
autonomy ~ teamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy
workfamily autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily
Note ldquo
~rdquo
indicates the negation of the condition
4 I Alegre et al Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndash xxx
Please cite this article as Alegre I et al Antecedents of employee job satisfaction Do they matter Journal of Business Research (2015) httpdxdoiorg101016jjbusres201510113
8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
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employees identi1047297cation with the organizational strategy is the only
factor that exerts a signi1047297cant in1047298uence on job satisfaction Supervisor
support is almost signi1047297cant but does not enter in the model
In both cases the results from these two complementary methodol-
ogies seem to support the above argument that employee identi1047297cation
with organizational strategy is a key factor that affects job satisfaction
5 Discussion
The present results contribute to research on job satisfaction by
outlining several combinations of antecedents that affect employee
job satisfaction Speci1047297cally a high level of teamwork and high levels
of organizational identi1047297cation and commitment foster a high level of
job satisfaction even in the presence of a low level of workndashfamily bal-
ance Thus when an employee has a good relationship with hisher col-
leagues and identi1047297es with the companys objectives and goals despite a
possible WF con1047298ict the employee can achieve high job satisfaction In
this way having a good relationship with ones coworkers and identify-
ingwith thedirection andaim of thecompany compensate forthe inter-
ference of WF con1047298ict For employees working in a company may
require effort to meet family obligations and achieve life satisfaction
nevertheless working in a friendly environment and identifying with
the companys goals can improve job satisfaction
In addition the empirical results indicate that higherlevels of auton-
omy in the decision-making process higher levels of organizational
identi1047297cation and commitment and higher levels of WF balance lead
to high levels of job satisfaction for employees Thus when employees
share the organizations strategy and mission have autonomy to struc-ture and manage their work and have the ability to balance their work
with family or leisure their job satisfaction will be high
The collective effect of identi1047297cation with organizational goals and
supervisor support is also notable When a companys strategy aligns
with managerial support job satisfaction increases Employees feel
comfortable in a company if they share the organizations mission
(Bart et al 2001) Furthermore employees need to be comfortable
with their supervisor These two factors can thus explain employee
job satisfaction
As predicted the 1047297ndings clearly support the view that job satisfac-
tion is a complex construct and that many types of relationships shape
job satisfaction According to these 1047297ndings to achieve employee satis-
faction and well-being organizationsshould develop practices or initia-
tives aimed at increasing perceptions of organizational commitmentWF balance autonomy supervisor support and collaboration through
teamwork
6 Conclusion
This study contributes to a large body of work on the antecedents of
job satisfaction The results corroborate previous research on employee
satisfaction examining important relationships such as the employeendash
organization employeendashcoworker and employeendashsupervisor relation-
ships However while previous studies focus on the one-to-one associ-
ations between these relationships and job satisfaction this study
contributes to different streams of research on job satisfaction by study-
ingthe effectof all of these relationships simultaneously In addition re-
search on HRM psychology and management can also bene1047297t from the
approach and methodology that this study adopts Although informa-
tion science and operations research applies QCA this methodology is
largely absent from the management literature The application of the
fuzzy set methodology in an area dominated by regressions and SEM
can offer multiple research opportunities to business and management
scholars This study thus contributes to widening the scope and applica-
tion of new quantitative techniques by comparing several methodolo-
gies and results
The results of this research also have practical implications for man-agers because they may provide them with a more holistic understand-
ing of the antecedents of job satisfaction How can 1047297rms satisfy their
employees This question is relevant for practice
This research has several limitations the most critical of which re-
lates to the data source The data in this study come from a single Span-
ish company which may diminish the generalizability of the results
Nevertheless the subject of interest is at the individual level and the
company has several sites and different departments which adds nec-
essary variability to the variables studied such as employees relation-
ships with their team members and supervisors
Future research could replicate this study in other companies and
countries or regions Additionallyfuture studies could include other or-
ganizational variables (eg leadership communication and internal
processes) to examine the possible mediating or moderating roles of
such variables in the associations with job satisfaction
References
Adams G A King L A amp King D W (1996) Relationships of job and family involve-ment family social support and workndashfamily con1047298ict with job and life satisfaction
Journal of Applied Psychology 81(4) 411ndash420Allen D GShore LM amp Griffeth RW (2003) The roleof perceived organizationalsup-
port and supportive human resource practices in the turnover process Journal of Management 29(1) 99ndash118
Bart C K Bontis N amp Taggar S (2001) A model of the impact of mission statements on1047297rm performance Management Decision 39(1) 19ndash35
Chang M amp Cheng C (2014) How balance theory explains high-tech professionals so-lutions of enhancing job satisfaction Journal of Business Research 67 (9) 2008ndash2018
Chen H amp Bates R A (2005) Instrument translation and development strategies forcrosscultural studies Proceedings of the 2005 Academy of Human Resource Develop-
ment International Conference (pp 693ndash
700) (USA)DixonM A amp Sagas M (2007) The relationship between organizational support workndash
family con1047298ict and the job-life satisfaction of university coaches Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 78(3) 236ndash247
Dolbier C L Webster J A McCalister K T Mallon M W amp Steinhardt M A (2005)Reliability and validity of a single-item measure of job satisfaction American Journalof Health Promotion 19(3) 194ndash198
Edgar F amp Geare A (2005) HRM practice and employee attitudes DifferentmeasuresmdashDifferent results Personnel Review 34(5) 534ndash549
Fila M J Paik L S Griffeth R W amp Allen D (2014) Disaggregating job satisfaction Ef-fects of perceived demands control and support Journal of Business and Psychology
29(4) 639ndash649Fiss P C (2007) A set-theoretic approach to organizational con1047297gurations Academy of
Management Review 32(4) 1180ndash1198Fiss P C (2011) Buildingbettercausaltheories A fuzzy set approachto typologiesin or-
ganization research Academy of Management Journal 54(2) 393ndash420Grif 1047297n M A Patterson M G amp West M A (2001) Job satisfaction and teamwork The
role of supervisor support Journal of Organizational Behavior 22(5) 537ndash550Hatch M amp Schultz M (1997) Relations between organizational culture identity and
image European Journal of Marketing 31(56) 356ndash365HaymanJ (2005) Psychometric assessment of an instrument designed to measure work
life balance Research and Practice in Human Resource Management 13(1) 85ndash91Ilgen D R Hollenbeck J RJohnsonM amp Jundt D (2005) Teams in organizations From
inputndashprocessndashoutput models to IMOI models Annual Review of Psychology 56 517ndash543
Kirkman B L amp Rosen B (1999) Beyond self-management Antecedents and con-sequences of team empowerment Academy of Management Journal 42(1)58ndash74
Kirkman BL amp ShapiroD L(2001) The impactof cultural values on jobsatisfaction andorganizational commitment inself-managing work teams The mediating role of em-ployee resistance Academy of Management Journal 44(3) 557ndash569
Kossek E amp Ozeki C (1998) Workndashfamily con1047298ict policies and the job-life satisfactionrelationship A review and directions for organizational behaviorndashhuman resourcesresearch Journal of Applied Psychology 83(2) 139ndash149
Locke E A (1976) The nature and causes of job satisfaction In M D Dunnette (Ed)Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology Chicago IL Rand McNally
Longest K C amp Vaisey S (2008) Fuzzy A program for performing qualitative compara-
tive analyses (QCA) in Stata Stata Journal 8 79ndash
104
Table 5
Suf 1047297ciency and necessity matrix
Set con1047297gurations Raw
coverage
Unique
coverage
Solution
consistency
tea mworkstrategy ~ workfamily 0301 0025 0933
autonomystrategyworkfamily 0425 0022 0930
supervisorstrategy 0538 0070 0929
Total coverage = 0591
Solution consistency = 0916
5I Alegre et al Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndash xxx
Please cite this article as Alegre I et al Antecedents of employee job satisfaction Do they matter Journal of Business Research (2015) httpdxdoiorg101016jjbusres201510113
8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullantecedents-of-employee-job-satisfaction-do-they-matter 66
Macintosh G amp Krush M (2014) Examining the link between salesperson networkingbehaviors job satisfaction and organizational commitment Does gender matter
Journal of Business Research 67 (12) 2628ndash2635Meyer A D Tsui A S amp Hinings C R (1993) Con1047297gurational approaches to organiza-
tional analysis Academy of Management Journal 36 (6) 1175ndash1195Ornstein S amp Isabella L A (1993)Making sense of careers A review 1989ndash1992 Journal
of Management 19(2) 243ndash267ParkerG amp WallT D (1998) Job and workdesign Organizing work to promote well-being
and effectiveness 4 London UK SagePatterson M G West M A Shackleton V J Dawson J F Lawthom R Maitlis S
Wallace A M (2005) Validating the organizational climate measure Links to
managerial practices productivity and innovation Journal of OrganizationalBehavior 26 (4) 379ndash408Qu H amp Zhao X (2012) Employees workndashfamily con1047298ict moderating life and job
satisfaction Journal of Business Research 65(1) 22ndash28Quine W V (1955) A way to simplify truth functions The American Mathematical
Monthly 62(9) 627ndash631Ragin C C (2008) Redesigningsocial inquiry Fuzzy sets and beyond Chicago IL University
of Chicago PressRogerson P (2001) Statistical methods for geography London UK Sage PublicationsRowold J Borgmann L amp Bormann K (2014) Which leadership constructs are impor-
tant for predicting job satisfaction affective commitment and perceived job
performance in pro1047297t versus nonpro1047297t organizations Nonpro 1047297t Management andLeadership 25(2) 147ndash164
Sageer A Rafat S amp Agarwal P (2012) Identi1047297cation of variables affecting employeesatisfaction and their impact on the organization IOSR Journal of Business andManagement 5 32ndash39
Spagnoli P Caetano A amp Santos S C (2012) Satisfaction with job aspects Do patternschange over time Journal of Business Research 65(5) 609ndash616
Spector P E (1986) Perceived control by employees A meta-analysis of studies concerningautonomy and participation at work Human Relations 39(11) 1005ndash1016
Spector P E (1997) Job satisfaction Application assessment causes and consequencesSolid Action on Globalization and Environment 3 (London UK)
Tang S Siu O amp Cheung F (2014) A study of workndash
family enrichment among Chineseemployees The mediating role between work support and job satisfaction AppliedPsychology 63(1) 130ndash150
Wanous J P Reichers A E amp Hudy M J (1997) Overall job satisfaction How good aresingle-item measures Journal of Applied Psychology 82(2) 247ndash252
Wu P Yeh S Huan Tamp Woodside A G (2014) Applying complexity theory to deepenservice dominant logic Con1047297gural analysis of customer experience-and-outcome as-sessments of professional services for personal transformations Journal of BusinessResearch 67 (8) 1647ndash1670
Yukl G (1989) Managerial leadership A review of theory and research Journal of Management 15(2) 251ndash289
6 I Alegre et al Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndash xxx
Please cite this article as Alegre I et al Antecedents of employee job satisfaction Do they matter Journal of Business Research (2015) httpdxdoiorg101016jjbusres201510113
8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullantecedents-of-employee-job-satisfaction-do-they-matter 36
McCluskey algorithm provides a logical reduction of statements (Fiss
2007 Quine 1955) At this stage two parameters are in order
(a) coverage and (b) consistency The former indicates the empirical
relevance of a solution (the higher the better) and the latter quanti1047297es
the extent to which cases that share similar conditions yield the same
outcome
The STATA software package (version 13) supports the statistical
treatment of the data
4 Results
Table 2 shows the calibration process and indicates the transforma-
tion of both the outcome and the antecedent conditions into fuzzy
terms
Tables 2 and 3 display the relationship between the outcome (job
satisfaction) and the various antecedent conditions considered As
Table 3 shows all causal conditions relate to the outcome variable
with coincidence scores above 085 in all cases Notwithstanding
Table 4 indicates that no single set (alone) is most suf 1047297cient for
predicting the outcome suggesting that the analysis can proceed to
examine the consistency of different con1047297gurations when combining
causal conditions
The 1047297rst step involves the identi1047297cation of con1047297gurations with y-
consistencies (positive outcome) that are signi1047297cantly greater than
their n-consistencies (negation of the outcome) According to Table 4
23 con1047297gurations ful1047297ll the requirements
The second stage involves the determination of which con1047297gura-
tions have y-consistency levels signi1047297cantly higher than a thresholdvalue According to Ragin (2008) a minimum consistency of 08 is
suf 1047297cient to indicate goodness of 1047297t In order to restrict the number of
conditions that ful1047297ll the requirement this study employs a more
stringent cutoff point 09 As Table 4 shows twelve con1047297gurations are
consistent at the 005 level of signi1047297cance
The next step consists of selecting only those con1047297gurations that
pass both tests This step yields twelve common sets however they
may overlap The QuinendashMcCluskey algorithm then provides a logical
reduction of the con1047297gurations The 1047297nal reduction set includes three
con1047297gurations indicating that the con1047297gurations in Table 4 collapse
into three Table 5 presents theresults In this tableeach rowrepresents
a con1047297guration of causal conditions with their corresponding raw
coverage unique coverage and solution consistency The numbers at
the bottom of the table represent the coverage and consistency of thesolution as a whole According to the results of the analysis the solution
yields coverage close to 60 and consistency of 916
The 1047297rst con1047297guration of the solution teamworkstrategy ~
workfamily represents the combination of factors that lead to job
satisfaction teamwork and cooperationbetween employees identi1047297ca-
tion with the strategy of the company and absence of employee workndash
family balance This con1047297guration indicates that when employees iden-
tify with the organizational strategy and when a positive relationship
exists between employees and bothcolleagues and team members em-
ployees can achieve positive levels of job satisfaction even if their job is
demanding and even if reconciling work and family is dif 1047297cult These
employees enjoy being at work even at certain personal cost
The second combination of antecedent conditions is autonomy
strategyworkfamily In contrast to theprevious recipe in this combina-
tion employee workndashfamily balance is relevant for job satisfaction as
are autonomy and identi1047297cation with the organizational strategy The
implications of this combination are that employees value job autono-
my because it allows them to make their own decisions about their
work and schedule and thereby facilitates workndashfamily balance Thus
according to this combination employees appreciate their job because
of theautonomy inherent in the job whereas according to theprevious
con1047297guration employees value team membership and collaboration
The third con1047297guration that emerges from the analysis (supervisor
strategy) indicates that a combination of supervisor support and identi-
1047297cationwith theorganizational strategy also lead to jobsatisfaction This
combination addressesanother source of support for employees in addi-
tion to colleagues supervisor support In this sense supervisor support
enhances job satisfaction Notably in all three con1047297gurations employee
identi1047297cation with the organizational strategy is a signi1047297cant factor
through which employees achieve positive levels of job satisfaction
To further corroborate the results additional tests use regression
analysis andSEM to examine thedata Although allthesemethodologiesdiffer in scope and purpose comparing the results of dissimilar ap-
proaches might lead to interesting results not only in terms of the
models but also in terms of the inherent methodological issues
First this study conducts a regression analysis to examine the ex-
planatory power of the1047297ve antecedentconditions in explaining theout-
come(job satisfaction) The1047297ndings reveal that both supervisorsupport
( p-value = 0003) and employees identi1047297cation with the organization-
al strategy ( p-value = 0000) positively relate to job satisfaction Nor-
mal probability plots of the residuals corroborate that residuals follow
a normal distribution Additionally the data do not suffer from collin-
earity problems as the maximum VIF is 246 (Rogerson 2001)
Concerning the use of SEM this study adopts the maximum likeli-
hood method from the asymptotic variancendashcovariance matrix to esti-
mate the model by using EQS software version 61 The 1047297t indices inthe measurement model estimation show good general 1047297t χ
2 =
87580 with 63deg of freedom and a p-value of 00220 χ2df is 139
which is under the acceptable limit of 5 RMSEA is 0032 and the CFI is
0988 Although the model 1047297t is acceptable the results show that
Table 1
Scales measurements
Construct Original construct Adapted from Cronbachs alpha
Autonomy Autonomy Organizational climate measure (OMC)
Patterson et al (2005)
068
Teamwork Integration 074
Supervisor support Supervisor support 0816
Identi1047297cation with the strategy Clarity of organizational goals 080
Employee workndashfamily balance Workndashfamily Hayman (2005) 074
Table 2
Distribution of each variable and its corresponding set
Variable Coding Full non-membership (005) Crossover point (05) Full membership (095)
Job satisfaction Jobsat 0150 1500 2850
Autonomy Autonomy 0248 2484 4719
Teamwork Teamwork 0308 3075 5843
Supervisor support Supervisor 0314 3137 5960
Identi1047297cation with the strategy Strategy 0358 3578 6797
Employee workndashfamily balance Workfamily 0232 2315 4398
3I Alegre et al Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndash xxx
Please cite this article as Alegre I et al Antecedents of employee job satisfaction Do they matter Journal of Business Research (2015) httpdxdoiorg101016jjbusres201510113
8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullantecedents-of-employee-job-satisfaction-do-they-matter 46
Table 3
Coincidence matrix and suf 1047297ciency and necessity matrix
Jobsat Autonomy Teamwork Supervisor Strategy Workfamily
Coincidence matrix
Jobsat 1000
Autonomy 0869 1000
Teamwork 0888 0809 1000
Supervisor 0897 0832 0831 1000
Strategy 0874 0790 0805 0806 1000
Workfamily 0834 0768 0726 0750 0757 1000
Suf 1047297ciency and necessity matrix
Jobsat 1000 0626 0608 0645 0674 0595
Autonomy 0869 1000 0770 0831 0790 0760
Teamwork 0888 0809 1000 0831 0805 0726
Supervisor 0897 0832 0831 1000 0806 0743
Strategy 0874 0790 0805 0806 1000 0700
Workfamily 0834 0768 0726 0750 0757 1000
Table 4
Suf 1047297ciency and necessity matrix
y-consistency vs n-consistency
Set YCons NCons F P
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisor ~ strategyworkfamily 0915 0439 9645 0
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0944 0383 18524 0
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0950 0363 2182 0
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0908 0455 8585 0
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0931 0393 14672 0
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0926 0395 12964 0
~autonomyteamworksupervisor ~ strategy ~ workfamily 0922 0406 11797 0
~autonomyteamworksupervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0927 0394 13013 0
~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0952 0342 24309 0
~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0952 0328 26865 0
autonomy ~ teamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0926 0421 12462 0
autonomy ~ teamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily 0943 0367 19259 0
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisor ~ strategy ~ workfamily 0913 0427 9904 0
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0928 0372 14782 0autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0936 0368 16955 0
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0953 0301 30467 0
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0910 0403 10364 0
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0933 0377 15164 0
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily 0943 0339 22031 0
autonomyteamworksupervisor ~ strategy ~ workfamily 0913 0373 11731 0
autonomyteamworksupervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0922 0327 16536 0
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0953 0268 34343 0
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0946 0213 46472 0
y-consistency vs set value
Set YConsist Set value F P
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0944 09 1554 0
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0950 09 2077 0
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0931 09 542 0020
~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0952 09 2706 0~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0952 09 2569 0
autonomy ~ teamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily 0943 09 1178 0001
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0936 09 647 0011
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0953 09 2064 0
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0933 09 466 0032
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily 0943 09 1114 0001
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0953 09 2107 0
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0946 09 1558 0
Common sets
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily ~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily ~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily ~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy
workfamily
autonomy ~ teamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy
workfamily autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily
Note ldquo
~rdquo
indicates the negation of the condition
4 I Alegre et al Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndash xxx
Please cite this article as Alegre I et al Antecedents of employee job satisfaction Do they matter Journal of Business Research (2015) httpdxdoiorg101016jjbusres201510113
8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullantecedents-of-employee-job-satisfaction-do-they-matter 56
employees identi1047297cation with the organizational strategy is the only
factor that exerts a signi1047297cant in1047298uence on job satisfaction Supervisor
support is almost signi1047297cant but does not enter in the model
In both cases the results from these two complementary methodol-
ogies seem to support the above argument that employee identi1047297cation
with organizational strategy is a key factor that affects job satisfaction
5 Discussion
The present results contribute to research on job satisfaction by
outlining several combinations of antecedents that affect employee
job satisfaction Speci1047297cally a high level of teamwork and high levels
of organizational identi1047297cation and commitment foster a high level of
job satisfaction even in the presence of a low level of workndashfamily bal-
ance Thus when an employee has a good relationship with hisher col-
leagues and identi1047297es with the companys objectives and goals despite a
possible WF con1047298ict the employee can achieve high job satisfaction In
this way having a good relationship with ones coworkers and identify-
ingwith thedirection andaim of thecompany compensate forthe inter-
ference of WF con1047298ict For employees working in a company may
require effort to meet family obligations and achieve life satisfaction
nevertheless working in a friendly environment and identifying with
the companys goals can improve job satisfaction
In addition the empirical results indicate that higherlevels of auton-
omy in the decision-making process higher levels of organizational
identi1047297cation and commitment and higher levels of WF balance lead
to high levels of job satisfaction for employees Thus when employees
share the organizations strategy and mission have autonomy to struc-ture and manage their work and have the ability to balance their work
with family or leisure their job satisfaction will be high
The collective effect of identi1047297cation with organizational goals and
supervisor support is also notable When a companys strategy aligns
with managerial support job satisfaction increases Employees feel
comfortable in a company if they share the organizations mission
(Bart et al 2001) Furthermore employees need to be comfortable
with their supervisor These two factors can thus explain employee
job satisfaction
As predicted the 1047297ndings clearly support the view that job satisfac-
tion is a complex construct and that many types of relationships shape
job satisfaction According to these 1047297ndings to achieve employee satis-
faction and well-being organizationsshould develop practices or initia-
tives aimed at increasing perceptions of organizational commitmentWF balance autonomy supervisor support and collaboration through
teamwork
6 Conclusion
This study contributes to a large body of work on the antecedents of
job satisfaction The results corroborate previous research on employee
satisfaction examining important relationships such as the employeendash
organization employeendashcoworker and employeendashsupervisor relation-
ships However while previous studies focus on the one-to-one associ-
ations between these relationships and job satisfaction this study
contributes to different streams of research on job satisfaction by study-
ingthe effectof all of these relationships simultaneously In addition re-
search on HRM psychology and management can also bene1047297t from the
approach and methodology that this study adopts Although informa-
tion science and operations research applies QCA this methodology is
largely absent from the management literature The application of the
fuzzy set methodology in an area dominated by regressions and SEM
can offer multiple research opportunities to business and management
scholars This study thus contributes to widening the scope and applica-
tion of new quantitative techniques by comparing several methodolo-
gies and results
The results of this research also have practical implications for man-agers because they may provide them with a more holistic understand-
ing of the antecedents of job satisfaction How can 1047297rms satisfy their
employees This question is relevant for practice
This research has several limitations the most critical of which re-
lates to the data source The data in this study come from a single Span-
ish company which may diminish the generalizability of the results
Nevertheless the subject of interest is at the individual level and the
company has several sites and different departments which adds nec-
essary variability to the variables studied such as employees relation-
ships with their team members and supervisors
Future research could replicate this study in other companies and
countries or regions Additionallyfuture studies could include other or-
ganizational variables (eg leadership communication and internal
processes) to examine the possible mediating or moderating roles of
such variables in the associations with job satisfaction
References
Adams G A King L A amp King D W (1996) Relationships of job and family involve-ment family social support and workndashfamily con1047298ict with job and life satisfaction
Journal of Applied Psychology 81(4) 411ndash420Allen D GShore LM amp Griffeth RW (2003) The roleof perceived organizationalsup-
port and supportive human resource practices in the turnover process Journal of Management 29(1) 99ndash118
Bart C K Bontis N amp Taggar S (2001) A model of the impact of mission statements on1047297rm performance Management Decision 39(1) 19ndash35
Chang M amp Cheng C (2014) How balance theory explains high-tech professionals so-lutions of enhancing job satisfaction Journal of Business Research 67 (9) 2008ndash2018
Chen H amp Bates R A (2005) Instrument translation and development strategies forcrosscultural studies Proceedings of the 2005 Academy of Human Resource Develop-
ment International Conference (pp 693ndash
700) (USA)DixonM A amp Sagas M (2007) The relationship between organizational support workndash
family con1047298ict and the job-life satisfaction of university coaches Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 78(3) 236ndash247
Dolbier C L Webster J A McCalister K T Mallon M W amp Steinhardt M A (2005)Reliability and validity of a single-item measure of job satisfaction American Journalof Health Promotion 19(3) 194ndash198
Edgar F amp Geare A (2005) HRM practice and employee attitudes DifferentmeasuresmdashDifferent results Personnel Review 34(5) 534ndash549
Fila M J Paik L S Griffeth R W amp Allen D (2014) Disaggregating job satisfaction Ef-fects of perceived demands control and support Journal of Business and Psychology
29(4) 639ndash649Fiss P C (2007) A set-theoretic approach to organizational con1047297gurations Academy of
Management Review 32(4) 1180ndash1198Fiss P C (2011) Buildingbettercausaltheories A fuzzy set approachto typologiesin or-
ganization research Academy of Management Journal 54(2) 393ndash420Grif 1047297n M A Patterson M G amp West M A (2001) Job satisfaction and teamwork The
role of supervisor support Journal of Organizational Behavior 22(5) 537ndash550Hatch M amp Schultz M (1997) Relations between organizational culture identity and
image European Journal of Marketing 31(56) 356ndash365HaymanJ (2005) Psychometric assessment of an instrument designed to measure work
life balance Research and Practice in Human Resource Management 13(1) 85ndash91Ilgen D R Hollenbeck J RJohnsonM amp Jundt D (2005) Teams in organizations From
inputndashprocessndashoutput models to IMOI models Annual Review of Psychology 56 517ndash543
Kirkman B L amp Rosen B (1999) Beyond self-management Antecedents and con-sequences of team empowerment Academy of Management Journal 42(1)58ndash74
Kirkman BL amp ShapiroD L(2001) The impactof cultural values on jobsatisfaction andorganizational commitment inself-managing work teams The mediating role of em-ployee resistance Academy of Management Journal 44(3) 557ndash569
Kossek E amp Ozeki C (1998) Workndashfamily con1047298ict policies and the job-life satisfactionrelationship A review and directions for organizational behaviorndashhuman resourcesresearch Journal of Applied Psychology 83(2) 139ndash149
Locke E A (1976) The nature and causes of job satisfaction In M D Dunnette (Ed)Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology Chicago IL Rand McNally
Longest K C amp Vaisey S (2008) Fuzzy A program for performing qualitative compara-
tive analyses (QCA) in Stata Stata Journal 8 79ndash
104
Table 5
Suf 1047297ciency and necessity matrix
Set con1047297gurations Raw
coverage
Unique
coverage
Solution
consistency
tea mworkstrategy ~ workfamily 0301 0025 0933
autonomystrategyworkfamily 0425 0022 0930
supervisorstrategy 0538 0070 0929
Total coverage = 0591
Solution consistency = 0916
5I Alegre et al Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndash xxx
Please cite this article as Alegre I et al Antecedents of employee job satisfaction Do they matter Journal of Business Research (2015) httpdxdoiorg101016jjbusres201510113
8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullantecedents-of-employee-job-satisfaction-do-they-matter 66
Macintosh G amp Krush M (2014) Examining the link between salesperson networkingbehaviors job satisfaction and organizational commitment Does gender matter
Journal of Business Research 67 (12) 2628ndash2635Meyer A D Tsui A S amp Hinings C R (1993) Con1047297gurational approaches to organiza-
tional analysis Academy of Management Journal 36 (6) 1175ndash1195Ornstein S amp Isabella L A (1993)Making sense of careers A review 1989ndash1992 Journal
of Management 19(2) 243ndash267ParkerG amp WallT D (1998) Job and workdesign Organizing work to promote well-being
and effectiveness 4 London UK SagePatterson M G West M A Shackleton V J Dawson J F Lawthom R Maitlis S
Wallace A M (2005) Validating the organizational climate measure Links to
managerial practices productivity and innovation Journal of OrganizationalBehavior 26 (4) 379ndash408Qu H amp Zhao X (2012) Employees workndashfamily con1047298ict moderating life and job
satisfaction Journal of Business Research 65(1) 22ndash28Quine W V (1955) A way to simplify truth functions The American Mathematical
Monthly 62(9) 627ndash631Ragin C C (2008) Redesigningsocial inquiry Fuzzy sets and beyond Chicago IL University
of Chicago PressRogerson P (2001) Statistical methods for geography London UK Sage PublicationsRowold J Borgmann L amp Bormann K (2014) Which leadership constructs are impor-
tant for predicting job satisfaction affective commitment and perceived job
performance in pro1047297t versus nonpro1047297t organizations Nonpro 1047297t Management andLeadership 25(2) 147ndash164
Sageer A Rafat S amp Agarwal P (2012) Identi1047297cation of variables affecting employeesatisfaction and their impact on the organization IOSR Journal of Business andManagement 5 32ndash39
Spagnoli P Caetano A amp Santos S C (2012) Satisfaction with job aspects Do patternschange over time Journal of Business Research 65(5) 609ndash616
Spector P E (1986) Perceived control by employees A meta-analysis of studies concerningautonomy and participation at work Human Relations 39(11) 1005ndash1016
Spector P E (1997) Job satisfaction Application assessment causes and consequencesSolid Action on Globalization and Environment 3 (London UK)
Tang S Siu O amp Cheung F (2014) A study of workndash
family enrichment among Chineseemployees The mediating role between work support and job satisfaction AppliedPsychology 63(1) 130ndash150
Wanous J P Reichers A E amp Hudy M J (1997) Overall job satisfaction How good aresingle-item measures Journal of Applied Psychology 82(2) 247ndash252
Wu P Yeh S Huan Tamp Woodside A G (2014) Applying complexity theory to deepenservice dominant logic Con1047297gural analysis of customer experience-and-outcome as-sessments of professional services for personal transformations Journal of BusinessResearch 67 (8) 1647ndash1670
Yukl G (1989) Managerial leadership A review of theory and research Journal of Management 15(2) 251ndash289
6 I Alegre et al Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndash xxx
Please cite this article as Alegre I et al Antecedents of employee job satisfaction Do they matter Journal of Business Research (2015) httpdxdoiorg101016jjbusres201510113
8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullantecedents-of-employee-job-satisfaction-do-they-matter 46
Table 3
Coincidence matrix and suf 1047297ciency and necessity matrix
Jobsat Autonomy Teamwork Supervisor Strategy Workfamily
Coincidence matrix
Jobsat 1000
Autonomy 0869 1000
Teamwork 0888 0809 1000
Supervisor 0897 0832 0831 1000
Strategy 0874 0790 0805 0806 1000
Workfamily 0834 0768 0726 0750 0757 1000
Suf 1047297ciency and necessity matrix
Jobsat 1000 0626 0608 0645 0674 0595
Autonomy 0869 1000 0770 0831 0790 0760
Teamwork 0888 0809 1000 0831 0805 0726
Supervisor 0897 0832 0831 1000 0806 0743
Strategy 0874 0790 0805 0806 1000 0700
Workfamily 0834 0768 0726 0750 0757 1000
Table 4
Suf 1047297ciency and necessity matrix
y-consistency vs n-consistency
Set YCons NCons F P
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisor ~ strategyworkfamily 0915 0439 9645 0
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0944 0383 18524 0
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0950 0363 2182 0
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0908 0455 8585 0
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0931 0393 14672 0
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0926 0395 12964 0
~autonomyteamworksupervisor ~ strategy ~ workfamily 0922 0406 11797 0
~autonomyteamworksupervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0927 0394 13013 0
~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0952 0342 24309 0
~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0952 0328 26865 0
autonomy ~ teamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0926 0421 12462 0
autonomy ~ teamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily 0943 0367 19259 0
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisor ~ strategy ~ workfamily 0913 0427 9904 0
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0928 0372 14782 0autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0936 0368 16955 0
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0953 0301 30467 0
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0910 0403 10364 0
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0933 0377 15164 0
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily 0943 0339 22031 0
autonomyteamworksupervisor ~ strategy ~ workfamily 0913 0373 11731 0
autonomyteamworksupervisor ~ strategy workfamily 0922 0327 16536 0
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0953 0268 34343 0
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0946 0213 46472 0
y-consistency vs set value
Set YConsist Set value F P
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0944 09 1554 0
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0950 09 2077 0
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0931 09 542 0020
~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0952 09 2706 0~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0952 09 2569 0
autonomy ~ teamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily 0943 09 1178 0001
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0936 09 647 0011
autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0953 09 2064 0
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0933 09 466 0032
autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily 0943 09 1114 0001
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily 0953 09 2107 0
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily 0946 09 1558 0
Common sets
~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily ~autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily
~autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily ~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily ~autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy
workfamily
autonomy ~ teamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily autonomy ~ teamworksupervisorstrategy
workfamily autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy ~ workfamily autonomyteamwork ~ supervisorstrategy workfamily
autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy ~ workfamily autonomyteamworksupervisorstrategy workfamily
Note ldquo
~rdquo
indicates the negation of the condition
4 I Alegre et al Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndash xxx
Please cite this article as Alegre I et al Antecedents of employee job satisfaction Do they matter Journal of Business Research (2015) httpdxdoiorg101016jjbusres201510113
8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullantecedents-of-employee-job-satisfaction-do-they-matter 56
employees identi1047297cation with the organizational strategy is the only
factor that exerts a signi1047297cant in1047298uence on job satisfaction Supervisor
support is almost signi1047297cant but does not enter in the model
In both cases the results from these two complementary methodol-
ogies seem to support the above argument that employee identi1047297cation
with organizational strategy is a key factor that affects job satisfaction
5 Discussion
The present results contribute to research on job satisfaction by
outlining several combinations of antecedents that affect employee
job satisfaction Speci1047297cally a high level of teamwork and high levels
of organizational identi1047297cation and commitment foster a high level of
job satisfaction even in the presence of a low level of workndashfamily bal-
ance Thus when an employee has a good relationship with hisher col-
leagues and identi1047297es with the companys objectives and goals despite a
possible WF con1047298ict the employee can achieve high job satisfaction In
this way having a good relationship with ones coworkers and identify-
ingwith thedirection andaim of thecompany compensate forthe inter-
ference of WF con1047298ict For employees working in a company may
require effort to meet family obligations and achieve life satisfaction
nevertheless working in a friendly environment and identifying with
the companys goals can improve job satisfaction
In addition the empirical results indicate that higherlevels of auton-
omy in the decision-making process higher levels of organizational
identi1047297cation and commitment and higher levels of WF balance lead
to high levels of job satisfaction for employees Thus when employees
share the organizations strategy and mission have autonomy to struc-ture and manage their work and have the ability to balance their work
with family or leisure their job satisfaction will be high
The collective effect of identi1047297cation with organizational goals and
supervisor support is also notable When a companys strategy aligns
with managerial support job satisfaction increases Employees feel
comfortable in a company if they share the organizations mission
(Bart et al 2001) Furthermore employees need to be comfortable
with their supervisor These two factors can thus explain employee
job satisfaction
As predicted the 1047297ndings clearly support the view that job satisfac-
tion is a complex construct and that many types of relationships shape
job satisfaction According to these 1047297ndings to achieve employee satis-
faction and well-being organizationsshould develop practices or initia-
tives aimed at increasing perceptions of organizational commitmentWF balance autonomy supervisor support and collaboration through
teamwork
6 Conclusion
This study contributes to a large body of work on the antecedents of
job satisfaction The results corroborate previous research on employee
satisfaction examining important relationships such as the employeendash
organization employeendashcoworker and employeendashsupervisor relation-
ships However while previous studies focus on the one-to-one associ-
ations between these relationships and job satisfaction this study
contributes to different streams of research on job satisfaction by study-
ingthe effectof all of these relationships simultaneously In addition re-
search on HRM psychology and management can also bene1047297t from the
approach and methodology that this study adopts Although informa-
tion science and operations research applies QCA this methodology is
largely absent from the management literature The application of the
fuzzy set methodology in an area dominated by regressions and SEM
can offer multiple research opportunities to business and management
scholars This study thus contributes to widening the scope and applica-
tion of new quantitative techniques by comparing several methodolo-
gies and results
The results of this research also have practical implications for man-agers because they may provide them with a more holistic understand-
ing of the antecedents of job satisfaction How can 1047297rms satisfy their
employees This question is relevant for practice
This research has several limitations the most critical of which re-
lates to the data source The data in this study come from a single Span-
ish company which may diminish the generalizability of the results
Nevertheless the subject of interest is at the individual level and the
company has several sites and different departments which adds nec-
essary variability to the variables studied such as employees relation-
ships with their team members and supervisors
Future research could replicate this study in other companies and
countries or regions Additionallyfuture studies could include other or-
ganizational variables (eg leadership communication and internal
processes) to examine the possible mediating or moderating roles of
such variables in the associations with job satisfaction
References
Adams G A King L A amp King D W (1996) Relationships of job and family involve-ment family social support and workndashfamily con1047298ict with job and life satisfaction
Journal of Applied Psychology 81(4) 411ndash420Allen D GShore LM amp Griffeth RW (2003) The roleof perceived organizationalsup-
port and supportive human resource practices in the turnover process Journal of Management 29(1) 99ndash118
Bart C K Bontis N amp Taggar S (2001) A model of the impact of mission statements on1047297rm performance Management Decision 39(1) 19ndash35
Chang M amp Cheng C (2014) How balance theory explains high-tech professionals so-lutions of enhancing job satisfaction Journal of Business Research 67 (9) 2008ndash2018
Chen H amp Bates R A (2005) Instrument translation and development strategies forcrosscultural studies Proceedings of the 2005 Academy of Human Resource Develop-
ment International Conference (pp 693ndash
700) (USA)DixonM A amp Sagas M (2007) The relationship between organizational support workndash
family con1047298ict and the job-life satisfaction of university coaches Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 78(3) 236ndash247
Dolbier C L Webster J A McCalister K T Mallon M W amp Steinhardt M A (2005)Reliability and validity of a single-item measure of job satisfaction American Journalof Health Promotion 19(3) 194ndash198
Edgar F amp Geare A (2005) HRM practice and employee attitudes DifferentmeasuresmdashDifferent results Personnel Review 34(5) 534ndash549
Fila M J Paik L S Griffeth R W amp Allen D (2014) Disaggregating job satisfaction Ef-fects of perceived demands control and support Journal of Business and Psychology
29(4) 639ndash649Fiss P C (2007) A set-theoretic approach to organizational con1047297gurations Academy of
Management Review 32(4) 1180ndash1198Fiss P C (2011) Buildingbettercausaltheories A fuzzy set approachto typologiesin or-
ganization research Academy of Management Journal 54(2) 393ndash420Grif 1047297n M A Patterson M G amp West M A (2001) Job satisfaction and teamwork The
role of supervisor support Journal of Organizational Behavior 22(5) 537ndash550Hatch M amp Schultz M (1997) Relations between organizational culture identity and
image European Journal of Marketing 31(56) 356ndash365HaymanJ (2005) Psychometric assessment of an instrument designed to measure work
life balance Research and Practice in Human Resource Management 13(1) 85ndash91Ilgen D R Hollenbeck J RJohnsonM amp Jundt D (2005) Teams in organizations From
inputndashprocessndashoutput models to IMOI models Annual Review of Psychology 56 517ndash543
Kirkman B L amp Rosen B (1999) Beyond self-management Antecedents and con-sequences of team empowerment Academy of Management Journal 42(1)58ndash74
Kirkman BL amp ShapiroD L(2001) The impactof cultural values on jobsatisfaction andorganizational commitment inself-managing work teams The mediating role of em-ployee resistance Academy of Management Journal 44(3) 557ndash569
Kossek E amp Ozeki C (1998) Workndashfamily con1047298ict policies and the job-life satisfactionrelationship A review and directions for organizational behaviorndashhuman resourcesresearch Journal of Applied Psychology 83(2) 139ndash149
Locke E A (1976) The nature and causes of job satisfaction In M D Dunnette (Ed)Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology Chicago IL Rand McNally
Longest K C amp Vaisey S (2008) Fuzzy A program for performing qualitative compara-
tive analyses (QCA) in Stata Stata Journal 8 79ndash
104
Table 5
Suf 1047297ciency and necessity matrix
Set con1047297gurations Raw
coverage
Unique
coverage
Solution
consistency
tea mworkstrategy ~ workfamily 0301 0025 0933
autonomystrategyworkfamily 0425 0022 0930
supervisorstrategy 0538 0070 0929
Total coverage = 0591
Solution consistency = 0916
5I Alegre et al Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndash xxx
Please cite this article as Alegre I et al Antecedents of employee job satisfaction Do they matter Journal of Business Research (2015) httpdxdoiorg101016jjbusres201510113
8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullantecedents-of-employee-job-satisfaction-do-they-matter 66
Macintosh G amp Krush M (2014) Examining the link between salesperson networkingbehaviors job satisfaction and organizational commitment Does gender matter
Journal of Business Research 67 (12) 2628ndash2635Meyer A D Tsui A S amp Hinings C R (1993) Con1047297gurational approaches to organiza-
tional analysis Academy of Management Journal 36 (6) 1175ndash1195Ornstein S amp Isabella L A (1993)Making sense of careers A review 1989ndash1992 Journal
of Management 19(2) 243ndash267ParkerG amp WallT D (1998) Job and workdesign Organizing work to promote well-being
and effectiveness 4 London UK SagePatterson M G West M A Shackleton V J Dawson J F Lawthom R Maitlis S
Wallace A M (2005) Validating the organizational climate measure Links to
managerial practices productivity and innovation Journal of OrganizationalBehavior 26 (4) 379ndash408Qu H amp Zhao X (2012) Employees workndashfamily con1047298ict moderating life and job
satisfaction Journal of Business Research 65(1) 22ndash28Quine W V (1955) A way to simplify truth functions The American Mathematical
Monthly 62(9) 627ndash631Ragin C C (2008) Redesigningsocial inquiry Fuzzy sets and beyond Chicago IL University
of Chicago PressRogerson P (2001) Statistical methods for geography London UK Sage PublicationsRowold J Borgmann L amp Bormann K (2014) Which leadership constructs are impor-
tant for predicting job satisfaction affective commitment and perceived job
performance in pro1047297t versus nonpro1047297t organizations Nonpro 1047297t Management andLeadership 25(2) 147ndash164
Sageer A Rafat S amp Agarwal P (2012) Identi1047297cation of variables affecting employeesatisfaction and their impact on the organization IOSR Journal of Business andManagement 5 32ndash39
Spagnoli P Caetano A amp Santos S C (2012) Satisfaction with job aspects Do patternschange over time Journal of Business Research 65(5) 609ndash616
Spector P E (1986) Perceived control by employees A meta-analysis of studies concerningautonomy and participation at work Human Relations 39(11) 1005ndash1016
Spector P E (1997) Job satisfaction Application assessment causes and consequencesSolid Action on Globalization and Environment 3 (London UK)
Tang S Siu O amp Cheung F (2014) A study of workndash
family enrichment among Chineseemployees The mediating role between work support and job satisfaction AppliedPsychology 63(1) 130ndash150
Wanous J P Reichers A E amp Hudy M J (1997) Overall job satisfaction How good aresingle-item measures Journal of Applied Psychology 82(2) 247ndash252
Wu P Yeh S Huan Tamp Woodside A G (2014) Applying complexity theory to deepenservice dominant logic Con1047297gural analysis of customer experience-and-outcome as-sessments of professional services for personal transformations Journal of BusinessResearch 67 (8) 1647ndash1670
Yukl G (1989) Managerial leadership A review of theory and research Journal of Management 15(2) 251ndash289
6 I Alegre et al Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndash xxx
Please cite this article as Alegre I et al Antecedents of employee job satisfaction Do they matter Journal of Business Research (2015) httpdxdoiorg101016jjbusres201510113
8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullantecedents-of-employee-job-satisfaction-do-they-matter 56
employees identi1047297cation with the organizational strategy is the only
factor that exerts a signi1047297cant in1047298uence on job satisfaction Supervisor
support is almost signi1047297cant but does not enter in the model
In both cases the results from these two complementary methodol-
ogies seem to support the above argument that employee identi1047297cation
with organizational strategy is a key factor that affects job satisfaction
5 Discussion
The present results contribute to research on job satisfaction by
outlining several combinations of antecedents that affect employee
job satisfaction Speci1047297cally a high level of teamwork and high levels
of organizational identi1047297cation and commitment foster a high level of
job satisfaction even in the presence of a low level of workndashfamily bal-
ance Thus when an employee has a good relationship with hisher col-
leagues and identi1047297es with the companys objectives and goals despite a
possible WF con1047298ict the employee can achieve high job satisfaction In
this way having a good relationship with ones coworkers and identify-
ingwith thedirection andaim of thecompany compensate forthe inter-
ference of WF con1047298ict For employees working in a company may
require effort to meet family obligations and achieve life satisfaction
nevertheless working in a friendly environment and identifying with
the companys goals can improve job satisfaction
In addition the empirical results indicate that higherlevels of auton-
omy in the decision-making process higher levels of organizational
identi1047297cation and commitment and higher levels of WF balance lead
to high levels of job satisfaction for employees Thus when employees
share the organizations strategy and mission have autonomy to struc-ture and manage their work and have the ability to balance their work
with family or leisure their job satisfaction will be high
The collective effect of identi1047297cation with organizational goals and
supervisor support is also notable When a companys strategy aligns
with managerial support job satisfaction increases Employees feel
comfortable in a company if they share the organizations mission
(Bart et al 2001) Furthermore employees need to be comfortable
with their supervisor These two factors can thus explain employee
job satisfaction
As predicted the 1047297ndings clearly support the view that job satisfac-
tion is a complex construct and that many types of relationships shape
job satisfaction According to these 1047297ndings to achieve employee satis-
faction and well-being organizationsshould develop practices or initia-
tives aimed at increasing perceptions of organizational commitmentWF balance autonomy supervisor support and collaboration through
teamwork
6 Conclusion
This study contributes to a large body of work on the antecedents of
job satisfaction The results corroborate previous research on employee
satisfaction examining important relationships such as the employeendash
organization employeendashcoworker and employeendashsupervisor relation-
ships However while previous studies focus on the one-to-one associ-
ations between these relationships and job satisfaction this study
contributes to different streams of research on job satisfaction by study-
ingthe effectof all of these relationships simultaneously In addition re-
search on HRM psychology and management can also bene1047297t from the
approach and methodology that this study adopts Although informa-
tion science and operations research applies QCA this methodology is
largely absent from the management literature The application of the
fuzzy set methodology in an area dominated by regressions and SEM
can offer multiple research opportunities to business and management
scholars This study thus contributes to widening the scope and applica-
tion of new quantitative techniques by comparing several methodolo-
gies and results
The results of this research also have practical implications for man-agers because they may provide them with a more holistic understand-
ing of the antecedents of job satisfaction How can 1047297rms satisfy their
employees This question is relevant for practice
This research has several limitations the most critical of which re-
lates to the data source The data in this study come from a single Span-
ish company which may diminish the generalizability of the results
Nevertheless the subject of interest is at the individual level and the
company has several sites and different departments which adds nec-
essary variability to the variables studied such as employees relation-
ships with their team members and supervisors
Future research could replicate this study in other companies and
countries or regions Additionallyfuture studies could include other or-
ganizational variables (eg leadership communication and internal
processes) to examine the possible mediating or moderating roles of
such variables in the associations with job satisfaction
References
Adams G A King L A amp King D W (1996) Relationships of job and family involve-ment family social support and workndashfamily con1047298ict with job and life satisfaction
Journal of Applied Psychology 81(4) 411ndash420Allen D GShore LM amp Griffeth RW (2003) The roleof perceived organizationalsup-
port and supportive human resource practices in the turnover process Journal of Management 29(1) 99ndash118
Bart C K Bontis N amp Taggar S (2001) A model of the impact of mission statements on1047297rm performance Management Decision 39(1) 19ndash35
Chang M amp Cheng C (2014) How balance theory explains high-tech professionals so-lutions of enhancing job satisfaction Journal of Business Research 67 (9) 2008ndash2018
Chen H amp Bates R A (2005) Instrument translation and development strategies forcrosscultural studies Proceedings of the 2005 Academy of Human Resource Develop-
ment International Conference (pp 693ndash
700) (USA)DixonM A amp Sagas M (2007) The relationship between organizational support workndash
family con1047298ict and the job-life satisfaction of university coaches Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 78(3) 236ndash247
Dolbier C L Webster J A McCalister K T Mallon M W amp Steinhardt M A (2005)Reliability and validity of a single-item measure of job satisfaction American Journalof Health Promotion 19(3) 194ndash198
Edgar F amp Geare A (2005) HRM practice and employee attitudes DifferentmeasuresmdashDifferent results Personnel Review 34(5) 534ndash549
Fila M J Paik L S Griffeth R W amp Allen D (2014) Disaggregating job satisfaction Ef-fects of perceived demands control and support Journal of Business and Psychology
29(4) 639ndash649Fiss P C (2007) A set-theoretic approach to organizational con1047297gurations Academy of
Management Review 32(4) 1180ndash1198Fiss P C (2011) Buildingbettercausaltheories A fuzzy set approachto typologiesin or-
ganization research Academy of Management Journal 54(2) 393ndash420Grif 1047297n M A Patterson M G amp West M A (2001) Job satisfaction and teamwork The
role of supervisor support Journal of Organizational Behavior 22(5) 537ndash550Hatch M amp Schultz M (1997) Relations between organizational culture identity and
image European Journal of Marketing 31(56) 356ndash365HaymanJ (2005) Psychometric assessment of an instrument designed to measure work
life balance Research and Practice in Human Resource Management 13(1) 85ndash91Ilgen D R Hollenbeck J RJohnsonM amp Jundt D (2005) Teams in organizations From
inputndashprocessndashoutput models to IMOI models Annual Review of Psychology 56 517ndash543
Kirkman B L amp Rosen B (1999) Beyond self-management Antecedents and con-sequences of team empowerment Academy of Management Journal 42(1)58ndash74
Kirkman BL amp ShapiroD L(2001) The impactof cultural values on jobsatisfaction andorganizational commitment inself-managing work teams The mediating role of em-ployee resistance Academy of Management Journal 44(3) 557ndash569
Kossek E amp Ozeki C (1998) Workndashfamily con1047298ict policies and the job-life satisfactionrelationship A review and directions for organizational behaviorndashhuman resourcesresearch Journal of Applied Psychology 83(2) 139ndash149
Locke E A (1976) The nature and causes of job satisfaction In M D Dunnette (Ed)Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology Chicago IL Rand McNally
Longest K C amp Vaisey S (2008) Fuzzy A program for performing qualitative compara-
tive analyses (QCA) in Stata Stata Journal 8 79ndash
104
Table 5
Suf 1047297ciency and necessity matrix
Set con1047297gurations Raw
coverage
Unique
coverage
Solution
consistency
tea mworkstrategy ~ workfamily 0301 0025 0933
autonomystrategyworkfamily 0425 0022 0930
supervisorstrategy 0538 0070 0929
Total coverage = 0591
Solution consistency = 0916
5I Alegre et al Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndash xxx
Please cite this article as Alegre I et al Antecedents of employee job satisfaction Do they matter Journal of Business Research (2015) httpdxdoiorg101016jjbusres201510113
8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullantecedents-of-employee-job-satisfaction-do-they-matter 66
Macintosh G amp Krush M (2014) Examining the link between salesperson networkingbehaviors job satisfaction and organizational commitment Does gender matter
Journal of Business Research 67 (12) 2628ndash2635Meyer A D Tsui A S amp Hinings C R (1993) Con1047297gurational approaches to organiza-
tional analysis Academy of Management Journal 36 (6) 1175ndash1195Ornstein S amp Isabella L A (1993)Making sense of careers A review 1989ndash1992 Journal
of Management 19(2) 243ndash267ParkerG amp WallT D (1998) Job and workdesign Organizing work to promote well-being
and effectiveness 4 London UK SagePatterson M G West M A Shackleton V J Dawson J F Lawthom R Maitlis S
Wallace A M (2005) Validating the organizational climate measure Links to
managerial practices productivity and innovation Journal of OrganizationalBehavior 26 (4) 379ndash408Qu H amp Zhao X (2012) Employees workndashfamily con1047298ict moderating life and job
satisfaction Journal of Business Research 65(1) 22ndash28Quine W V (1955) A way to simplify truth functions The American Mathematical
Monthly 62(9) 627ndash631Ragin C C (2008) Redesigningsocial inquiry Fuzzy sets and beyond Chicago IL University
of Chicago PressRogerson P (2001) Statistical methods for geography London UK Sage PublicationsRowold J Borgmann L amp Bormann K (2014) Which leadership constructs are impor-
tant for predicting job satisfaction affective commitment and perceived job
performance in pro1047297t versus nonpro1047297t organizations Nonpro 1047297t Management andLeadership 25(2) 147ndash164
Sageer A Rafat S amp Agarwal P (2012) Identi1047297cation of variables affecting employeesatisfaction and their impact on the organization IOSR Journal of Business andManagement 5 32ndash39
Spagnoli P Caetano A amp Santos S C (2012) Satisfaction with job aspects Do patternschange over time Journal of Business Research 65(5) 609ndash616
Spector P E (1986) Perceived control by employees A meta-analysis of studies concerningautonomy and participation at work Human Relations 39(11) 1005ndash1016
Spector P E (1997) Job satisfaction Application assessment causes and consequencesSolid Action on Globalization and Environment 3 (London UK)
Tang S Siu O amp Cheung F (2014) A study of workndash
family enrichment among Chineseemployees The mediating role between work support and job satisfaction AppliedPsychology 63(1) 130ndash150
Wanous J P Reichers A E amp Hudy M J (1997) Overall job satisfaction How good aresingle-item measures Journal of Applied Psychology 82(2) 247ndash252
Wu P Yeh S Huan Tamp Woodside A G (2014) Applying complexity theory to deepenservice dominant logic Con1047297gural analysis of customer experience-and-outcome as-sessments of professional services for personal transformations Journal of BusinessResearch 67 (8) 1647ndash1670
Yukl G (1989) Managerial leadership A review of theory and research Journal of Management 15(2) 251ndash289
6 I Alegre et al Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndash xxx
Please cite this article as Alegre I et al Antecedents of employee job satisfaction Do they matter Journal of Business Research (2015) httpdxdoiorg101016jjbusres201510113
8182019 Antecedents of Employee Job Satisfaction Do They Matter
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullantecedents-of-employee-job-satisfaction-do-they-matter 66
Macintosh G amp Krush M (2014) Examining the link between salesperson networkingbehaviors job satisfaction and organizational commitment Does gender matter
Journal of Business Research 67 (12) 2628ndash2635Meyer A D Tsui A S amp Hinings C R (1993) Con1047297gurational approaches to organiza-
tional analysis Academy of Management Journal 36 (6) 1175ndash1195Ornstein S amp Isabella L A (1993)Making sense of careers A review 1989ndash1992 Journal
of Management 19(2) 243ndash267ParkerG amp WallT D (1998) Job and workdesign Organizing work to promote well-being
and effectiveness 4 London UK SagePatterson M G West M A Shackleton V J Dawson J F Lawthom R Maitlis S
Wallace A M (2005) Validating the organizational climate measure Links to
managerial practices productivity and innovation Journal of OrganizationalBehavior 26 (4) 379ndash408Qu H amp Zhao X (2012) Employees workndashfamily con1047298ict moderating life and job
satisfaction Journal of Business Research 65(1) 22ndash28Quine W V (1955) A way to simplify truth functions The American Mathematical
Monthly 62(9) 627ndash631Ragin C C (2008) Redesigningsocial inquiry Fuzzy sets and beyond Chicago IL University
of Chicago PressRogerson P (2001) Statistical methods for geography London UK Sage PublicationsRowold J Borgmann L amp Bormann K (2014) Which leadership constructs are impor-
tant for predicting job satisfaction affective commitment and perceived job
performance in pro1047297t versus nonpro1047297t organizations Nonpro 1047297t Management andLeadership 25(2) 147ndash164
Sageer A Rafat S amp Agarwal P (2012) Identi1047297cation of variables affecting employeesatisfaction and their impact on the organization IOSR Journal of Business andManagement 5 32ndash39
Spagnoli P Caetano A amp Santos S C (2012) Satisfaction with job aspects Do patternschange over time Journal of Business Research 65(5) 609ndash616
Spector P E (1986) Perceived control by employees A meta-analysis of studies concerningautonomy and participation at work Human Relations 39(11) 1005ndash1016
Spector P E (1997) Job satisfaction Application assessment causes and consequencesSolid Action on Globalization and Environment 3 (London UK)
Tang S Siu O amp Cheung F (2014) A study of workndash
family enrichment among Chineseemployees The mediating role between work support and job satisfaction AppliedPsychology 63(1) 130ndash150
Wanous J P Reichers A E amp Hudy M J (1997) Overall job satisfaction How good aresingle-item measures Journal of Applied Psychology 82(2) 247ndash252
Wu P Yeh S Huan Tamp Woodside A G (2014) Applying complexity theory to deepenservice dominant logic Con1047297gural analysis of customer experience-and-outcome as-sessments of professional services for personal transformations Journal of BusinessResearch 67 (8) 1647ndash1670
Yukl G (1989) Managerial leadership A review of theory and research Journal of Management 15(2) 251ndash289
6 I Alegre et al Journal of Business Research xxx (2015) xxxndash xxx
Please cite this article as Alegre I et al Antecedents of employee job satisfaction Do they matter Journal of Business Research (2015) httpdxdoiorg101016jjbusres201510113