Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Monograph

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Psychology

Supervisor

Goffin, Richard D.

Abstract

As one of the most well-researched constructs in I/O psychology, the job attitudes literature is saturated with assessments of job satisfaction. However, none of these measures have explicitly examined the nature of job satisfaction among workplace leaders, a subset of employees who have the potential to influence organizations in substantive and meaningful ways. As such, the purpose of this dissertation was to examine the measurement of job satisfaction among leaders. A series of interviews and open-ended survey questionnaires were administered to a diverse group of leaders, employed across a variety of organizations and industries, to identify what facets contributed most to their satisfaction at work. Unique facets that were identified as important to leaders’ satisfaction included Mentorship, Team Development, Strategic Planning, and Transparency. Based on leaders’ responses a novel measure of satisfaction, the Leader Satisfaction Assessment (LSA), was created to assess those facets of satisfaction that were important to leaders. Two versions of the LSA were developed (an Extended and a Brief version) to maximize the utility of the measure for both researchers and practitioners. Preliminary validation evidence supporting the LSA-Extended was reviewed by examining the relations between leaders’ satisfaction and various work attitudes and behaviours, including core self-evaluations, general mental ability, emotional intelligence, organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs), counterproductive workplace behaviours (CWBs), organizational commitment, and turnover intentions.

Summary for Lay Audience

Job satisfaction is one of the most frequently examined topics in the field of Industrial and Organizational (I/O) psychology. Numerous measures exist to assess employee job satisfaction, yet none of these measures have examined the nature of job satisfaction among a subset of employees – leaders. Workplace leaders have the potential to influence their organization in substantive and meaningful ways and the lack of research into the satisfaction of these leaders is surprising. As such, the purpose of this dissertation was to examine the measurement of job satisfaction among leaders. A series of interviews and open-ended survey questionnaires were administered to a diverse group of leaders, employed across a variety of organizations and industries, to identify what facets contributed most to their satisfaction at work. Unique facets that were identified as important to leaders’ satisfaction included Mentorship, Team Development, Strategic Planning, and Transparency. Based on leaders’ responses a novel measure of satisfaction, the Leader Satisfaction Assessment (LSA), was created to assess those facets of satisfaction that were important to leaders. Two versions of the LSA were developed (an Extended and a Brief version) to maximize the utility of the measure for both researchers and practitioners. Preliminary evidence supporting the use of LSA-Extended was reviewed by examining the relations between leaders’ satisfaction and various work attitudes and behaviours. These included relations with self-esteem and self-efficacy, intelligence, emotional intelligence, commitment to one’s organization, one’s intention to leave their position, and engagement in both positive and negative workplace behaviours.

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