Unhappy People Can Never Find Job Satisfaction

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The research analyzed the findings of 223 studies conducted between 1967 and 2008, which investigated some combination of job satisfaction and life satisfaction. The studies which assessed these factors at two time points can better reveal the casual links between them, says the Psychology experts.

The researchers analyzed the sub-dimensions of job satisfaction including satisfaction with the work itself, supervision, co-workers, pay and promotion. They also analyzed the relationship between the subjects' self-reported happiness or subjective well-being and overall job satisfaction.

The team could find a positive relationship between job satisfaction and life satisfaction, indicating that the two are linked. The review also provided telling results about the causal link between the two forms of happiness.

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

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

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