Affective-cognitive consistency of attitude as a moderator of the job satisfaction-performance relationship

Abstract

Past research has often shown that job satisfaction and job performance are uncorrelated. The current study was an attempt to clarify the relationship by examining the role of affective-cognitive consistency (ACC) to test whether attitudinal consistency affects the strength of the relationship. A secondary objective was to assess whether modified versions of the Overall Job Satisfaction Scale (OJS) and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), administered to 166 full-time employees from a variety of companies, may be regarded as affective and cognitive measures of job satisfaction respectively. This view was supported by means of exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic results. Overall job satisfaction was measured by a composite of the modified OJS and MSQ, and job performance was rated on a 10-point scale by the employees’ supervisors. Respondents’ scores on the modified OJS and MSQ were then used to form groups that were high or low in ACC. For employees who displayed high ACC regarding their job satisfaction attitudes, medium to large positive correlations between the job satisfaction measures and performance were obtained. In contrast, non-significant correlations were recorded for the low ACC groups. The hypothesis that ACC is a significant moderator of the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance was therefore supported.

Opsomming
Vorige navorsing het dikwels getoon dat werktevredenheid en werkprestasie nie korreleer nie. Dié ondersoek was ’n poging om lig te werp op hierdie verwantskap deur die rol van affektiewe-kognitiewe konsekwentheid (AKK) te ondersoek ten einde te toets of houdingkonsekwentheid die sterkte van die verwantskap beïnvloed. ’n Sekondêre doelwit was om te bepaal of gewysigde weergawes van die Overall Job Satisfaction Scale (OJS) en die Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), toegepas op 166 voltydse werknemers van ’n verskeidenheid ondernemings, as affektiewe en kognitiewe metings van werktevredenheid respektiewelik, beskou kan word. Hierdie beskouing is ondersteun deur ondersoekende en bevestigende faktoranalitiese resultate. Algemene werktevredenheid is gemeet deur ’n kombinasie van die gewysigde OJS en MSQ en werkprestasie is beoordeel op ’n 10-punt skaal deur die werknemers se toesighouers. Respondente se tellings op die gewysigde OJS en MSQ is hierna gebruik om groepe te vorm wat hoog of laag in terme van AKK was. Vir werknemers met hoë AKK betreffende hul werktevredenheidhoudings is medium tot hoë positiewe korrelasies tussen die werktevredenheidmetings en prestasie behaal. In kontras hiermee is onbetekenisvolle korrelasies vir die lae AKK-groepe aangeteken. Die hipotese dat AKK ’n beduidende moderator van die verwantskap tussen werktevredenheid en werkprestasie is, is dus ondersteun.