A model of task demands, social structure, and leader–member exchange and their relationship to job satisfaction

Abstract

In the present study, we examine task demands, leader–member exchange, and social structure in their relationship to job satisfaction. Based on the reflections of Seers and Graen in their dual attachment model, in the present study we combined task demands, leader–member exchange, and social structure in a model of antecedents of job satisfaction. The resulting model was tested using structural equation modelling. While task demands and leader–member exchange are related to their respective equivalents in job satisfaction, social structure is positively related to a latent factor job satisfaction, indicating that the social structure of a job has an impact on different facets of job satisfaction. The results are discussed with respect to sample characteristics.

Keywords:

• Social structure
• job satisfaction
• task demands
• leadership
• leader–member exchange

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank Hartmut Blank for his helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.

Notes

1 Although the term we use here is ‘job autonomy’, the assessment actually refers to the ‘worker's opportunity to determine a variety of task elements…’ Thus, job autonomy in this case equals task autonomy.

2 Although some of the Cronbach's alpha values are not impressively high, they are all acceptable if we take into account the number of items in each scale. If it is assumed that the m items in a homogeneous scale should have correlations of at least 0.25 with each other, one may prove that Cronbach's alpha should be at least m/(m+3). Although this result is derived under the assumption that all items are mutually exchangeable, the criterion that Cronbach's alpha should be larger than m/(m+3) seems to work very well in practice. In the present study all scales satisfied the criterion. One should realize of course that this rule only states a minimum requirement on Cronbach's alpha and that in general one should strive at values that are much larger than this lower bound.