Employees’ Job Satisfaction: A Test of the Job Characteristics Model Among Social Work Practitioners

ABSTRACT

The present article describes an investigation of the Job Characteristics Model (JCM) by Hackman and Oldham (1976) for the prediction of job satisfaction of employees in social work areas. While there is considerable evidence for the JCM with respect to profit-oriented organizations, it was tested whether it can also be applied to the non-profit sector. The present study surveyed 734 holders of jobs in social work in Germany in order to assess their job satisfaction and the core variables of the JCM (i.e., the five job characteristics and the three psychological states). Regression and mediation analyses were used to examine the relations between these variables. The results showed that the expected relations were remarkably in accordance with the findings from the for-profit sector. All model variables correlated positively with job satisfaction, with the psychological states showing higher coefficients than the job characteristics. In addition, the influence of job characteristics on job satisfaction was significantly mediated through the psychological states. These findings were supported by a replication study. Implications of the JCM for practice, in particular for assessment and interventions in social work organizations, are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Social work employees
• job satisfaction
• nonprofits
• job characteristics model
• job design

Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to Anne-Kathrin Müller for their contribution and help throughout the research project, and to Jana Dehmel, Christina Ganß, Lisa Helmreich, Denise Klein, Dzenita Kolasinac, Eva Maria Lorenz, and Dominik Schramm for their assistance during data collection. In addition, special thanks go to Eileen Gambrill and Colleen O’Connor for their comments on an earlier draft of the article.