Job Satisfaction and Job Performance at the Work Place

Abstract

The topic of the thesis is job satisfaction and job performance at the work place. The aim is to define the determinants for job satisfaction and to investigate the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance and the influence of job satisfaction on job performance. First we look into the Theory of Reasoned Action and the Theory of Planned Behaviour to account for the relationship between attitudes and behaviour. Job satisfaction is then explained as a function of job features, other people and personal dispositions. Secondary research data is collected to find and to clarify the correspondence between job satisfaction and job performance. For this we make use of the results of correlation and causality studies regarding the two variables. After data-analysis the following conclusion is drawn: generally there is only a modest to weak correlation between job satisfaction and job performance and the causal direction is inconclusive. Primary research is based on an in-house survey of an international company with the implementation of the theoretical part of this thesis. We review the job satisfaction levels at this company and we discuss the variation in the satisfaction scores between three different offices of this company, located in Finland, Sweden and Denmark. We like to emphasize that the results of the in-house survey and the interpretation of these results are limited to this particular company due to the company-specific nature of the survey itself.