Explaining global job satisfaction by facets of job satisfaction: the Japanese civil servants study

Management of job satisfaction is of growing importance in terms of the maintenance of employees' health. This study aimed to evaluate which and to what extent facets of job satisfaction contributed to global job satisfaction.

The participants were 4286 employees aged 18-69 years working in local government in Japan. A questionnaire survey was conducted in 1998-1999. Seven facets of job satisfaction were evaluated. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate which facets of job satisfaction contributed to global job satisfaction.

For all employees, all of the facets of job satisfaction significantly contributed to global job satisfaction. Among the facets of job satisfaction, 'being satisfied with interests and skills involved in work' and 'how abilities were used' contributed more strongly to global satisfaction than 'being satisfied with how the section is running', 'co-workers', 'work prospects', 'physical working conditions' and 'payment'. The differing associations of facets of job satisfaction with global job satisfaction did not change substantially in stratified analysis by occupation, with one exception that only three facets of job satisfaction contributed to global job satisfaction in administrative workers.

Job satisfaction related to the intrinsic aspects of the job (i.e., 'interests and skills involved in work' and 'how abilities were used') contributed more to global job satisfaction than the other aspects of job satisfaction. Longitudinal research in employees with various occupations may be needed to confirm the results of this study.