The Job-Satisfaction/ Life-Satisfaction Relationship: A Review of Empirical Research

Abstract

After a brief discussion of the nature and importance of work, this article reviews empirical research that relates satisfaction with work to satisfaction with life. The review covers more than 350 job-satisfaction/life-satisfaction relationships reported in 23 studies that vary widely in terms of the sample, instrumentation, and date of survey. For more than 90% of the cases, the direction of this relationship is positive; and none of the scattered negative relationships is statistically reliable. The magnitude of the reported zero-order relationship between job satisfaction and overall life satisfaction is typically modest, with correlations mostly in the mid-.30's for males and mid-.20's for females. The typical job-satisfaction/life-satisfaction correlation drops to the low teens when specific facets of life satisfaction, such as marital or leisure satisfaction, are used instead of overall life satisfaction. Discussion of these findings focuses on conceptual and methodological concerns at the more general level of the relationship between work and nonwork.