Satisfaction with work as a construct in empirical studies

Abstract

The article concentrates on certain vital issues in continuing the discussion on the appropriateness of studying satisfaction with work in empirical studies. The following is considered while searching for the answers to the set of questions: the functional role of “satisfaction with work” in empirical studies; the constructs used in practice to measure it; the experience of their application in national empirical studies; the logic of transition from individual to group measurements of satisfaction with work; one of the reasons to choose a measurement model. Three classes of models of measuring satisfaction with work are singled out. Special attention is paid to logical indexes and scales of overall estimates, the construction of which is based on the plausibility of the hypothesis on the existence of a one-dimension continuum to measure general satisfaction with work. The necessity to return to a well-known measurement model proposed by national sociologists in the form of a logical index is substantiated. Said index is formed based on three empirical indicators. An important place is occupied by the construct of “satisfaction with work” in the context of stating and resolving the problem of searching for social types among salaried employees as objects of functional management. The example of industrial enterprise workers, when the typology is based on the nature of workers' identification with the enterprise, was used to find out that satisfaction with work is one of three basic type-forming characteristics. At the same time, “satisfaction with work” differentiates the highlighted typological groups of workers to a larger degree than “corporate solidarity” and “subjective efficiency of labor activity”.