Job satisfaction, job performance, and situational characteristics.

Abstract

THERE HAS BEEN much recent research and discussion of worker responses to job en1argement.l Countering claims of universal applicability, the general conclusion of three widely cited studies is that rural workers respond favorably to job enlargement, while the opposite is true for urban workers.2 Rural workers, it is felt, express satisfaction with jobs which allow individual responsibility and discretion because the communities in which they live value such traditional work virtues as autonomy and independence. By contrast, urban workers, it is argued, respond less favorably to enlarged jobs because urban communities are not sufficiently integrated to support and enforce traditional work values; instead, nonwork related values and activities compete for the worker's allegiance. This latter response is considered most likely in anomic communities characterized by high population density, slums, low standards of living, and chronic ~nemployment.~ While the iduence of individual and cultural variables on worker responses to job enlargement is not denied, the findings of the present study suggest that the evidence for differential responses between rural and urban workers is inconclusive. Previous studies which have found urban-rural differences in responses to various job attributes have either used atypical worker populations or have drawn implications for job enlargement which are unwarranted by the data. Utilizing data which avoid a number of the problems associated with past studies, this research examines the responses of workers * Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior, Pennsylvania State University. 1This research was supported by funds from a National Science Foundation grant to the Pennsylvania State University. The author wishes to express his appreciation to E. Lauck Parke and John E. Sheridan for their contributions to the job ratings and data analysis. 1 7 Blamer, op. cit, and M . Meissner, Technology and the Worker (San Francisco: Chandler,

Motivation, Satisfaction, and Morale in Army Careers: A Review of Theory and Measurement

“…With job conditions held constant, individuals living in prosperous communities tended to be less satisfied with their jobs than those living in poor communities. Katzell, Barrett & Parker (1961) in a study of warehouse workers employed In a number of different locations reported similar findings.…”

Job Design

“…The stimulus to develop this area was a number of studies which had shown the importance of location on job satisfaction attitudes. For example, Katzell, Barrett and Parker studied job satisfaction and performance amongst warehousemen in an American pharmaceutical company [20]. The company has 72 warehouses of differing sizes throughout the United States with broadly similar technological systems.…”

Organizational Structure, Policy Learning, and Economic Performance: Evidence from the Chinese Commune

“…Social psychologists who have studied the relationship between group size and group performance have generally found an insignificant or negative relationship between larger subunit size and economic performance (Fleishman 1980;Katzell, Barrett, and Parker 1961;Marriott 1949;Steiner 1966). After analyzing a sample of 234 regional metropolitan branches of a large financial services organization in the United States, Carillo and Kopelman found that "by keeping units to a small size, productivity may be enhanced" (Carillo and Kopelman 1991:55).…”