When is the grass greener on the other side? A longitudinal study of the joint effect of occupational mobility and personality on the honeymoon‐hangover experience during job change

Abstract

Previous research shows that job satisfaction often increases sharply upon initial entry into the new job and gradually falls back to the baseline level over time. In this study, we propose that this 'honeymoon-hangover' pattern is affected by both the direction of occupational mobility and the individual's personality in terms of extraversion and neuroticism. Drawing on the British Household Panel Survey that followed 10,000 individuals annually for 18 years, this study shows that only those who move up the occupational class ladder experience significant 'honeymoon' effects, while those who move downwards experience dissatisfaction that lasts for several years after the transition. While the positive effect of upward mobility is not amplified by extraversion, the negative effect of downward mobility is exacerbated by neuroticism. This study highlights the importance of taking into account both situational and dispositional factors for understanding the long-term impact of career change on subjective well-being.

Overqualification as Moderator for the Link Between Job Change and Job Satisfaction Among Immigrants and Natives in Germany

“…However, when analysing the reasons for job changes they found significant honeymoon as well as hangover effects only among those that changed their job voluntarily. Relying on data from the British Household Panel Survey, Zhou et al (2020) also find a honeymoon-hangover pattern in Great Britain, but show that it is related to the nature of job change: only those that change upward in terms of occupation characteristics were found to have a significant honeymoon period, while those who descend professionally experience dissatisfaction that lasts for a longer time.…”

“…Judge et al, 2017;Judge et al, 2020). In addition, studies have examined the extent to which job satisfaction changes over time after turnovers (Bentein et al, 2005;Chadi & Hetschko, 2015Kammeyer-Mueller et al, 2005;Zhou et al, 2020). Boswell et al (2005) focused on the connection of job changes with job satisfaction and found a curvilinear relationship which was called the "honeymoonhangover"-pattern: After the change, job satisfaction typically peaks at first -the honeymoon period -before it gradually falls back to the baseline level -the hangover period.…”

“…the voluntary of the decision ) (Chadi & Hetschko, 2018;Mäkikangas et al, 2016). Zhou et al (2020) showed that there can be also an interaction between two sets of factors in their analysis of personality traits and the nature of job change (upward-downward mobility). There are mixed results on the general applicability of the pattern as earlier studies used rather selective samples.…”

“…One possible way for individuals to react to low levels of job satisfaction is job change. However, turnover does not always lead to higher levels of individual job satisfaction in the long run: Instead, previous studies have shown that in general, job changes mainly increase job satisfaction for a shorter time, before it gradually falls back to similar levels as before (Boswell et al, 2005;Boswell et al, 2009;Chadi & Hetschko, 2018;Luhmann et al, 2012;Zhou et al, 2020). Consequently, this phenomenon was deemed honeymoon-hangover-pattern (Boswell et al, 2005).…”

“…Several factors were found to affect the pattern's characteristics such as prior job satisfaction, personality traits, employment status, upward-downward mobility, voluntary of the change as well as perceived fulfillment of organizational commitments (e.g. Boswell et al, 2009;Chadi and Hetschko, 2018;van der Zwan et al, 2018;Zhou et al, 2020).…”