Dynamic Job Satisfaction Shifts: Implications for Manager Behavior and Crossover to Employees

In this dissertation, I investigated job satisfaction from a dynamic perspective. Specifically, I integrated the momentum model of job satisfaction with the affective shift model and crossover theory in an effort to move beyond traditional, static conceptions of job satisfaction and other constructs. Recent research and theoretical development has focused on the meaning of job satisfaction change for workers and how such change impacts their decisions to leave an organization. To extend this line of inquiry, I posited hypotheses pertaining to: (a) job satisfaction change with respect to positive work behavior (i.e., organizational citizenship behavior, family-supportive supervisor behavior); (b) the potential moderating effect of changes in negative work events (i.e., job demands, interpersonal conflict) on the relation between job satisfaction change and turnover intentions change and positive work behavior; and (c) the crossover of job satisfaction change from managers to employees and the potential underlying behavioral mechanisms. An archival dataset collected by the Work, Family & Health Network was used to investigate the aforementioned phenomena. Data were collected at two time points with a six-month interval via face-to-face computer-assisted personal interviews from individuals working at 30 facilities from a U.S. extended-healthcare organization. In total, data from 184 managers and 1,524 of their employees were used to test hypotheses. Data were analyzed using multilevel structural equation modeling. In an extension of the momentum model, I found that managers’ job satisfaction change positively related to DYNAMIC JOB SATISFACTION SHIFTS ii changes in employee reports of their FSSB; in addition, I replicated prior findings in which job satisfaction change negatively related to turnover intentions change. Furthermore, based on my integration of the momentum model and the affective shift model, I tested the proposition that changes in negative work events (i.e., job demands, interpersonal conflict) would moderate the relationship between changes in job satisfaction and focal outcomes. For certain operationalizations of negative work events, hypothesis testing revealed significant interactions with respect to changes in all three outcomes: turnover intentions, OCB, and FSSB. The form of the interactions, however, deviated from my predictions for models including changes in turnover intentions and OCB, although my predictions were supported for models including changes in FSSB. In my integration of the momentum model and crossover theory, the associated hypotheses were met with very limited support. Specifically, the relationship between managers’ job satisfaction change and employees’ job satisfaction change approached significance, but the relationship between managers’ level of job satisfaction and their employees’ subsequent level of job satisfaction did not receive support. Similarly, the proposed mediational mechanisms (i.e., managers’ OCB and FSSB) of these crossover relations went unsupported. In sum, while my contributions to the momentum model and the affective shift model were notable, my proposed integration of the momentum model and crossover theory was met with limited support. Overall, findings from this dissertation yield important implications for both theory and practice, as they may draw more attention to changes in job satisfaction, as well as the potentially beneficial role of changes in perceived negative work events. DYNAMIC JOB SATISFACTION SHIFTS iii