Job satisfaction and the fit between individual needs and organizational rewards

Many conceptualizations of job satisfaction view job satisfaction as a function of the match between the rewards offered by the work environment and the individual's pattern of needs for those rewards. However, the correlation between the need/reward match and job satisfaction typically is not very high, resulting in a considerable number of ‘ off‐quadrant ’ cases (i.e. dissatisfied people whose expressed needs are met by the work situation and vice versa). The purpose of this study was to determine if people who have higher or lower job satisfaction than their need/reward match would predict view their careers differently from those whose job satisfaction can be predicted. Subjects were 185 volunteers employed by research and development units of two multinational corporations. They were classified into quadrants using measures of job satisfaction, need importance, and reward availability developed as part of the Minnesota Work Adjustment Project. Information about vocational and career issues was collected by a half‐hour open‐ended interview. Results indicate that individual differences in aspiration level and different views of career progression help explain current job satisfaction over and above the match of needs and rewards.