Personality Traits, Employee Satisfaction and Affective Commitment

In this paper we focus on personality traits as predictors of employee satisfaction, and on effects of employee satisfaction on affective commitment towards an organization. The results of the empirical study within a company in the utility sector (N = 199) show that Neuroticism is negatively related to employee satisfaction, Conscientiousness has no impact and Agreeableness positively influences satisfaction. Employee satisfaction has a strong impact on affective commitment. While considerable attention has been given to environmental, especially managerial influences on employee satisfaction, our findings illuminate important connections between enduring characteristics of individuals and individuals' satisfaction in the workplace. The results are of importance to theory and practice, as it has been shown that more than 20% of the variance of employee satisfaction is caused by personal differences, i.e. personality traits.