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Employability and Personal Initiative as Antecedents of Job Satisfaction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2013

Juan Pablo Gamboa ,
Francisco Gracia ,
Pilar Ripoll  and
José María Peiró
Juan Pablo Gamboa*
Affiliation:
Universitat de Valéncia (Spain)
Francisco Gracia
Affiliation:
Universitat de Valéncia (Spain)
Pilar Ripoll
Affiliation:
Universitat de Valéncia (Spain)
José María Peiró
Affiliation:
Universitat de Valéncia (Spain)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Juan Pablo Gamboa Navarro. Departamento de Psicología Social, Facultad de Psicología, Universitat de Valéncia, Av. Blasco Ibáñez, 21, 46010, Valencia (Spain). Phone: +34-963390991. Fax: +34-963620471. E-mail: juan.gamboa@uv.es
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Abstract

In a changing and flexible labour market it is important to clarify the role of environmental and personal variables that contribute to obtaining adequate levels of job satisfaction. The aim of the present study is to analyze the direct effects of employability and personal initiative on intrinsic, extrinsic and social job satisfaction, clarifying their cumulative and interactive effects. The study has been carried out in a sample of 1319 young Spanish workers. Hypotheses were tested by means of the moderated hierarchical regression analysis. Results show that employability and personal initiative predict in a cumulative way the intrinsic, extrinsic and social job satisfaction. Moreover, the interaction between employability and personal initiative increases the prediction of these two variables on intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction. Results also indicate that higher values of employability when initiative is also high are associated to higher levels of intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction. These results have implications for theory and practice in a context of new employment relations.

En un mercado laboral cambiante y flexible, es importante clarificar el papel de variables ambientales y personales que permitan obtener niveles adecuados de satisfacción laboral. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar el efecto directo de la empleabilidad y la iniciativa personal sobre la satisfacción laboral intrínseca, extrínseca y social, clarificando si esos efectos son acumulativos e interactivos. El estudio se realizó con una muestra de 1319 trabajadores españoles jóvenes. Las hipótesis se probaron por medio del análisis de regresión jerárquica modulado. Los resultados muestran que la empleabilidad y la iniciativa personal contribuyen de forma acumulativa a predecir la satisfacción extrínseca, intrínseca y social y su interacción incrementa la predicción de la satisfacción extrínseca e intrínseca. Los resultados también indican que niveles altos de empleabilidad, cuando la iniciativa personal es alta, se asocian con niveles mayores de satisfacción extrínseca e intrínseca. Estos resultados tienen implicaciones teóricas y prácticas para las relaciones laborales actuales.

Keywords

employabilitypersonal initiative and job satisfactionempleabilidadiniciativa personalsatisfacción laboral
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , November 2009 , pp. 632 - 640
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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