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Traditional versus Secular Values and the Job–Life Satisfaction Relationship Across Europe
Author(s) -
Georgellis Yannis,
Lange Thomas
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
british journal of management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.407
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1467-8551
pISSN - 1045-3172
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2011.00753.x
Subject(s) - life satisfaction , job satisfaction , social psychology , psychology , salient , compensation (psychology) , spillover effect , interpersonal communication , contrast (vision) , interpersonal relationship , domain (mathematical analysis) , demographic economics , economics , political science , mathematics , microeconomics , computer science , artificial intelligence , law , mathematical analysis
Using data from the E uropean V alues S urvey ( EVS ), we examine the relationship between job and life satisfaction across E urope. We find that for the majority of employees job and life satisfaction are positively correlated, thus supporting the spillover hypothesis, whereby attitudes and practices developed in the life domain spill over into the work domain and vice versa. In contrast, we find little support for the compensation hypothesis, whereby employees who are dissatisfied in one domain seek compensatory rewards in the other domain. However, multivariate analysis reveals that the strength of the interaction between job and life satisfaction is mitigated by cultural values and interpersonal trust, as encapsulated in the ‘traditional versus secular values’ index reported in the EVS data. We thus find that predictors of the job–life satisfaction relationship vary across cultures and that such cross‐cultural variations are systematically related to salient cultural values and beliefs. The latter findings raise important questions about the universal application of existing theories in the subjective well‐being arena.