Master’s Thesis Abstract

Here, there is an abstract of my first year master’s research about job satisfaction and seniority.

In the current socio-economical system, a human spends more than half of his life at work. In this context, work has become a large subject to study. Moreover, we cannot deny that well-being at work and job satisfaction are relevant.

Originally, job satisfaction question was provided by economical managers in the sixties and thereafter, this notion has been picked up by scientists in the seventies (Louche,2015). Job satisfaction refers to an emotional state which results from the perceived relation between what we want to obtain from work and what work really brings us. Hence, a satisfaction state corresponds to the adequacy between our expectations about work and what work brings us effectively. On the other hand, seniority can be define in the following manner : Time spent by a person in a company/organization (or job generally).

Some studies highlighted a link between job satisfaction and seniority, nonetheless, contradictory results emerged from this literature : some researches bring out a positive correlation between job satisfaction and seniority (Razafindrakoto and al, 2012), others studies found a negative correlation (Davoine, 2006) and finally, some experiments tended to show a link between these two notions with a “U” form.

Starting from these observations, my research project sought to highlight a correlation between job satisfaction and seniority first, and then identify the way of this correlation (positive, negative or “U” form).

For this purpose, I chose to use a survey made up of two parts : the first part contained sociodemographic questions (gender, age, socio-professional status, seniority and type of employment contract), the second part was the Minessota Satisfaction Questionnaire in short version (Weiss and al, 1967) translated in French (Roussel, 1996). The latter part measured job satisfaction. Finally, this survey was share on the internet and in paper version.

A total of 96 individuals participated in this study ( 67.7 women and 32.3% men), with an average age of 34,7 and an average seniority of 105,6 months. The results showed a negative correlation between job satisfaction and seniority (r= -0.229, p= 0.0399). Job satisfaction tend to decrease with seniority. We can explain this result through the two motivation factors theory (Herzberg) : motivation at work is the cumulative result of the absence of dissatisfaction with the factors of hygiene and satisfaction with motivation factors (Zedini, 2016). Moreover, according to Faurie, the more people identify with the group of older workers (who are often judged negatively) the more they experience personal deprivation when they compare themselves to younger workers. These unfavorable comparisons can lead to the emergence of negative feelings that in the long run lead to a lower satisfaction (Faurie,2008).

Nevertheless, this result have to be relativise : this is a very low correlation and it suggests that others factors also affect job satisfaction, for instance : sense of achievement, autonomy degree, possibilities of career evolution and professional fulfilment.

Obviously, this study have some bias/ limits and, as a consequence, cannot be generalisable. For example, the population sample was not representative of the general population. Furthermore, the survey was auto-administated so i cannot control the process.

To conclude, the current context advocating openness to the personal development field and well-being at work, the study of job satisfaction have a relevant place in research.