The Relationship Between Job Characteristics and Job Satisfaction for Engineers and Engineering Students

A modified version of Hackman Lawler's job characteristics model was used to investigate the relationships between pre-employment perceptions of job characteristics and expectations tor job satisfaction in a sample of 111 engineering students. In lieu of a longitudinal designs a sample of 86 professional engineers were accessed as a comparison group. The independent variables included in the study were: (a) the six job characteristics in the Job Characteristics Inventory (variety autonomy task identity, feedback dealing with others and friendship opportunities) (b) three measures of job satisfaction from the short-form of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (general, intrinsic and extrinsic) and (c) growth need strength as measured by the two subscales from the Job Diagnostic Survey. Perceptions of ideal job characteristics were also assessed to determine the presence of a congruency effect between expected or obtained and ideal characteristics. A moderating effect of growth need strength was not demonstrated for either sample, although significantly positive relationships were found between the perceptions of job characteristics and obtained or expected levels of job satisfaction for both samples. With regards to determining the accuracy of students' perceptions, the results Indicated significantly deflated perceptions for all of the job characteristics except deflated expectations for intrinsic satisfaction and Inflated expectations for extrinsic satisfaction. Although marginally significant, the results of the congruency hypothesis for the engineer sample were encouraging. The possibility of a congruency effect operating in the relationship between students' pre-employment perceptions and expectations for job satisfaction was not supported. The implications of the results for future research and the area of occupational choice research were discussed.