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Job Satisfaction, Work Environment, and Rewards:

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Job Satisfaction, Work Environment, and Rewards:
Job Satisfaction, Work Environment, and Rewards:
Motivational Theory Revisited labr_496 1..23

Lea Sell — Bryan Cleal
Abstract. A model of job satisfaction integrating economic and work environment variables was developed and used for testing interactions between rewards and work environment hazards. Data came from a representative panel of Danish employees. Results showed that psychosocial work environment factors, like information about decisions concerning the work place, social support, and influence, have significant impacts on the level of job satisfaction. Maximizing rewards did not compensate public employees to an extent that ameliorated the negative effects on job satisfaction of experiencing low levels of any of these factors whereas influence did not impact job satisfaction of private employees.

1. Introduction
Although job satisfaction is not considered an economic variable in itself, several studies in a labour economic context have highlighted that low job satisfaction is a determinant of resignations from the work place; see Akerlof et al. (1988), Blank and Diderichsen (1995),
Clark et al. (1998), and Kristensen and Westergaard-Nielsen (2004). Other studies have shown an impact from job satisfaction on phenomena that are more difficult to observe directly, such as intention to leave the work place (Böckerman and Ilmakunnas, 2005), motivation and absenteeism (Keller, 1983; Tharenou, 1993), and counterproductive behaviour (Gottfredson and Holland, 1990). Work environment has been found to influence labour market outcomes in terms of early retirement (see Lund and Villadsen, 2005), employee long-term absence from work due to illness (see Benavides et al., 2001; Hemmingway et al., 1997; Lund et al., 2005), short-term sickness absence (see Munch-Hansen et al., 2009), and productivity (see Cooper et al., 1996).
Within traditional economic theory, work environment factors have tended to be modelled as job attributes, seen as



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