Participation's Influence on Job Satisfaction: The Importance of Job Characteristics

A structural equationmodel was proposed to analyze the impact of employee participation and job characteristics on job satisfaction. The current study found that participative decision making has a significant positive effect on performance feedback, task significance, and career development support. Performance feedback was positively related to job specificity and career development support. Task significance and career development support were, in turn, positively related to job satisfaction. These findings suggest that participation has an important, albeit indirect, effect on employee job satisfaction through its influence on job characteristics. The implications of these findings for public management are discussed.1