The impact of working conditions and personality traits on the job satisfaction of media professionals

This article uses the happy-productive worker thesis as starting point to assess the chances that a media system is performing well. Personality traits, work conditions and job satisfaction levels of individuals from different media occupations in Switzerland (N=259) were collected using standardized instruments from personnel psychology. Media workers more distanced from actual media production are more satisfied with their jobs than the working population, while those closer to production are less satisfied. A regression analysis identifies autonomy as most important driver of job satisfaction, suggesting that non-financial aspects of media performance could be enhanced by granting creative media workers more freedom