Examining the influence of a positive mood-inducing event on the affective, cognitive, and evaluative components of the job satisfaction attitude

Includes bibliographical references (pages [87]-93).A field experiment consisting of 267 employees from a wide variety of occupations was conducted to investigate whether a positive mood-inducing event would influence all three known job satisfaction attitudinal components (i.e., evaluative judgments, affective experiences, and cognitions about the job) equally. Results indicated that a positive mood induction (i.e., cookies, candy, and soft drinks given to the employees before a job satisfaction survey questionnaire administration) had a marginal effect upon only one of the job satisfaction attitude components: job cognitions. The other attitudinal components (evaluative judgments and affective satisfaction) appeared to be unaffected. Results also indicated that the effect of a positive mood induction was not influenced by the length of time a person had been on the job or with the company, and other results showed that job satisfaction attitudes held by employees with shorter tenures were just as robust in the face of a positive mood induction as the job satisfaction attitudes held by employees with longer tenures. Attitudinal affect and attitudinal cognition were shown to be significant and independent predictors of the overall evaluation. Last, the positive mood induction did not influence attitude structure, conceptualized as the degree of consistency between the affective and cognitive components of an employee’s job satisfaction attitude. The implications of these results for mood, personality, and job satisfaction research (in addition to personnel selection) are summarized, in addition to a discussion of the study’s limitations and potential future research directions.Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy