I-O Psychology Doctoral Program

What is job satisfaction?
Job satisfaction is generally viewed as positive feelings or emotions that a person might have with regard to their job.  Some people feel very satisfied with their work, whereas others may feel very dissatisfied.  Both workplace factors and within-person factors seem to play a role in determining how satisfied someone feels with their job.  Several decades of research have demonstrated a relatively consistent link between job satisfaction and important organizational outcomes such as employee performance levels and turnover.

What is the JDI?
The JDI is perhaps the most widely-used measure of job satisfaction.  The measure was first published in 1969 by Smith, Kendall, and Hulin, in their classic book The Measurement of Satisfaction in Work and Retirement.  The JDI is a “facet” measure of job satisfaction, meaning that employees are asked to think about specific facets of their job and rate their satisfaction with those specific facets. The JDI is comprised of five facets, including satisfaction with: coworkers, the work itself, pay, opportunities for promotion, and supervision.

What does the JDI research group do?
The JDI research group is one of the longest-running research groups in industrial-organizational psychology.  The goal of the JDI research group is to conduct research about job attitudes, namely job satisfaction.  The group conducts research on job stress, feelings of trust toward management, and organizational turnover, especially with regard to how these things relate to job satisfaction.  The group has been responsible for continually updating the JDI over the past 30 years.  
In addition to active research, the group has a strong teaching component emphasizing the understanding of job attitudes and issues related to the measurement of these attitudes.  This group is an excellent structured and supportive environment for a new student to become involved in interesting and important research.

Recent Research Publications and Presentations
Brodke, M.R.H., Gillespie, M.A., Withrow, S., Sliter, M.T., Gopalkrishnan, P., Gillespie, J.Z., & Balzer, W.K. (2009). Industry membership and outcomes related to trust in management.  Poster presented to the annual meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Atlanta, GA.

Brodke, M. H., Balzer, W. K., Gillespie, J. Z., Gillespie, M. A., Gopalkrishnan, P., Sliter, M. T. & Withrow, S.  (October, 2009). The Role of Managerial Status and Gender in Ratings of Four Dimensions of Trust in Management. Poster presented at the Midwest Academy of Management conference, Chicago, IL.

Lake, C.J., Gopalkrishnan, P., Sliter, M.T., & Withrow, S. The Job Descriptive Index: Newly updated and available for download. The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist.

Sliter, M.T., Withrow, S., Brodke, M.R.H., Balzer, W.K., Gillespie, J.Z., Gillespie, M.A., Gopalkrishnan, P., & Yankelevich, M. (2009). Psychometric and normative focused reduction strategies for the 2009 aJDI. Poster presented to the annual meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Atlanta, GA.

Withrow, S., Balzer, W.K., Sliter, M.T., Gopalkrishnan, P., Gillespie, M.A., Gillespie, J.Z., & Brodke, M.R.H. (2009). A practical approach to identifying and creating subgroup survey norms. Poster presented to the annual meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Atlanta, GA.