Factors Contributing to Korean Employees’ Job Satisfaction: A Multilevel Study

Abstract

In this study, we examined the contributing factors to the job satisfaction of employees in Korean organizations. We utilized hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), in conjunction with data collected from the Seventh Human Capital Corporate Panel survey conducted by the Korean Ministry of Employment and Labor, to investigate antecedents of job satisfaction at the individual and organizational levels and across these levels. At the individual level, variables were divided into demographic and psychological factors. At the organizational level, variables were divided into administration factors and factors related to human resources. Results suggest that 86% of job satisfaction can be attributed to individual-level variables and 14% is due to organization-level variables. The individual-level psychological factors explain around 46% of the variance in job satisfaction, whereas demographic factors explain only 4% at the individual level. Organizational-level factors account for almost 35% of the variance related to job satisfaction between companies.