Do We Really Hate Our Jobs? Determinants Of Job Satisfaction In Romania

Job satisfaction is said to be an important factor of work productivity along with having the proper training, interests and motivation. Frustrations at work may derive from different aspects of the job itself, the work environment as well as personal motivation for work and its results. Human resources management theories focus on job satisfaction and motivations as means for achieving the institution's objectives, and consequently see motivations and satisfaction at an individual level. Our paper investigated these issues at macro level, going beyond the individual variables of job satisfaction to the ones that explain the attitudes towards work at national level. This approach is derived from cultural theories analyzing attitudes towards work as a cultural value that varies across nations. In this manner we analyze data at national level, investigating the factors that influence work satisfaction and attitudes towards work of Romanians. Our aim is to explain the identified differences regarding the individual's attitude towards their professional life. Considering the fact that work occupies a lot of time in people's life and it is considered the second most important aspect of life after family, we questioned the aspects that explain the levels of job satisfaction both in the light of theoretical constructs and as results on the Romanian population. These indexes have a direct impact on the quality of life, reflect the level of development, as well as point to further social aspirations of individual actors. The current analysis reflects on different aspects of the appreciation of work and investigates variations of work satisfaction: Which is the value attributed to work? How important is work and how satisfied are individuals with their jobs? Which are the characteristics that determine variations of job satisfaction? After a theoretical synthesis of different approaches of work related attitudes in the literature, the second section presents the data and the main research findings. For data analysis we used the data obtained in the European Values Survey 2008, research conducted by the Romanian group for the study of social values, supported by the Quality of Life Research Institute. Other data used in this paper derived from a research program developed at University of Oradea - Social Sciences Faculty - HURO 0801/180 ENRI. The research section of this paper follows the theoretical questions: first we focus on the value attributed to work by Romanians and its contribution to self definition, then reflect on the significations of work, and finally explain the levels of work satisfaction. The main findings of our analysis suggest that even though work is seen as very important by Romanians, the main explanatory factor of job satisfaction at a general level is connected to economical status provided by a certain job. In the concluding section we stated several research directions that would provide better insight in this topic.