The relationship between the institutional environment and job satisfaction: a multilevel approach

Date

2025-06-24

Director

Publisher

Springer
Acceso abierto / Sarbide irekia
Artículo / Artikulua
Versión publicada / Argitaratu den bertsioa

Project identifier

  • AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020/PID2020-115018RB-C31/ES/ recolecta
Impacto
OpenAlexGoogle Scholar
cited by count

Abstract

An extensive body of literature has explored the key determinants of employee job satisfaction placing particular emphasis on individual differences and job characteristics. However, variations in job satisfaction levels persist across countries, highlighting the importance of contextual and institutional factors across different national contexts. This study investigates the role of formal and informal institutions in shaping job satisfaction. Based on a sample of 10.822 employees from 26 European countries, the study employs a multilevel methodology to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings demonstrate that national institutions significantly contribute to cross-country differences in job satisfaction. In particular, the positive impact of labour freedom on job satisfaction is more pronounced in countries characterised by low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, and high individualism. Conversely, in countries with high power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, and low individualism, the relationship between labour freedom and job satisfaction is weaker. These results emphasise the critical role of cultural and institutional contexts.

Description

Keywords

Formal institutions, Informal institutions, Job satisfaction, National culture, Labour freedom

Department

Gestión de Empresas / Enpresen Kudeaketa / Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE

Faculty/School

Degree

Doctorate program

item.page.cita

Gastearena-Balda, M. L., Ollo-López, A., Larraza-Kintana, M., Rodrigues, R. (2025) The relationship between the institutional environment and job satisfaction: a multilevel approach. Current Psychology, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-025-08092-4

item.page.rights

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.

Licencia

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