A Comparative Study of Work Centrality, Job Rewards and Satisfaction

Abstract

This study develops and measures a concept of Work-Role Centrality, mainly from a cognitive perspective, and examines by means of questionnaire data its distribution in a representative sample of 778 males participating in the labor force in Israel. It also investigates the relationship between specific job rewards and work-role centrality for the five major occupational categories in this sample. Its results show that work-role centrality is a fairly reliable and valid measure: groups of different ethnic origin, educational level, employment status, and occupation differ in their work centrality, in the directions hypothesized a priori. It also demonstrates that for each occupational category, work centrality is related to intrinsic, material, social, and hygienic rewards, regardless of the importance assigned to these rewards. For all groups the strongest relationship is with intrinsic rewards. The findings concerning the relationship with intrinsic rewards corroborate previous studies, while the other relationships were not previously found.