Racial differences in job satisfaction: Testing four common explanations

Evaluated structural, cultural, social, and social psychological explanations for race differences in employee satisfaction. Racial composition of the employees' work group, organization level, the importance the employee places on interpersonal relations, on intrinsic rewards, and on extrinsic rewards, and the employee's social integration and perceived relative deprivation were included in regressions of employee satisfaction on race. Measures of the dependent and mediating variables were derived from the Michigan Organization Assessment Package, and data were collected through questionnaires completed by 466 Black, White, and Mexican American employees in an assembly and packaging plant. Race variables accounted for 21% of the variance in satisfaction beyond that accounted for by all other factors. These other factors, however, accounted for only 4% of the variance in satisfaction beyond that accounted for by race. While both the Black and Mexican American groups were underrepresented among management, relatively socially isolated, and not favored in terms of job assignment, Blacks were relatively dissatisfied and Mexican Americans were relatively satisfied. (21 ref)