Job characteristics, employee voice and well-being in Britain

Job characteristics are often omitted when analysing job satisfaction, but these are crucial to work psychology models, such as the Karasek model. There has also been a neglect of non-union voice. This study uses data from the 2004 Workplace Employee Relations Survey to investigate the associations between job characteristics and employee voice and well-being. Improvements in the survey from that of 1998 mean that we can examine two dimensions of well-being: job satisfaction and the less studied anxiety-contentment. Support is found for the basic Karasek model that both measures of well-being are negatively related to job demands and positively related to job control; moreover, high job controls reduce the negative association between job demands and both measures. Supportive management is also related to both measures but does not play the buffering role between demands and well-being that job control does. Union membership is found to be unrelated to job satisfaction and anxiety-contentment, but a perception of consultative management is.