The purpose of the research by Judge and Bono was to conduct a review of the literature which studies the correlation between self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, internal locus of control, and low neuroticism (emotional stability), on the one hand, and job performance and job satisfaction, on the other, and gather information in order to provide a quantitative evaluation of this correlation.
The study found that each of the four traits had a positive, nonzero relationship to both job performance and job satisfaction (Judge and Bono 81, 82). It is also interesting that the traits have a greater influence on job satisfaction than on job performance (Judge and Bono 83).
The authors state that the estimated true score correlations of self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, internal locus of control, and low neuroticism to job performance were 0.26, 0.23, 0.22, and 0.19, respectively, whereas the correlations of these traits to job satisfaction equaled 0.26, 0.45, 0.32, and 0.24, respectively.
One of the most interesting findings is that the self-esteem affects both job satisfaction and job performance virtually to an equal degree, whereas the other three traits affect job satisfaction more. It would appear that e.g. low neuroticism should have more influence on job performance that high self-esteem, for emotional stability seems to be more important to do one’s work properly, but we can see that it is slightly less influential in case of job satisfaction, and has even less effect on job performance.
Works Cited
Judge, Timothy A., and Joyce E. Bono. “Relationship of Core Self-Evaluations Traits – Self-Esteem, Generalized Self-Efficacy, Locus of Control, and Emotional Stability – With Job Satisfaction and Job Performance: A Meta-Analysis.” Journal of Applied Psychology 86.1 (2001): 80-92. Print.