This article responds to criticisms that affective job satisfaction research suffers serious measurement problems: Noncomparable measures; studies conceptualizing job satisfaction affectively but measuring it cognitively; and ad hoc measures lacking systematic development and validation, especially across populations by nationality, job level, and job type. We address these problems through a series of qualitative (total N = 28) and quantitative (total N = 901) studies to systematically develop and validate a short affective job satisfaction measure ultimately deriving from Brayfield and Rothe’s (1951) job satisfaction index. Unlike any previous job satisfaction measure, the resulting four-item Brief Index of Affective Job Satisfaction is overtly affective, minimally cognitive, and optimally brief. The new measure also differs from any previous job satisfaction measure in being comprehensively validated not just for internal consistency reliability, temporal stability, convergent and criterion-related validities, but also for cross-population invariance by nationality, job level, and job type.

Cooperation is generally purported to be vital to construction project success. However, there has been, as yet, no empirical work done to quantify explicitly the extent to which cooperation, in relation to other factors, determines construction project success. This study attempts to fill this research gap. This paper details a grounded empirical approach to identify important construction success factors using data from 29 interviews, 398 quantitative response and six follow-up interviews from construction firms in Hong Kong. Results show how using the grounded approach enables the tapping of unique determinants of project success previously not identified in the literature and point to a potentially fruitful approach for future research in construction management.

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Subcontractors and suppliers are playing an increasingly important role in project construction ± it is not uncommon for as much as 90 per cent of a project to be undertaken by subcontractors. The result of this increased involvement is that main contractors are now concentrating their efforts on managing subcontractors rather than employing direct labour. Outlines an approach to partnering developed by a European conglomerate which is being employed throughout the UK. Commences with an overview of recent studies into the UK construction industry concentrating on partnering, quality and lean production. The second part discusses the context of these points from a quality, general and construction project management perspective. A form of benchmarking is described and the actual partnering approach is detailed. Finally, the paper identifies the main points relating to quality as perceived by the project participants, as well as some of the overall advantages of adopting this approach to partnering.

Understanding the determinants of PhD student satisfaction is likely to become increasingly vital for universities as student satisfaction rankings already ubiquitous at undergraduate and master degree levels extend more broadly to the PhD level. Moreover, as PhD student populations and university competition become increasingly transnational, there is a growing need to understand cross-nationally common determinants of satisfaction. Building on prior research into PhD student satisfaction, and drawing upon relevant conceptual and metrical refinements in the measurement of satisfaction from cognate domains of psychology, we use cross-sectional data (N=409) from PhD candidates across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities in 63 universities from 20 countries to examine how overall PhD student satisfaction is determined by, respectively and in combination, supervisor, department, and peer-group, in terms of both their academic qualities and supportiveness. Taken together, we find that supervisor supportiveness is the greatest predictor of PhD student satisfaction, but that supervisor academic qualities have no significant effect. However, both the academic qualities and supportiveness of departments significantly predict PhD student satisfaction, suggesting university departments and PhD supervisors would ideally work jointly, and perhaps more closely than many currently do, to achieve competitive levels of PhD student satisfaction.