What satisfies a public servant? Is it the money? Or is it something else, like an interesting and autonomous job, or serving the public interest? Utilizing non-panel longitudinal data from the International Social Survey Program on Work Orientations across different countries for 1997 and 2005, this article examines the effects of a selection of antecedents that are commonly related to job satisfaction. The respondents from different countries were found to share similarities in terms of what satisfies them in their jobs. The emphasis placed on these factors was however found to vary for some countries.
Entrepreneurship has been the engine propelling much of the growth of the business sector as well as a driving force behind the rapid expansion of the social sector. Additionally, the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 to Mohammad Yunus for founding the Grameen Bank thrust social entrepreneurship into the global spotlight. The Grameen Bank is the world's largest micro-finance organization; it is a profitable business that has helped thousands of people, mostly women, out of poverty. Social entrepreneurship, the simultaneous pursuit of economic, social, and environmental goals by enterprising ventures, has gradually found a place on the world's stage as a human response to social and environmental problems (Haugh, 2007). This paper aims to review and study the recent developments in social entrepreneurship as an important phenomenon in today's entrepreneurship era
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to determine if job satisfaction increases with age, and if this is consistent across countries; and second, if individuals belonging to the same age cohort, who experience similar life conditions and events and have been posited to share common attitudes and behaviors, differ in terms of job satisfaction, and if this difference is comparable across countries.
Design/methodology/approach
The study provides a comparative analysis of the impact of age and generational differences on job satisfaction globally, based on non-panel longitudinal data from the most recent wave of the International Social Survey Program (Work Orientations IV, 2015).
Findings
Age has a positive statistically significant impact on job satisfaction (e.g. the older you get, the more satisfied you are with your job). However, the same analysis with each specific age cohort indicates that age is only statistically significant with the baby boomers. Statistically significant cross-generational differences exist in the levels of job satisfaction across generations and cross-generational differences in the determinants of job satisfaction. Most differences are seen between the silent generation and the other three age cohorts.
Originality/value
Previous comparative studies have found that job satisfaction across generations, even within the same or similar countries, shows little variation. Research measuring the relationship between age and job satisfaction indicates three key contradictory findings – satisfaction increases with age, decreases with age, or no relationship exists. The current large-scale, global study updates and extends previous research by exploring similarities and differences in job satisfaction and work quality characteristics by age cohort, with a global sample.
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