Relationships between anxiety and job satisfaction – Three approaches: ‘Bottom-up’, ‘top-down’ and ‘transactional’

The study examined the relations between anxiety and job satisfaction from the perspectives of three distinct approaches to well-being, i.e. ‘bottom-up’, ‘top-down’, and ‘transactional’ (boosted with elements of greatest significance of the former two approaches). Overall Job Satisfaction (OJS), diversification in satisfaction according to job facets (Work Description Inventory), situational (four items from the Job Affect Scale) and persistent job-related anxiety (Mood at Workplace Questionnaire), Neuroticism and Extraversion (NEO–FFI) were investigated among 240 employees (120 males). Analyses done from the perspective of ‘bottom-up’ theories showed that two forms of job-related anxiety were negatively correlated with the level of satisfaction but were not associated with diversification in satisfaction. Data analyzed from the perspective of the ‘top-down’ model demonstrated that Neuroticism affected job-related anxiety and job satisfaction; moreover, persistent anxiety mediated the relation between Neuroticism and OJS. Data analysis within the transactional model indicated that OJS depended on interaction between persistent anxiety, Neuroticism and Extraversion. The study reveals the possible methodological problems and measurement artifacts of the ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ approaches. In addition, it provides evidence supporting the adaptive role of anxiety and individual properties as its moderators.