Antonovsky's Sense of Coherence Scale and Job Attitudes: Three Studies

Abstract

Sense of coherence (SOC; Antonovsky, 1987) is a key concept in a theoretical model of salutogenesis and fortigenesis, which attempts to explain the origins of psychological strength. Since working provides important endpoints of well-being, SOC's relationships to job satisfaction, job involvement, organizational commitment and conscientiousness were investigated. Study 1, on 92 insurance consultants (all males, M age 39 y.), revealed significant relations of SOC with job satisfaction (3 global items, also total) and commitment (Mowday, Steers & Porter, 1979) but not job involvement (Kanungo, 1982). Study 2, on 141 working adults (72 females; M age = 34 y.), showed significant relations with job satisfaction (Andrews & Witney, 1976), commitment and conscientiousness (Goldberg, 1992). Study 3, on 118 university teachers (41 female; M age = 41 y.), revealed significant relations with the Job Descriptive Index's (Smith, P.C., Kendall, L.M. & Hulin, C.L. 1969) Work, Co-workers and Total scores, as well as the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire's (Weiss, D.J., Dawis, R.V., England, G.W. & Lofquist, L.H. 1967) Intrinsic, Extrinsic and Total scores. The-probably bi-directional-job satisfaction relations were of practical significance, explaining 15–35% common variance; in line with previous findings, these findings, across a variety of measures and samples, confirm a relationship that could by now probably be taken for granted.