Quest Journals Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Science Volume 10 ~ Issue 10 (2022) pp: 165-172 ISSN(Online):2321-9467 www.questjournals.org *Corresponding Author: EriaMuwanguzi 165 | Page Research Paper Job Satisfaction: A Literature Review EriaMuwanguzi School of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, Bugema University Abstract When an employee is satisfied with the job, then such an employee will be more productive and creative and is more likely to be retained by the organization. Some job satisfaction theoretical frameworks and models are available to that effect namely; Herzbergs’ Two Factor Theory, Adams Equity Theory, and Job Characteristic Theory among others. We find that all the above models have been widely employed in the study of job satisfaction studies. We notably argue that Smerek and Petersons’ Model can be include d on the list of job satisfaction models. Hence based on a thorough review of Smerek and Petersons’ model, research hypotheses were derived to guide further studies on the factors related to job satisfaction and a review of the literature was conducted on these identified research hypotheses. Keywords: Job satisfaction, Personal Characteristics, Job Characteristics, Intrinsic Factors, Extrinsic Factors Received 02 Oct., 2022; Revised 11 Oct., 2022; Accepted 13 Oct., 2022 © The author(s) 2022. Published with open access at www.questjournals.org I. Introduction Several authors (e.g. Hoppock, 1935; Smith, Kendall &Hullin, 1969; Locke, 1976; Spector, 1985; Cranny, Smith & Stone, 1992; Paul &Phua, 2011) have defined the concept of job satisfaction. In particular, Hoppock (1935) defined job satisfaction as a combination of psychological, physiological as well as the circumstances of the environment which cause the employee to say: “I am happy with my job”. In line with this definition, Hoppock developed an overall measure of job satisfaction based on the responses of workers to five questions concerning how satisfied they were. These included direct inquiries such as “how satisfied are you with your job” as well as indirect measures on whether the worker would recommend the job to a friend; whether the employee plans to look for a new job within the next year; whether the worker would take the same job again if given a choice and how the job measures up to the sort of job the worker wanted when one took it. Smith et al. (1969) defined job satisfaction as the feeling an individual has about his or her job. To him, job satisfaction could be measured in terms of pay, work itself, promotions, supervision, and coworkers. Locke (1976) defined job satisfaction as an emotional-affective response to a job or specific aspects of the job. Locke was in agreement with Smith et al. (1969) on the measures of job satisfaction to include; work itself, pay, promotion, supervision, and relationship with co-workers. Spector (1985) defined job satisfaction as the extent to which people like (satisfiers) or dislike (dissatisfiers) their jobs. Satisfiers are those factors that fulfill an individual‟s need for psychological growth. Dissatisfiers on the other hand are those rewards that merely serve to prevent an individual from “feeling bad” about work. To him, he measured job satisfaction in terms of benefits, pay, work itself, promotion, supervision, relationship with coworkers, contingent rewards, communication as well as operating procedures. Cranny et al. (1992) define job satisfaction as a general expression of a worker‟s positive attitude. To them, a person with high job satisfaction appears to hold generally positive attitudes and one who is dissatisfied tends to hold negative attitudes towards his or her job. These attitudes are important characteristics of the job like work itself, pay, promotion opportunities, supervision and relationship with co-workers. On their part, Paul and Phua (2011) defined job satisfaction as how well outcomes meet or exceed expectations. For instance, if an employee feels that he or she is working much harder than others in a particular department but receiving fewer rewards, he or she will probably have a negative feeling toward the work, the boss and the co-workers. Thus when we talk of job satisfaction, we are talking of it as a sense of happiness with one‟s job (Hoppock,1935); as a feeling an individual has about his or her job (Smith et al, 1969); an emotional- affective state of workers (Locke,1976); as the extent to which people like or dislike their jobs (Spector,1985); as a general expression of a