Organizational culture as apredictor of job satisfaction:the role of gender and age

Victoria BellouUniversity of Thessaly, Thessaly, Greece

Abstract

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine how values comprising organizational culture impact onemployees’ job satisfaction, taking also into account their gender and age.

Design/methodology/approach – The study took place in all three public hospitals located in amajor Greek city, where 125 usable questionnaires were gathered. The measures adopted include theOrganizational Culture Profile and the Job Descriptive Index. The statistical analyses includedescriptive statistics, stepwise regression analyses, and t-tests.

Findings – Findings suggest that employees recognize certain cultural traits as job satisfactionamplifiers. These are fairness, opportunities for personal growth, enthusiasm for the job and goodreputation. On the other hand, another cultural trait, that is aggressiveness, seems to confine jobsatisfaction. Going a step further, it appears that employee gender and age influence the way that theorganizational values affect their job satisfaction. This influence is in accordance with gender and ageprofiles identified by literature.

Practical implications – Employers can incorporate these findings by shaping organizationalculture in such a way as to enhance the overall level of job satisfaction of their employees, makingthem more willing to remain and build their career within the organization. This way, the organizationcan minimize the chances of losing talented individuals and is thus more likely to create a competitiveadvantage.

Originality/value – These findings help in creating a better understanding of job satisfaction anddelineating its relationship with organizational culture.

Keywords Organizational culture, Job satisfaction, Gender, Hospitals, Greece

Paper type Research paper

IntroductionJob satisfaction is probably the most heavily examined concept in the field oforganizational behavior (Blau, 1999). Its major impact on organizational outcomes,such as extra-role behaviors, and performance has urged researchers to delineate itsantecedents (i.e. Dormann and Zapf, 2001; Fassina et al., 2008). Although antecedents ofjob satisfaction that have been identified belong in two categories, organizational andindividual, the latter has received the greatest attention by far (Judge et al., 2002).

Among the most important organizational level antecedents is organizationalculture. Culture has attracted some attention, mostly with regards to the effect thatdifferent types of it or its dimensions have on job satisfaction (i.e. Huang and Wu, 2000;Lund, 2003; McKinnon et al., 2003; Odom et al., 1990; Silverthorne, 2004). This study –in accordance with the suggestions of George and Jones (1996) – looks into the effectthat distinct organizational values have on job satisfaction, in an attempt to provide aclearer and more detailed picture of their relationship. The expectation is that findings

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Received 12 December 2007Revised 1 March 2009Accepted 4 October 2009

Career Development InternationalVol. 15 No. 1, 2010pp. 4-19q Emerald Group Publishing Limited1362-0436DOI 10.1108/13620431011020862

will enrich our knowledge regarding the organizational values that are critical foremployees, foreseeing their job satisfaction and in turn influencing their careerdecisions (Vigoda-Gadot and Grimland, 2008).

Organizational values, along with beliefs, assumptions, expectations, attitudes,philosophies, and norms, form the basis of organizational culture and are integral tothe distinct identity that every organization has (Schein, 1985). Yet, perceptions of theenacted organizational culture are not uniform among employees, as every individualhas a unique understanding and explanation of his/her working conditions, based onhis/her own characteristics, preferences and personality (Johnson and Johnson, 2002;Palthe and Kossek, 2003). In addition, individual characteristics such as gender, age,education, tenure and previous working experience, have also been linked to the levelof job satisfaction that employees experience (Cron and Slocum, 1986; Igbaria andGuimaraes, 1993; Moyes et al., 2006). Having taken all these issues into consideration,the present study also examines the influence of gender and age – two of the mostfundamental groups to which individuals belong (Williams and O’Reilly, 1998) – onthe relationship between organizational culture and job satisfaction.

An aspect of this study that is worth noticing is the fact that it was operationalizedin Greece, offering hence evidence from a different setting than the usualAngo-American. As Agarwal et al. (1999) indicate, globalization has extended ourneed to study and understand organizationally important phenomena in othercountries as well, simply because variations are likely to exist. Moreover,Noorderhaven (1999) has also argued that more data from diverse national settingsare needed, before safely building general theoretical models.

Literature reviewJob satisfaction, organizational culture and their relationshipLocke (1976) described overall job satisfaction as a pleasurable or positive emotionalstate that results from the evaluation of one’s job. Brooke et al. (1988) claimed that jobsatisfaction reflects an individual’s general attitude towards the job, stemming fromthe gratification of needs and wants, while Hirschfeld (2000) referred to an expressionof one’s feelings about his/her job. It appears, however, that individuals tend toexperience greater levels of job satisfaction when their abilities, values and experiencescan be utilized in the working environment and when their expectations are met(Buitendach and De Witte, 2005; Roberts and Roseanne, 1998).

Organizational culture has been receiving increasing attention over the years.Goodenough (1971) considered organizational culture to be a system of knowledge andstandards that an employee acquires in order to perceive and evaluate theorganizational environment. Later on, Uttal (1983, p. 66) defined culture as “a system ofshared values (what is important) and beliefs (how things work) that interact with anorganization’s people, organizational structures and control systems to producebehavioral norms” while Shein (1985, p. 6) as “the deeper level of basic assumptionsand beliefs that are shared by members of an organization, that operate unconsciouslyand that define in a basic taken-for-granted fashion on organization’s view of itself andits environment”. Although there is no consensus regarding its definition, the presentstudy adopts the one proposed by Deshpande and Webster (1989, p. 4), referring to “thepattern of shared values and beliefs that help individuals understand organizationalfunctioning and thus provide them with norms for behavior in the organization”.

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Overall, the working environment has been found to influence employee attitudestoward the organization (Aiken et al., 2000). As Verplanken (2004) indicates, values areimportant ingredients of individuals’ psychology of their working environment,determining their perception of organizational features. By developing a common wayof thinking and understanding, the enacted culture influences the interpretation of theorganizational reality (Ott, 1989), and hence formulates employee attitude and behavior(Cameron and Quinn, 1999). Concerning specifically job satisfaction, previousresearchers have basically examined the effect that different types of organizationalculture or cultural dimensions have on it. For instance, Odom et al. (1990) examined theimpact of organizational culture on job satisfaction – along with organizationalcommitment and work-group cohesion – and found that the bureaucratic culture is theless likely to cause all three responses. Lund (2003), adopting Cameron and Quinn’s(1999) typology of cultures, identified a positive relationship between clan(emphasizing flexibility and internal focus) and adhocracy (emphasizing innovation,creativity, and adaptability) cultures and job satisfaction and a negative relationshipbetween market (stressing goal achievement and beating competition) and hierarchy(stressing efficiency and smooth functioning) culture. Similarly, Silverthorne (2004)concluded that the greatest level of job satisfaction is more likely to be produced whenculture is supportive, then when it is innovative and finally when it is bureaucratic. Asfor cultural dimensions, McKinnon et al. (2003) argued that respect for people,innovation, stability and aggressiveness had a positive effect on job satisfactionwhereas Huang and Wu (2000) concluded that result orientation, professional features,and severe control and management increase employee job satisfaction. Finally,Platonova et al. (2006), examining hospital employees, found that employees who feltthat the organization recognized their job performance were more likely to be satisfied.

Despite all these studies, Detert et al. (2000) have claimed that the direct linkbetween organizational culture and job satisfaction needs further investigation.Additionally, to our knowledge, there is no other study incorporating theOrganizational Culture Profile (OCP) in the examination of the relationship betweenculture and job satisfaction, although it has been widely acknowledged as a keymeasure of culture (Sarros et al., 2005). Based on this evidence, the present study seeksto add to the existing knowledge by emphasizing the role of distinct organizationalvalues, instead of cultural dimensions or types of it, for employee job satisfaction(Huang and Wu, 2000; Lund, 2003; McKinnon et al., 2003; Odom et al., 1990;Silverthorne, 2004). This approach is expected to offer greater insight into thisrelationship, as dimensions may hide the actual influence of each value (if any). As aresult, the anticipation of the current study is that:

H1. Certain organizational values increase job satisfaction among employees.

The role of gender and ageOrganizational researchers have studied demographic characteristics as proxies ofemployees’ background and experience (Eisenhardt and Bourgeois, 1989; Hambrickand Mason, 1984; Helms and Stern, 2001). Regarding their role on the relationshipbetween organizational culture and job satisfaction, the empirical attention is almostabsent. To our knowledge, the work of Garcıa-Bernal et al. (2005) is the only exception.In particular, these researchers, after examining job satisfaction among 413 Spanish

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employees, concluded that the degree to which cultural dimensions impact on jobsatisfaction is different among employees, based on their gender.

Yet, there is enough evidence on the effect that gender and age separately have onjob satisfaction and organizational culture. The literature on the relationship betweenjob satisfaction and gender is very rich, although inconsistent. In particular, severalresearchers have found that women tend to be more satisfied than men (i.e. Bartol andWortman, 1975; Clark and Oswald, 1996; Mottaz, 1986) whereas others have showedexactly the opposite (i.e. Brief et al., 1977; Coh and Koh, 1991; Lumpkin and Tudor,1990). In an attempt to clear this confusion, some researchers have recently looked intodifferent facets of job satisfaction and reached the conclusion that men are moresatisfied with some – such as pay, promotions, supervision, and overall jobsatisfaction, while women with others, including work and co-workers (Okpara et al.,2005; Okpara, 2006). An interesting perspective was offered by Clark et al. (1996), whoproposed that age should also be examined and found that the relationship between jobsatisfaction and age is U-shaped for men but linear (positive) for women.

For this reason, the present study also takes into account age. Nevertheless, in termsof the influence of age alone on job satisfaction, the evidence is also quite mixed.Although some researchers have concluded that job satisfaction increases with age(Ang et al., 1993; Decker and Borgen, 1993; Savery, 1996; O’Brien and Dowling, 1981;Weisman et al., 1981), recent studies do not confirm such a finding (i.e. Pook et al., 2003;Sarker et al., 2003). A possible explanation for this may be the fact that male and femaleindividuals belonging to the same age group are likely to have experienced similarsocietal and organizational events, such as technological changes, social andorganizational trends, mitigating thus possible differences (Donohue and Heywood,2004).

Previous research on gender and age and organizational culture however is not thatextensive. Concerning gender, researchers have acknowledged it as a fundamentalelement of organizational culture (Aaltio and Mills, 2002; Acker, 1998; Britton, 2000).Different socialization of men and women during the early stages makes them developdifferent cognitive schemas, increasing therefore the chances that employees of thesame gender have more homogeneous values and display similar attitudes (Ely andMeyerson, 2000). As Lester (2008, p. 277) recently claimed, “Organizational culturesshape and reinforce socially appropriate roles for men and women”. One of the fewstudies that directly examined variations in employee perception of organizationalculture based on gender is the work of Helms and Stern (2001). These researchersfound that male and female employees hold different view for five out of tendimensions comprising organizational culture, including organizational pride,excellence/performance, teamwork/communication, training/development, andcandor/openness.

Regarding age and culture, similar experiences may result in similar interpretationof the organization and its environment, developing a rather uniform view of theorganizational culture based on age. For example, Wagner et al. (1984) found thatindividuals belonging in the same age group tend to communicate more effectively andshare common values. In a study of hospital employees, Helms and Stern (2001)revealed systematic differences in terms of organizational pride, teamwork/communication, leadership/supervision, colleague relations, candor/openness,innovativeness/creativity, and training/development among different age groups. In

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another study also conducted in a health care setting examining subcultures, Bellou(2007) found that older employees are more likely to recognize the importance ofinnovativeness. In this study, employees were divided in two broad categories, basedon the mean age. This splitting was considered to be meaningful in terms of sharedexperiences as, given the fact that respondents’ age ranged from 25 to 59, 43 liessomewhere in the middle of their working career in these hospitals. Commonexperiences based on this age threshold relate to the fact that employees in the middleof their career and on are more likely to take on higher-level job positions, characterizedby greater responsibility but also providing an overall view of what the organizationstands for and expects from its members.

Based on previous evidence and suggestions, the expectation here is that:

H2. Employee gender will influence the effect that organizational culture has onjob satisfaction.

H3. Employee age will influence the effect that organizational culture has on jobsatisfaction.

The Greek settingThis part seeks to help readers compose a clearer picture of the particularities of theGreek setting, including culture in Greek public hospital, gender and agecharacteristics. Concerning culture, Bellou (2008) found that aggressiveness,supportiveness and innovativeness are the most prominent cultural dimensionswhereas outcome and team orientation and decisiveness the least prominent ones.

With regards to gender, Greeks do not score much higher on masculinity –reflecting the degree to which the society reinforces the traditional masculine work rolemodel of male achievement, control, and power – than the rest of their Europeanscounterparts (Hofstede, 1998). Still, the way that male and female employees view theircareer seems to vary significantly. Women in Greece tend to take shorter or longercareer breaks, exit their work or even end their working career, in order to accompanytheir husband’s transfer in another city, to give birth to and raise their children or takecare of the couple’s parents (Kyriazis, 1999; Simeonidou, 1990).

As for age, the Greek workforce is basically comprised of individuals aged between21 and 60. In particular, the vast majority of Greeks enters the workforce at the age of21 (Greek National Statistics Service, 2006). In addition, despite the fact that the normalretirement age is set at the age of 65, this applies to roughly 13 percent of the workforce(OECD, 2005).

MethodologySample and proceduresThe present study took place in all three public hospitals located in one of the fivelargest Greek cities. The researchers handed questionnaires personally to medical,nursing and administrative staff that worked during an afternoon shift. Allquestionnaires were completed during work time. Out of the 185 questionnairesadministered, 130 (70.27 percent) were returned and 125 were fully and correctlycompleted, yielding a response rate of 67.6 percent.

The sample comprised from 62.5 percent women who had a mean age of 43 years.Using the mean employee age as a threshold revealed a quite balanced sample in terms

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of gender composition. In particular, 36.6 percent of the employees that were up to 43years old were male comparing to 39.3 percent of the employees that were older than 43years. As for job positions, 27.9 percent were medical staff, 28.7 percent nursing, and43.4 percent administrative. With the exception of nursing positions (consisting of 75percent female employees), the medical and administrative staff was also quitebalanced in terms of gender composition. The mean tenure at the hospital was 14 yearsand the overall working experience was 18 years. Moreover, 52.1 percent had auniversity degree, 37.8 percent a technological degree and 10.1 percent a high schooldegree.

MeasuresOrganizational culture. This study used the OCP, developed by O’Reilly et al. (1991), toinvestigate organizational culture. OCP includes 54 value statements that can be usedeither to generate organizational value profiles or individual preferences. Participantsin this study were asked to describe the organizational value profile of theirorganization, by rating the extent to which they believe these items are stressed bytheir organization on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5(strongly agree). (Cronbach’s alpha ¼ 0:79). Sample items include the extent to whichtheir hospital “emphasizes stability”, “offers praise for good performance”, “paysattention to details”, and “allows individuals to take initiatives” (Cronbach’salpha ¼ 0:79).

Job satisfaction. A shortened version of the Job Descriptive Index, comprising fiveitems, was adopted (Smith et al., 1969). In particular, respondents indicated the extentto which they feel satisfied with their supervisors, coworkers, work content, salary, andchances to promote (Cronbach’s alpha ¼ 0:74).

Demographic characteristics. Participants were asked to indicate their gender(1 ¼ male, 2 ¼ female) and age. Age groups were then formed based on the mean scoreof the participants (below or above 43 years).

Because the participants of this study were Greeks, all measures were translatedinto the Greek language (Usinier, 1998). The process included three steps. First,independent groups of Greeks that were fluent in the English language translated thelist of cultural items into the Greek language. Second, the researcher took allsuggestions into consideration before selecting the terms to be used in the Greekversion. Third, the Greek version was given to an official independent translator, whowas unaware of the English version, in order to translate it to English. The procedurewas repeated until reaching an agreement. The questionnaire was pilot tested in agroup of 15 employees, representative of the study’s sample in terms of all threedemographic characteristics, to ensure full and correct understanding.

ResultsThe first step of analysis included an exploratory factor analysis in order to test thedimensionality of organizational culture in the Greek context, as the OCP originallyproduced eight dimensions: innovation, attention to detail, outcome orientation,aggressiveness, supportiveness, emphasis on rewards, team orientation anddecisiveness (O’Reilly et al., 1991). A principal component analysis with varimaxrotation was used. The combined examination of eigenvalues and the scree plot did not

Organizationalculture as a

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confirm the multidimensionality of the concept, as only one factor, accounting for the62.13 percent of the variance, was revealed.

The next step of the analysis included descriptive statistics for all organizationalculture items and job satisfaction. Participants seem to believe that being quick to takeadvantage of opportunities (mean ¼ 2:38, SD ¼ 1:19), being willing to experiment(mean ¼ 2:23, SD ¼ 1:16), being risk-taking (mean ¼ 2:18, SD ¼ 1:20), and aggressive(mean ¼ 2:24, SD ¼ 1:20) are the values least stressed by their hospital. On thecontrary, the most prominent values include being careful (mean ¼ 3:60, SD ¼ 1:11)and precise (mean ¼ 3:59, SD ¼ 1:03), being rule oriented (mean ¼ 3:58, SD ¼ 1:02),showing respect for the individual’s right (mean ¼ 3:58, SD ¼ 0:93) and being easygoing (mean ¼ 3:61, SD ¼ 0:96). As for job satisfaction, the mean score is 3.19(SD ¼ 0:66).

Table I shows only significant correlation coefficients between age and gender andorganizational culture items, for space saving reasons. As apparent, women are morelikely to believe that their organization expects them to be precise, tolerant andreflective, as well as show respect for the individual’s rights and enthusiasm for thejob, whereas men tend to think that aggressiveness is expected. In terms of age, olderemployees are more likely to believe that their organization offers high pay, praise forhigh performance and is not constrained by many rules.

Due to the fact that job satisfaction correlated significantly with 42 out of 54organizational culture items, only the highest and the lowest correlations wereidentified, again in an attempt to save space. Specifically, the highest correlationsappear with enthusiasm for the job (r ¼ 0:65, p, 0.01), being fair (r ¼ 0:55, p, 0.01),reflective (R ¼ 0:55, p , 0.01), people oriented (r ¼ 0:53, p , 0.01) and supportive(r ¼ 0:50, p , 0.01) while the lowest with taking initiative (r ¼ 0:28, p , 0.05), beinghighly organized (r ¼ 0:27, p, 0.05), developing friends at work (r ¼ 0:26, p, 0.05),and predictability (r ¼ 0:26, p , 0.05).

Stepwise regression analyses were then incorporated to test all three hypotheses.Concerning the impact of organizational culture items on job satisfaction, whenexamining all employees together, without making distinctions based on gender andage, fairness, opportunities for personal growth, enthusiasm for the job and having agood reputation have a positive effect on job satisfaction experienced whileaggressiveness has a negative one (Table II).

Culture item Gender Age

Being precise 0.38 * *

Respect for the individual’s right 0.29 *

Tolerance 0.45 * *

Being aggressive 20.26 *

Being reflective 0.33 *

Enthusiasm for the job 0.26 *

High pay for good performance 0.29 *

Offers praise for good performance 0.34 * *

Not being constrained by many rules 0.32 *

Notes: * p , 0.05; * * p , 0.01

Table I.Pearson correlations fororganizational cultureitems with gender andage (only the significantones appear)

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All

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Notes:

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0.00

1

Table II.Regression analyses for

job satisfaction

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According to Hardy (1993), separate subgroup regressions can be used to examinepossible differences between subgroups. Therefore, this study adopted separatesubgroup regressions to identify potential differences in the organizational cultureelements that enhance job satisfaction among male and female individuals. As evidentin Table II, examining men and women separately revealed that both men and womentend to believe that fairness and attention to detail increase their job satisfaction. Inorder to assess if there is a significant difference between the extent to which men andwomen care for these values t-test were used, Howell’s (1992) suggestion for assessingdifferences between two subgroup regression coefficients was followed. Evidencesuggests that there is no significant difference regarding the extent to which men’s andwomen’s job satisfaction is affected by fairness (t ¼ 0:63, p ¼ n:s:) but there is in termsof paying attention to detail (t ¼ 2:202, p , 0.05).

Other than similarities, there are also great differences in the organizational culturetraits that enhance job satisfaction among male and female individuals. In particular,men regard that having a good reputation, sharing information, and opportunities forpersonal growth amplify their job satisfaction while stability and informality reduce it.As for women, they consider that the extent to which their organization stressesenthusiasm for the job, taking quick advantage of opportunities, a single culture,people-orientation, calmness, and decisiveness makes them more satisfied with theirjob. On the contrary, they believe that lack of rules is a burden and so is emphasizingdistinctiveness.

As with gender, separate subgroup regression analyses were also performed for agesubgroups. As aforementioned, mean age, which was 43 years, was used as athreshold. According to Table II, the extent to which individuals of both age groups aresatisfied with their job is affected by the opportunities for professional growth they aregiven. Still, this value has a significantly greater impact on job satisfaction of olderindividuals, compared to their younger counterparts (t ¼ 2:060, p , 0.05). Other thanthis, younger employees consider enthusiasm for the job and working long hours asfactors that enhance their job satisfaction, whereas aggressiveness and being differentthan others as limitations. Finally, older employees are positively influenced byfairness and stability but negatively influenced by competition and supportiveness.

DiscussionJob satisfaction promotes positive behaviours among employees, helping thusorganizations develop core competencies and offering a major source of competitiveadvantage (Scott-Cawiezell et al., 2005). Given its great importance for organizations,the present study is another attempt to comprehend what increases employee jobsatisfaction. In particular, this study examines the effect that values comprising theenacted organizational culture have on employee job satisfaction. Still, since not allindividuals consider the same values as equally important and that the level ofemployee job satisfaction is also influenced by individual characteristics, age andgender have also been taken into consideration.

Findings suggest that five organizational values are essential if employees are to besatisfied with their job. In line with previous findings, employees are more likely toexperience job satisfaction when the organizational processes and evaluations areconsidered to be fair (Clark and Oswald, 1996; Witt and Nye, 1992) and when they areprovided with opportunities to grow and develop (Kim, 2002). This finding is in line

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with Arthur and Rousseau’s (1996) suggestion on boundaryless careers, indicating thatemployees value support both in terms of their personal and professional life.Moreover, as Lievens (2007) concluded, the extent to which the organization isconsidered to be a respectable employer seems to be a mechanism for ensuringemployees’ job satisfaction and in turn their willingness to remain at the organization.On the contrary, however, the extent to which the organization emphasizes competitionamong its members seems to reduce the level of job satisfaction. This finding could beexplained by the fact that globalization and rapid technological changes have alreadyformed an extremely competitive setting for healthcare organizations (Green andPlsek, 2002), causing thus feelings of insecurity and uncertainty among organizationalmembers. Shellenbarger (2000) reached a similar conclusion, advocating that a culturewhich stresses aggressiveness may be viewed as a ruthless work environment, notconducive to employee long-term security and satisfaction.

Examining employees separately based on their gender revealed both similaritiesand divergences with regard to the organizational values that influence job satisfaction.As evident, regardless of gender, employees consider the extent to which theirorganization emphasizes fairness roughly equally important antecedent of their jobsatisfaction. Nevertheless, attention to detail has contradictory results for individualsbased on gender. In particular, female individuals seem to believe that attention to detailenhances their job satisfaction which is in line with Gilloran’s (1995) finding, suggestingthat women tend to see themselves as paying more attention to detail than their malecounterparts simply because they feel better this way. Yet, previous evidence advocatesthat men consider attention to detail as an inappropriate leadership skill (Williams, 1995)and could probably explain the fact that they also think it confines their job satisfaction.Other than these, men regard career development opportunities, sharing informationand employer brand as job satisfaction contributors while stability and informality asstoppers. All these are in line with the male profile, emphasizing ambition, dominance,and clear rules and procedures (Eagly, 1987). Women, on the other hand, value theexistence of a single approach across the organization and being given the chance to takeadvantage of opportunities, probably because they are more interested in equalopportunities (Terborg, 1977). This is also probably the reason why they prefer rules andthey do not want to be considered different than the rest. Moreover, the fact that womenconsider that people orientation and calmness enhance their job satisfaction is not onlypart of the female nature (Eagly, 1987), but also in accordance with the relational type ofcareers that women care for (Powell and Mainiero, 1992). Overall, these findings tap thework of Mainiero and Sullivan (2005), who argued that although men tend to emphasizefirst careers and later on family, women simultaneously focus on all authenticity – beingtrue to oneself while considering work and non-work issues, balance – making decisionsbased on having a full work and non-work life, and challenge – seeking activities whichallow for responsibility, control, and autonomy while learning and growing.

Looking into the influence that age has upon organizational culture’s effect on jobsatisfaction revealed interesting findings as well. In line with their profile, youngeremployees’ satisfaction can be predicted by the opportunities for personal growth theyare given and the prevailing enthusiasm; they have still a long way to go before theyretire and they care both for what they currently do and for what is to come. Besides, asPettigrew et al. (1997) argue, getting a promising job is not that easy any more whileTerjesen et al. (2007) found that among organizational emphasis on employee training

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and development is among the five most important organizational attributes. Inaccordance with this assumption is also the fact that they are happy with working longhours, as this may imply that they are given enough and complicated tasks and arethus valued and recognized by the organization. On the contrary, in accordance withBaruch’s (2004) findings, older employees are more likely to have proven themselvesalready and enjoy their job’s benefits, so they do not care much for competition andchanging things. Finally, supporting other employees may be considered an extraobligation and responsibility and thus a job satisfaction limitation. Overall, thesefindings provide support to the kaleidoscope careers, suggesting that individuals’preferences change over time (Mainiero and Sullivan, 2005).

Given existing evidence on the harmful consequences that job dissatisfaction has onan individual’s personal (Coster, 1992) and working life, the findings of this study canbe of great importance for both individuals and organizations. From a practicalstandpoint, it is essential to provide managers with key information that could enablethem to make informed managerial decisions, when trying to achieve higher levels ofjob satisfaction. Realizing what different groups of individuals value more can assisttowards more effective recruitment and selection of employees, as organization canhave a clearer understanding of what is valued by employees. In terms of existingemployees, organizational agents need to realize that both gender and age are vital formotivating individuals effectively and retaining them in the long run. In both cases, theorganization must try to realize its identity, its priorities and its objectives and matchthese with what is valued by existing and future employees.

As Palthe and Kossek (2003) suggested, every organizational member may have aunique perception of the organization, despite the fact the latter seeks to develop aspecific type of culture. Given the fact that the extent to which individuals believe thatthey fit in the organization is important for their career related decision-making (Youngand Hurlic, 2007), examining self-perception of fit in future researches could furtherenhance our understanding of employees’ career choices.

Like any study, the present one has some important limitations that have to betaken into account when interpreting its findings. With regard to sample, since it wasoperationalized among employees in Greek public hospitals, further research in otherGreek sectors as well as different national settings is required before safelyextrapolating its findings. In addition, given the fact that organizational culture wasexamined through 54 values, larger samples would lead to safer results. Other thansample related limitations, this study did not look into the combined effect of genderand age. Based on the kaleidoscope, theory, however, creating open-ended career pathsboth for men and women is important, as their roles and relationships change over time(Mainiero and Sullivan, 2005). Besides, Arthur and Rousseau (1996) claimed that careeris not only dependent upon individuals, but also upon time. Following research couldhence focus on how distinct clusters of employees, formed on the basis of participationin these demography groups, react to the enacted organizational culture.

Despite these limitations, it is strongly believed that the findings of the study grantan interesting platform for future studies. In an era that organizations cannot create acompetitive advantage based on quality unless its employees are satisfied and identifywith it (Schneider and Bowen, 1995), the role of organizational culture, and employees’gender and age are factors than need to be taken into serious consideration.

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About the authorVictoria Bellou is an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Thessaly, Greece. She has gained herBachelor’s degree at the University of New Haven, Connecticut, USA, her Master’s at theUniversity of Macedonia, Greece, and her PhD at the University of Piraeus, Greece. She hasprofessional experience as a Human Resource Specialist and has worked on several researchprojects. Currently most of her research interests focus on psychological contract, organizationalculture, public sector management, and management of change. Victoria Bellou can be contactedat: vbellou@uth.gr

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