FEELING SATISFIED BY FEELING MOTIVATED AT WORK: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE IN THE ITALIAN SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR

The paper tests the determinants of job satisfaction using a cross-section analysis. Data were collected in 2006 with an investigation concerning 4,134 workers in 320 Italian social enterprises. Apart from information on workers’ motivations and the job features, data were also collected on the degree of job satisfaction, which in the survey was decomposed into 25 different aspects of the job and of the working environment. Three synthetic representations of job satisfaction are produced in the following analysis: overall job satisfaction and satisfaction with extrinsic and intrinsic aspects of the job. The main statistics of workers’ socio-demographic features, motivational drives, satisfaction, and fairness are displayed and discussed in Section two. Section three introduces the econometric analysis of the factors influencing worker on-the job well-being. Section four concludes with some discussion about the relations between the econometric findings and the theoretical premises.