Individual Factors Impacting Working Orientations and Perceptions in the Workplace: A Continued Examination of the Relationship between Individual-Level Religious, Racial/Ethnic, and Family Backgrounds with Worker Job Satisfaction

Jonathan H. Westover, Utah Valley University

Abstract

Workers’ perceptions of their jobs and work environments are not only affected by societal level factors, but also shaped by individual-level cognitive cultural schemata. Among other individual level characteristics, how do individual-level religious, racial/ethnic, and family backgrounds affect workers’ job satisfactions? Furthermore, does the existing job/work literature satisfactorily consider these individual-level cultural backgrounds? Finally, how should future theoretical and empirical models take into account these individual-level factors? This article will address these questions and provide an overview of the historical and future directions of academic inquiry into individual factors (specifically religious, racial/ethnic, and family backgrounds) that impact worker job satisfaction.