Individual needs, organizational rewards, and job satisfaction among professional engineers

The career and professional attitudes of engineers whose individual needs matched organizational rewards were compared to those whose needs failed to match such rewards. Seventy-two professional engineers employed by four multinationals were divided into quadrants, on the basis of whether they were satisfied or dissatisfied with their jobs and whether their needs matched or failed to match rewards. Significant differences were found between the satisfied and dissatisfied subjects in most career and professional attitudes, irrespective of whether needs matched rewards. Results suggest that job satisfaction among engineers is influenced by how they view their career and profession over and above the match between needs and rewards.