Career Stage Effects on Job Characteristic–Job Satisfaction Relationships Among Guest Worker Salespersons

Abstract

In this study, we propose and test the moderator roles of career stages on the job characteristics–job satisfaction relationships among guest worker salespersons in Saudi Arabia. Due to the severe shortage of indigenous labor, Saudi Arabia brings in foreign workers as guest workers from various countries of the world. These foreign workers meet the human resource needs of both local and foreign companies. As expected, findings suggest that job autonomy, job identity, and job feedback have a stronger influence on guest workers’ job satisfaction during the later stages of their career than during the early career stages. Of all the variables we tested, only the influence of job variety on job satisfaction does not vary across career stages. In general, the results indicate that managers are well advised to take into account guest worker salespersons’ career stages when managing job characteristics. © 2004 PSE National Educational Foundation. All rights reserved.