Organization and Strategy Seminar（2016-07）

Topic：CEO Job Satisfaction: A Study of Its Antecedents and Strategic Consequences in China

Speaker:David H. Zhu,Arizona State University

Time: Friday, 8 July, 10:00-11:30 am

Location:Room 217, Guanghua Building 2

Abstract:

Although there is an increasing interest in understanding how top executives influence organizations, surprisingly little research has examined one of the most important issues to top executives, namely their job satisfaction. Because job satisfaction is known to have major impacts on behavior and performance, we take an initial step in this study to systematically examine the antecedents of CEO’s job satisfaction and its implications for strategic decision making. Building on psychological theories on job satisfaction and management research on top executives, we propose that key determinants of CEO’s job satisfaction include the Big Five personalities and executive job demand. In addition, we explain why CEO’s job satisfaction positively influences innovation, strategic change, and firm performance. Using a large scale survey conducted with hundreds of top executives in China, we find considerable support for our theory. In explaining how CEO’s job satisfaction may influence major strategic outcomes and firm performance, our study contributes to research on strategic leadership and strategic management. As scholars increasingly call for more studies that bring “people” back to strategy research, our study also responds to these calls by starting to examine an issue that is essential to top executives, and hence opening doors for a new stream of management research.