Acta Universitatis Danubius. Œconomica, Vol. 8, No. 2

Abstract

The human aspect in the present context has acquired immense importance. The need
based motivational theories relate need and psychological gratification to motivation and job
satisfaction; they consider performance as the end result. However, Lawler and Porter postulate
reversely that job performance leads to job satisfaction. The study focuses on testing the degree and
direction of the relationship between Performance and Job Satisfaction with intervening variables
such as job relations, commitment, role conflict, value system, motivation and organizational climate
and with socio-economic variables. The study is conducted on 928 employees drawn from 13 public
sector and 5 private sector organizations using simple random sampling and males as the matching
sample in the State of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is evident from the study that the performance level
of the employees is significantly lesser than their job satisfaction level. The analysis leads to state that
all those performing well are satisfied and all those satisfied do not perform well indicating that
performance leads to job satisfaction, job satisfaction does not lead necessarily to performance and
the relationship is intertwined. This empirical evidence supports the theory of Lawler and Porter and
sets direction for future studies at micro level.