Polychronicity as Moderator in the Relationship between Skill Variety and Job Satisfaction

Abstract

Building on the premises of person-job fit theory (Edwards, 1991), taking skill variety as the job characteristic (Hackman & Oldham, 1975, 1976) and polychronicity as an individual’s value, we seek to determine the interactive effect of skill variety and polychronicity on the job satisfaction level of garments’ franchise employees. Primary data were collected from the 175 employees of 24 franchise outlets of various well known garments’ companies located in Sukkur district of the Sindh province of Pakistan by applying random sampling. The results showed a positive and significant effect of skill variety on job satisfaction, as hypothesized. Further, moderation analysis showed the significant interactive effect of skill variety and polychronicity on job satisfaction, as hypothesized. The interaction graph showed that the relationship between the independent variable (i.e., skill variety) and dependent variable (i.e., job satisfaction) was stronger when the level of moderating variable (i.e., polychronicity) was high as compared to when it was low. Focusing on the behavioural aspects of the jobs, HRM managers designing the jobs of employees should consider both the job and individual characteristics. A fit between the job such as jobs offering skill variety, and the employees’ values such as polychronicity can yield the best possible outcome i.e., job satisfaction.