DISPOSITIONAL AFFECTIVITY AS A PREDICTOR OF WORK ATTITUDES AND JOB-PERFORMANCE

Previous research has shown that dispositional negative affect (NA) is associated with lower levels of job satisfaction. Little research has been conducted, however, on other organizational implications of nega tive affect or on the potential effects of dispositional positive affe ct (PA). The present studies examined the relationship of both positiv e and negative affectivity to organizational commitment, turnover inte ntions, global job satisfaction and performance. In the first study bo th NA and PA were associated with organizational commitment and turnov er intentions. Additionally, commitment mediated the relationship betw een dispositional affectivity and turnover. Finally, PA and tenure int eracted to predict job performance, such that PA and job performance w ere positively related, but only for high tenure employees. In Study 2 the findings were generally similar, but not identical. Both NA and P A were related to global job satisfaction and turnover intentions. How ever, only PA was related to affective organizational commitment. More over, both job satisfaction and affective commitment mediated the rela tionship between dispositional affectivity and turnover intentions. Fi nally, unlike Study 1, PA was not related to job performance. Rather, NA and tenure interacted such that when individuals were lower in tenu re, NA was negatively related to performance.