Organizational and individual factors affecting mental health and job satisfaction: a multilevel analysis of job control and personality

This study evaluated variation at the individual and work unit levels in the relations of job control, hostility, and trait anxiety to mental health and job satisfaction. Questionnaire data from a sample of 2,900 employees working at 152 hospital wards were analyzed by means of multilevel regression analyses. Results showed that mental health (General Health Questionnaire-12), varying mainly at the individual level, was explained mostly by hostility and trait anxiety. Job satisfaction varied significantly at the individual and the ward level. Job control accounted for most of this multilevel variation. Thus, this study demonstrated the significance of individual characteristics and organizational effects in explaining the mental health and job satisfaction of employees.