Having a Calling on Board: Effects of Calling on Job Satisfaction and Job Performance Among South Korean Newcomers

• Main Authors: Jiyoung Park, Sinae Kim, Myoungki Lim, Young Woo Sohn
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2019-07-01
• Series: Frontiers in Psychology
• Subjects: calling; newcomer; job satisfaction; job performance; job involvement; perceived organizational support
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01584/full

Despite increasing research on calling, how calling functions for those experiencing transition from school to work and how their calling prior to working relates to later well-being and job outcomes has been understudied. The current study explored effects of perceiving a calling on job satisfaction and job performance, as measured at organizational entry and 2 years after organizational entry. Using a time-lagged collection of a sample of South Korean newcomers, the results based on structural equation modeling revealed that perceiving a calling was positively related to supervisor-rated job performance. Job involvement, which was measured 1 year later, fully mediated the relation between perceiving a calling and job satisfaction, but the hypothesized mediating role of job involvement on the link between perceiving a calling and job performance was not supported. We also examined moderating roles of perceived organizational support and perceived person-job fit on the relation between perceiving a calling on job involvement and found that perceived organizational support facilitated the effects of perceiving a calling on job involvement. Implications of these findings are discussed.