The Effects of Consumption and Work Satisfaction on the Life of Professionals : The Case of University Professors

This paper examines the association among consumer well-being, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction for college professors. The joint relationship among this particular assortment of variables has not been reported upon in the literature to date, and is subjected to examination here. Various theoretical and practical constructs are set forth, and several hypotheses are advanced. The hypotheses are tested through an assessment of data emanating from a survey of college professors at a South Western university. Various implications of the findings are outlined.


Introduction
Marketers' raison d'être is the beliefpeople are born to be consumers.This tenet is fundamental to the marketing discipline.Marketing managers develop and implement activities to enhance the process of consumption.This practice begins with the acceptance of the marketing concept and a business philosophy, focusing most of the organizations' activities on the consumer.Some of the literature contends setting marketing activities in motion without the adoption of the marketing concept does not represent marketing (Joseph 1996;Trustrum, 1989).When the marketing concept is implemented with the aim of creating satisfied customers, an organization is said to have a market orientation (Kohli&Jaworski, 1990;Narver& Slater, 1990;Ruckert, 1992).
Because of an organization's effort and focus, marketing scholars propose marketing practices positively influence life satisfaction (Handy, 1978;Samli, Sirgy&Medow, 1987;Sirgy, 1999).Marketing functions are formulated to assist consumption and with the process to create and maintain satisfied customers -often referred to in the aggregate as consumerwell-being.Economic theory also views consumption as essential for consumer well-being (Slesnick, 2000).Marketers assert that life satisfaction is derived in large measure from the goods and services consumedas reflected in their level of consumer well-being.
On the other hand, those in the management discipline assertindividualslive to work, which absorbsa large portion of most people's time.For some work is the most important element in their life.In this regard, how people view their job or work affects how they feel about themselves and their self-worth.This being the case, job satisfaction is considered an important part of life satisfaction.Numerous research studies have established the relationship between job and life satisfaction as significant and positive (Ahn, Garcia, &Jimeno, 2004;Chacko, 1983;Near, Rice & Hunt 1980;Orpen, 1978).Some treat job and life satisfaction as the same construct where job satisfaction serves as the fundamental dimension of overall life satisfaction (Rode, 2004).The Centre for European Labour Market Research of six EU countries reports job satisfaction is the most significant factor for life satisfaction (EPICURUS, 2006).Therefore, an assumption could emerge the management discipline viewslife satisfaction as an outcomederived in large part from job satisfaction.
While there are numerous studies on consumer well-being and job satisfaction and theirinterconnections to life satisfaction, there are no studies that combine these two notions and their association with life satisfaction.To fill this void, this paper sets forth the results of an overview of the links between consumer well-being (CWB), job satisfaction (JS), and life satisfaction (LS) for university professors.A number of studies in the past explored the association between various pairs of these variables.The present inquiry extends this process into a study of the correlations between three constructs--CWB, JS, and LS.The discussion furnishes a review of pertinent literature relating to these variables.Further, hypotheses are proposed, in response to apparent voids in the literature.Essentially, the hypotheses offer projections of the relationshipsbetween CWB, JS, ands LS.Data and statistics are presented which assist in assessing the hypotheses and arriving at conclusions and statements of anticipated implications.
In short, the paper provides insights on the existence and importance of several antecedents of LS and the relationships among these antecedents.These may be useful to marketing managers, marketing educators, other educators, public policy formulators, social scientists, medical doctors, and others who are concerned with LS.

Review of Literature
Researchers in the marketing, consumer behavior, and social science disciplines have examined CS extensively and in depth.Some of the inquiries sought to provide evidence of consumer satisfaction (Ogikubo, Schvaneveldt & Enkawa, 2009).Frequently, CS is linked with product and service quality-defined as the summation of the affective evaluations by each customer attitude object that creates CS (Wicks & Roethlein, 2009).In this regard, studies revealed CS and perceived quality are positively related (Omachonu, Johnson & Onyeaso, 2008).The examination of CS is sometimes carried to an extreme characterized by delighting customers or optimizing total CS (Chowdhury, 2009).
Various dimensions of CS have been subjected to research.For example, one inquiry determined that a "meets expectations" perspective of satisfaction is a distinct construct from an "affective feeling state" perspective (Broyles, Ross & Leingpibul, 2009).Other investigations reveal an excessive number of choice alternatives may constitute choice overload, and hence lead to reduced satisfaction on the part of the consumer (Haynes, 2009).At the retail level, up-front employee friendly relations with customers has emerged as an important factor underlying customer service satisfaction (Gullickson, 2009).
Closely related to CS, research has focused on consumer well-being-consumer satisfaction within the consumer life sub-domain (Dong, Sirgy, Larsen & Wright, 2002).More specifically, CWB has been delineated as a state in which consumers' experiences with goods and services-experiences related to acquisition, possession, preparation, consumption, ownership, maintenance, and disposal of specific categories of goods and services in the context of their local environment-are judged to be beneficial to both consumers and society at large (Sirgy & Lee, 2004).
CS and CWB appear to be related, but are not the same constructs and are posited as having different effects.Much of consumer satisfaction research is guided by theoretical notions that consumer satisfaction plays a major role in customer loyalty, repeat purchase behavior, and positive word-of-mouth communications (Szymanski & Henard, 2001).On the other hand, CWB is guided by the link between CS and quality of life (QOL).It is assumed that the measures of CWB are grounded on the assumption that CWB lead to higher levels of QOL (Sirgy, Lee & Rahz, 2007).Marketing influences CWB in large part because it directly affects satisfaction in the consumer life domain (experiences related to the marketplace) and indirectly in other life domains such as health and safety, work, family, leisure, and finance (Sirgy et al., 2007).
A number of measures are available for the measurement of CWB.These are described in some depth by Sirgy and Lee (2006) and include such measures as Consumer Price Index, The University of Michigan's American Consumer Satisfaction Index, The Total Consumption Expenditure Index (TCEI), Overall Consumer Satisfaction Composite (OCSC), and the Product Acquisition and Possession Index.In addition, there are specialized measures, such as the Need-Based measure for Personal Transportation.It analyzes CWB in relation to human developmental needs, such as safety, economic, family social, esteem, actualization, knowledge and aesthetics needs (Sirgy, Lee & Kressmann, 2005).These measures can be classified as Acquisition Well-Being, Possession Well-Being, Consumption Well-Being, Maintenance Well-Being, Material and Services for the Do-It-Yourself Repairs Well Being, and Disposition Well-Being.
Job satisfaction (JS) is another central construct under study in this paper.Like CS, numerous studies have examined this variable and its behavior, over an extended time period.Whitaker (2010), for instance, identified the most effective non-financial employee awards for motivating employees, which include team events, additional holiday, subsidized meals or services, and reduced working hours.Scott and Taylor (1985) uncovered a negative relationship between lower JS and absenteeism.Siu and Cooper (1998) conducted research suggesting locus of control and organizational commitment exerted strong direct effects and moderating effects on JS.Further, Oshagbemi (2000) determined length of service with one employer is positively related to the level of job satisfaction, since less satisfied workers tend to leave their place of employment while more satisfied stafftends to remain on a job.Perhaps an unexpected finding from a study in Russia indicates the lack of fear of losing a job emerged as the major contributor for job satisfaction (Bessokirnaia & Temnitski, 2002).
One might expect the sources of JS would vary by occupation and geography.In a study by Mahmud et al. (2009) university professors from four different countries assessed social activity, achievement, power, security, and self-direction as major contributors to job satisfaction.Another study of faculty identified security, new experiences, and independence as significant to JS (Sharma & Jyoti, 2009).In a more restricted setting, faculty at Razi University in Iran were most satisfied with intrinsic aspects of their work such as social service activity, and ability utilization, and less satisfied with extrinsic aspects of work, such as security, university policies, and compensation (Zarafshani & Hossein, 2009).These are specifics that may or may not be relevant for other lines of work.
In addition to CWB and JS, the present research examined life satisfaction (LS) which refers to satisfaction with major life domains, such as family, work, consumption, health, and leisure, with possible confounding by variables such as personality and environmental and demographic variables (Rode, 2004;Van Paag, Frijters & Ferrer-i-Carbonell, 2003).Specific aspects of LS (satisfaction with marriage, for example) have been revealed to be significantly related to JS (Heller & Watson, 2005).
In the past LS was viewed by economists primarily as an outcome of CS.The prevailing view was work involved pain while consumption and leisure were sources of pleasure-a happy person was one with a full shopping basket and lots of free time (Headey, Muffels & Wooden, 2008).This, of course, is a rather hedonistic and perhaps shallow view.
Generally, conceptualizations of LS centered primarily on feelings of contentment with one's style of life or a comparison of one's aspirations with one's achievements (Sherman & Cooper, 1988).LS is an important consequence of subjective (perceived) quality of life and is often measured through Diener et al. (1999) Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), which consistently demonstrated good reliability and validity (Peterson & Ekici, 2007).Some of the literature on antecedents to LS does not agree with other writings on the subject.There is, for example, some disparity regarding the impact of economic circumstances.Whereas one studyconcludes economic circumstances, especially wealth but not income has a strong impact on LS (Headey, Muffels & Wooden, 2008), other research reports income has very limited effects on life satisfaction but can significantly reduce dissatisfaction (Boes & Winkelmann, 2010).

Hypotheses
The hypotheses which were examined in this study relate to LS. Essentially, marketing influences this variable through its effects on consumer satisfaction.In turn, CWB serves as an overall measure of consumer satisfaction for it is considered as the aggregate experience of satisfaction and dissatisfaction derived from consumer goods and services.In essence, CWB assesses how well consumers are satisfied with the acquisition, possession, consumption, maintenance, and disposition of consumer goods and services.
LS is understood as the satisfaction one experiences with the different domains of life.The bottom-up spillover concept is a hierarchy model (Diener et al., 1999) with the basic premise LS is functionally related to satisfaction with all of life's domains and sub-domains.This model suggests a positive relationship between JS and LS and a positive relationship between CWB and LS.In contrast, the segmentation model suggeststhere is no relationship between JS and LS, and the compensatory model asserts a negative or contrasting relationship between these variables (Wright & Bennett, 1999).
We submit CWB and JS are likely to affect individual attitudes vis-a-vis LS, and these effects can be considered within the framework of the bottom-up spillover.The study upon which this paper was based was designed to evaluate three hypotheses.These relate to (1) CWB and LS, (2) JS and LS and (3) selected demographics and LS.
One might suspect CWB would show a significant relationship to LS.According to one source, marketing's primary focus can be viewed as enhancing human well-being by satisfying consumer needs.This is a dramatic shift in orientation over time, from one of enhancement of marketing transactions to one which centers on QOL improvement (Sirgy, Samli & Meadow, 1982).Another source indicates marketing has a major impact upon consumer QOL since it influences satisfaction in the consumer life domain (Dong et al., 2002).In this sense, various QOL studies indicated life satisfaction can be explained and predicted from the satisfaction one receives within the different life domains (Campbell, Converse &Rogers, 1976).Further, there is empirical evidence CWB is enhanced by QOL marketing (Lee & Sirgy, 2004;Sherman & Cooper, 1988).
Contrary to conventional wisdom, CWB is not positively associated with materialism, at least with regard to all products.Materialists experience greater dissatisfaction with their standard of living than non-materialists, which in turn spills over to overall life, sometimes occasioning dissatisfaction with life in general (Sirgy, 1998).One study suggests materialism is negatively related to product satisfaction in product categories with high potential for status signaling, but unrelated to product satisfaction in product categories with lower potential for status signaling (Wang & Wallendorf, 2006).Another inquiry found human happiness is not associated with people's material accumulation but with their "perceived inner world" (Swinyard, Kau & Phua, 2001).Based upon the preceding discussion, it is hypothesized that: H1: Consumer Well-Being will exert a positive relationship on LS for the subjects involved in the study.
As is the case for CWB, academicians have conducted considerable research on the relationship of JS to LS.A number of studies concluded JS produces a bottom-up spillover model effect-that it is directly related to LS.Some advanced the idea there is a behavioral and emotional spillover between the two, and that this could account for at least some of the correlation (Hecht & Boies, 2009).Others produced evidence to the effect non-financial job characteristics contribute to life satisfaction to a greater extent than do financial characteristics (Helliwell & Huang, 2010).The rationale for these findings receives some support from role theory, when beneficial resources derived from work accrue to satisfaction with life (Fisher, Bulger & Smith, 2009).
A meta-analysis of 350 studies concluded that the direction of the relationship between these variables is positive for more than 90% of the cases (Rice, Near & Hunt, 1980).This relationship is especially strong if work and family values are integrated (not segmented) (Ilies, Wilson & Wagner, 2009).Another meta-analysis uncovered a significant positive relationship between JS and LS (Rain, Lane & Steiner, 1991).However, the relationship does not appear to be stronger for individuals who consider their jobs to be more important (Moser & Schuler, 2004;Rice et al., 1985).
The JS/LS relationship appears to hold in service industries, and industries in which tangible goods are produced.For example Sparks et al. (2005) report a significant and positive relationship between these two variables in a study of nurses.Similar results appeared in an inquiry focusing upon sales representatives (Kantak, Futrell & Sager, 1992).
International research confirmed similar findings between the relationship of LS and quality of work life (QWL).A study of employees in Shanghai, China revealed QWL (quality of work life) contributed significantly to LS.In this study the researchers discovered the need satisfaction factors which contributed to QWL and LS were esteem, actualization, economic, and family (Chan & Wyatt, 2007).
Considering the above findings and the unique perceptions and value structures of university professors, JS appears to be closely related to LS.The role of work is very central in their lives, to a point where the distinction between "work" and "leisure" is often blurred and the activities are mentally combined (Dorfman & Kolarik, 2005).In turn, there is evidence professors derive much of their satisfaction from professional motivators, such as teaching and research, rather than from salary and other motivators more common for other occupations (Marston & Brunetti, 2009).In other words, intrinsic motivators are of more importance than the extrinsic ones (Sharma & Jyoti, 2009).For example, the opportunity for continuous learning on the job is of major significance to many professors (Peterson & Wiesenberg, 2006).Based upon the preceding discussion, we hypothesize the following: H2: Job Satisfaction will exert a positive relationship on LS for the subjects involved in the study.
In addition to the propositions discussed above, this study explores whether life satisfaction is conditioned by the demographics of age, monthly household income, estimated monthly take home income, monthly expenditures, household size and religiosity.These are some commonly employed demographics which have been shown to be significant contributors to life satisfaction in a number of life satisfaction studies (Lee et al., 2002).

Sample
College professors from a large university in the American Southwest were randomly selected and asked to participate in a panel.Of 692 professors, 180 (30%) agreed to complete a series of questionnaires on a variety of topics.No incentives or rewards were used to encourage participation.To preserve anonymity, each panel member was assigned a coded number from 001 to 180; these numbers permitted the researchers to match responses from different scales to individual respondents.Each questionnaire included a cover letter informing participants on the subject of the questionnaire and a return addressed envelope.A total of 122 (68%) usable responses were received for the consumer well-being, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction questionnaires respectively, including participant demographics.The sample of professors varied in their respective field of study and included 45 different areas in the university.The respondents mean age was 53 with an average of 11 years at the university, and an average of 14 years of college experience.Eighty percent held a Ph.D., 60 percent were male, and 40 percent female.For the majority of the survey respondents (83 percent), teaching and research is their primary job.Regarding the level of academic experience, all groups were well represented in the sample with 32 percent assistant professors, 23 percent associate professors, 30 percent full professors with the remainder serving as non-tenured track professors.A cross validation of the specific demographics with university statistics indicates the sample respondents is representative of faculty at this university.

Measures
To measure the constructs in the study, established scales were used where the reliability and validity were assessed in previous studies.Each item in the scales used was evaluated to ensure the appropriateness for use among college professors.Because the scales were not designed for this particular study of college professors, slight adjustments were made to accommodate for the different profession.To determine if the scales functioned as designed, the following procedure was used.First, a factor analysis was performed on each construct using varimax rotation and estimated with maximum likelihood to validate the previous scales and determine the number of factors underlying the items in each scale.Then, reliability coefficients for items retained in every factor for each construct were calculated.Next, items in each factor of every construct with sufficient reliability were summed and divided by the number of items to create an overall factor mean.

Life Satisfaction Scales
Three approaches were used to measure global life satisfaction.The first was the Temporal Satisfaction with Life Scale (Pavot, Diener, & Suh, 1998), which is designed to measure past, present and future life satisfaction.The 15 item scale, with five items representing each of the life satisfaction dimensions, was deemed reliable and valid by McIntosh (2001).The scale employed a seven-point Likert scale ranging from 7=strongly agree to 1=strongly disagree.All items were subjected to a factor analysis with varimax rotation to determine the number of factors in the scale.The results validated the original three factor solution intended to assess past, present and future life satisfaction.Only one item pertaining to future life satisfaction was discarded.A reliability analysis demonstrated coefficient Alpha of .92.
The second measure of global life satisfaction was adopted from Campbell (1976), which has been shown to be reliable and valid (La Barbera, & Gurhan, 1997).The measurement assesses life satisfaction on 10 semantic differential scales including such items as boring/interesting, enjoyable/miserable, and useless/worthwhile.Factor analysis indicated one factor with a reliability coefficient of .89.Finally, the third measure of life satisfaction was a one item overall life satisfaction scale using smile () and sad faces () ranging from a sad face =1 to a big broad smile =7.

Consumer Well-Being
Consumer well-being was assessed with a scale developed by Lee et al. (2002).This survey measures consumer satisfaction on the acquisition, possession, consumption, maintenance, material and services for do-it-yourself repairs, and disposition of goods and services.The scale's 48 items assessed the construct on a seven point Likert type scale ranging from 1=awful to 7=wonderful.A factor analysis on the data in this study confirmed the six factor solution.The scale performed well with sufficient item loadings on the appropriate dimensions.Reliability analysis showed alphas ranging from .80 to .94.

Job Satisfaction
A version of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire was used to collect job satisfaction data (Weiss et al., 1967), which was designed to measure twenty different aspects of an individual's job satisfaction, including ability utilization, achievement, activity, and authority to company policies and practices (Weiss et al., 1967).The long version of the measure contains 100 statements measured on a 5 point Likert type scale.This scale is one of the most frequently used instruments for measuring job satisfaction (Ghazi et al., 2011).Since its creation it has been used to assess job satisfaction of marketing educators, school counselors, teachers, professionals, and college faculty (Weaver, 1988;Jewell et al., 1990;Sweeney et al,. 2002;and Ghazi et al., 2011).According to the Bibliography for the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire 1968-1989, there are over 300 studies known to have used this instrument for assessment of job satisfaction.Because it is so popular but lengthy in structure, the shorter version of the 100 item questionnaire was employed.The short 20 item form of general satisfaction measure was created by taking the item with the highest correlation from each of the 20 concepts measured (Weiss et al., 1967).When a factor analysis was conducted, four factors emerged with 19 of the 20 items .The four job satisfactions are "the job itself," "my job offers me," "administration," and "pay and policies," with alpha coefficients ranging from .70 to .95.

Income Measures
Incomes were measured by asking respondents to estimate 1) their total monthly household or gross income before taxes and paid for benefits, 2) their total monthly household take-home income, and 3) their total monthly expenditures.In addition, respondents' age and size of household were collected.

Estimation of the Models
To assess the impact of job satisfaction, consumer well-being, and selected demographics on overall life satisfaction three regression models were estimated.In model 1 the dependent variable for life satisfaction was a one item scale that measured overall live satisfaction.Model 2 considered the dependent variable to be a composite index of the ten item Campbell Well-Being scale.The dependent variable for model 3 consisted of a composite index of the fifteen item Temporal Life Satisfaction Scale.
As mentioned above the scale items from the factor analysis associated with job satisfaction, consumer well-being, and overall life satisfaction used in the regression models were summed and divided by the number of items in the factor.This procedure of summing the factor items and dividing by the number of items in the factor to create a mean for each factor is a widely used and accepted practice (Lee et al., 2002).
Possible multicollinearity issues among the predictor variables were explored in each of the estimated models of the regression analysis.If multicollinearity exists, it is likely that the parameter estimates will be unreliable.An examination of the correlation matrixes for each of the models revels the majority of the correlations were in the .10 to .35range.These modest results suggest multicollinearity is not a problem.Further, if the variance inflation factor or VIF is greater than .10,there is a potential issue with multicollinearity (Leelakulthanit, Day, & Walters, 1991;Lee et al., 2002).The results show the largest VIF is 4.21 indicating that multicollearity is not present to a significant degree in the data.

Results
The results show professors are moderately satisfied with their lives.The mean value for the life satisfaction measure was 4.64 for the fifteen item Temporal Satisfaction with Life scale, 5.55 for the Campbell Subjective Well-Being measure and 5.57 for the one item scale to measure overall life satisfaction.The same applies for consumer well-being.The means for acquisition, possession, consumption, maintenance, material and disposition satisfaction were 4. 68, 5.36 4.85, 4.28, 4.29, and 3.75 respectively.For job satisfaction, the professors are moderately satisfied with the job itself, mean, of 3.88, my job offers me, mean of 3.86, and administration, mean of 3.27 on a scale of 1 (very dissatisfied with job satisfaction) to 5 (very satisfied).However, the faculty is moderately dissatisfied with pay and policies of the university.

Consumer Well-Being and Life Satisfaction
Multiple regression analysis was conducted by regressing the three measures of life satisfaction on job satisfaction, consumer well-being, and selected demographics.The findings are shown in Table 1.The results indicate consumption well-being had a significant and positive effect on life satisfaction in all three models (H1 is partially supported).However, the other aspects of consumer well-being including acquisition, possession, maintenance, DIY and disposition had no effect on life satisfaction.These college professionals feel their consumption in the areas of utilities, restaurants, personal care services, food and grocery items, healthcare, and banking services contribute significantly to their satisfaction with life.Model 2 -dependent variable is composite index (10 items) of Campbell's Well-Being Scale.
Model 3 -dependent variable is composite index (15 items) of Temporal Life Satisfaction Scale.

Job Satisfaction and Life Satisfaction
The regression results show of the four factors of job satisfaction only one had a positive and significant impact on life satisfaction across all three models.The significant job satisfaction factor is The Job Itself (H2 is partially supported).For these professors the job which offers them the opportunity to be busy, a chance to be someone in the community, steady employment, and a chance to work alone contribute significantly to their satisfaction with life.The job factor, pay and policies, has a significant, but negative relationship with life satisfaction for model 3.With this measure of life satisfaction, the fifteen item Temporal Life Satisfaction Scale, professors at this university view pay for the amount of work they do, chances for advancement, the way policies are implemented, and the way co-workers get along as contributing significantly and negatively to life satisfaction.Though no hypotheses were formulated on the effect of actualhousehold incomes, expenditures, and the number in the household members who represent possible expenditures, the results show they are not significantly related to life satisfaction across all models.

Consumer Well-Being, Job Satisfaction and Life Satisfaction
The regression analysis was also used to assess the relative importance of the independent variables with life satisfaction.The results, while limited to this sample of professionals, give some indication of the importance of work and consumption to their life satisfaction.For Model 1, 48 percent of the variance in life satisfaction is accounted for by the job itself, while 21 percent is accounted for by consumption.For Model 2, 45 percent of the variance is due to the job itself, while 22 percent is accounted for by consumption.For Model 3, 46 percent is accounted for by the job itself; and 25 percent is due to pay and policies, while 20percent of the variance is due to consumption.These results are quite consistent across the three models that use different measures of life satisfaction for the dependent variable.The only exception is the negative relationship for job pay and policies in Model 3. The job and consumption appear to be the most important variables, positively associated with life satisfaction.Though, for the professionals in our studythe job itself outweighs consumption in importance to overall life satisfaction.

Discussion
This study examined the association of consumer well-being, job and life satisfaction in the context of professional educators at one university.Three models using different measures of life satisfaction were tested using multiple regression analysis.The results partially support the relationships hypothesized across the regression models.The findings indicate one aspect of job satisfaction, the job itself, and one factor of consumer well-being, consumption, are positively related to overall life satisfaction.Further, job pay and policies were found to be negatively and significantly related to life satisfaction for one of the models.The study demonstrates that job satisfaction is relatively more important than consumption for educational professionals.Finally, estimated income, household expenditures, and number of family members were not significantly associated with life satisfaction.These findings are not unexpected among a sample of professionals.College professors are considered highly trained and educated professionals.They tend to share a number of attributes that tend to set them apart from other workers including: (1) a body of knowledge gained through formal education, (2) a high level of developed skills, (3) some type of entry requirements, (4) a certification process, such as earning a Ph.D. in a specific field or discipline, and (5) a group of behavioral norms and beliefs known as professionalism (Hall, 1968;Raelinet. al., 1985).The notion of professionalism among college professors is important for it conditions how they think, believe and behave toward their occupation.It instills a sense of calling, demand for job autonomy and commitment to professional associations (Hall, 1968;Kerr et al., 1977).Consequently, the job and their profession are important aspects of their lives.
While professors generally work in small and large organizations (colleges and universities), these organizations are unique for the task-authority remains in the hands of the professors (Miner et al., 1994).The job and job requirements emerge from the values, norms, training, education, and codes of the profession rather than from the management of the university.This socialization process has a favorable and positive impact on dedication to the task or job and the quality of work produced by professors.The result, with such an orientationwhere the focus is on the job itself, is a strong association with job satisfaction (Kalbers & Forgarty, 1995).Consequently it is not surprising that for college professors the job itself is strongly related to job satisfaction and is more important than consumer well-being.
In this case, the positive elements of the job appear to be derived from the research and teaching of professional elements, rather than from the institutional elements embodied in the university structure and operations.Attempts by the institution to immerse professors in college or university administration matters, such as extensive committee obligations and institution fund raising, to the discouragement of professional activities such as research and leadership roles in their professional organizations, might be expected to reduce job satisfaction for many.When such avenues are coupled with minimal salary and benefit increments, the probable result are decreased morale and corollary contributions to institution needs.This is the case, for it is likely professors are more committed to their profession than to the institution.In other words, professors do not work for the university; they are like other professionals who are associated with their institution because professors can practice at any college or university in the world.Therefore, managers of professional institutions should consider, enhance, formulate, and maintain efforts to allow professionals, such as professors, to engage in professional pursuits.
The study was restricted to college professors, a group which strongly embodies a self-image and role perception of professionalism.In the opinion of the researchers, more and more job occupants view themselves as professional and seek job titles that convey this characteristic.A possibility would include increasing numbers of workers, in a variety of jobs, will come to see themselves as professionals.This situation might increase the likelihood of job satisfaction to assume a larger role in life satisfaction than at present.

Limitations and Future Research
This study investigates the association of job satisfaction and consumer well-being on life satisfaction among college professors.As a single study it contributes to the life satisfaction literature but is limited to one profession and one university.The relationships found in the current study should be validated in future studies among other professional domains i.e. health care and legal professionals.Because the domains of life satisfaction were limited to job satisfaction and consumer well-being, future research might include such domains as family life, social life, health, and spiritual life.
Future research may consider other variables that could be affected by decreased job and life satisfaction, such as turnover.Involving professors in institutional work may decrease life satisfaction thus have an effect on turnover?Reducing turnover seems especially relevant in sight of shrinking resources for many professional organizations.In that regard, research also should explore the extent of institutional work that contribute to a decrease in life satisfaction and the resources needed to make up for the difference given that financial compensation seems of limited relevancy to satisfaction of professors.

Table 1 .
Testing the relationships between job satisfaction, consumer well-being, selected demographics and life satisfaction