Life and Work Satisfaction and the Ability to Change Behavior—An Empirical Study in Japan

         
Author Name NISHIMURA Kazuo (Faculty Fellow, RIETI) / YAGI Tadashi (Doshisha University)
Creation Date/NO. February 2020 20-J-004
Research Project Fundamental Research for Economic Growth and Productivity Improvement in Japan
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Abstract

In this study, based on responses to a questionnaire survey of Japanese people, the ability to change one's behavior was decomposed into factors including plasticity, agreeableness and learning perseverance, and subsequently analyzed. We investigated how gender, positive attitude, and self-determination indices affect these factors. Positive attitude had a positive effect on learning perseverance, plasticity, and agreeableness, while the male dummy variable had a negative effect on all of these. The self-determination index has a positive effect on learning perseverance and plasticity, and has a negative effect on receptivity. Age had a positive effect on plasticity.

We also looked at how the different factors above affect life and workplace satisfaction. The results showed that plasticity had a significant positive effect on health, stress, income, and partner relationships. In terms of work satisfaction, we have seen that learning perseverance and plasticity have positive effects on respondents' impressions of their work conditions, freedom of operation at work, work colleagues, job fulfillment, superiors, and satisfaction with employment security, whereas agreeableness has negative effects on every factor.