Unveiling workplace dynamics: insights from voluntary disclosures on business outlook and CEO approval

Purpose This inquiry extends the discourse on job satisfaction and employee referral. It aims to examine the moderating effects of perceived business outlook and CEO approval in the dynamics of job satisfaction and employee referral. A model predicting job satisfaction and employee referral through the lens of Herzberg’s two-factor theory is developed and tested. Design/methodology/approach To remedy the overreliance on self-reported surveys, impeding generalization and representativeness, this study uses large evidence from 14,840 voluntary disclosures of US employees. A structural equation modeling technique is adopted to test the hypotheses. Findings The inherent robust path analysis revealed intriguing findings highlighting culture and values as exerting the most substantial positive impact on job satisfaction, while diversity and inclusion played a relatively trivial role. Moreover, employees’ view of the firms’ outlook and their approval of the incumbent CEO were found to strengthen the job satisfaction–referral nexus. Originality/value The study revisits the relationship between job satisfaction and employee referral by capturing the moderating effects of perceived business outlook and CEO approval. We believe that this investigation is one of the first to capture the impact of these two pivotal factors.