One of age-old managerial research questions is the relationship between job satisfaction and performance.   When measuring a correlation /causality between job satisfaction and performance, most concerned are two things: endogeneity between them and which level (individual, group, or organizational) is appropriate. Since organizational performance is not a simple sum of individual performance which implies a stronger relation in organizational level than in individual level, an organizational level analysis is considered.  Another concerned problem of endogeneity is tried to control for by applying several reasonable empirical methods such as a dynamic, cross-lagged correlation method and a simultaneous Structural Equation Model (SEM) method. These mixed approaches at the sub agency level data from Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) over 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2012 are expected to provide more rigorous and clearer direct measure on how much they are correlated and what their real causality is. In SEM, job satisfaction and job performance are used as dependent variables.  Possible determinants or cofactors are Innovativeness (IN), Pay for Performance, Diversity Management (DM), empowerment, and lagged dependent variables.

Preliminary main results from the SEM are as follows: JP has slightly bigger causal effect on JS even though all insignificant, 0.863(JP=> JS) vs 0.635 (JS=>JP) in Ceteris Paribus; JS is positively affected by diversity management (DM) and Pay Performance about 0.734 and 0.018 respectively in the JS=> JP recursive model; Diversity Management (DM) positively causes Job Performance (JP) by 0.776 unit and Employee Empowerment (EP) positively causes Job Satisfaction (JS) in the JP=>JS recursive model; Innovativeness (IN) doesn’t have any significant effect on Job Satisfaction or Job Performance; No significant effects of a lag dependent variable on current dependent variable itself. More refined models are expected to provide more rigorous estimates in near future. More correct and clearer causality between job satisfaction and performance will improve the federal agency’s or public policy (program)’s outcomes by increasing public organization’s effective engagement.