The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) publishes the results of an annual employee survey. This note examines the DHS data and finds that the correlation coefficient between a culture of innovation and creativity and job satisfaction is 0.94, which is almost perfectly correlated. This statistic can also be viewed next to the correlation of pay satisfaction and job satisfaction, which is 0.97. The two statistics are nearly equal.
This note also looks at how a culture of collaboration is correlated with job satisfaction. Although the correlation coefficient is not as high as a culture of innovation and creativity, it is still noteworthy. The correlation coefficient between collaboration and job satisfaction is 0.86. This analysis sheds light on how important culture is on job satisfaction.
The DHS survey covers topics such as workforce management, organizational accomplishments, agency goals, leadership, and communication, but I parse out three survey items and produce an Index of Innovation and Creativity. The three items are: 1) I feel encouraged to come up with new and better ways of doing things; 2) I am constantly looking for ways to do my job better; 3) Creativity and innovation are rewarded. I then take the percentage of people who responded positively for each of the three items and then sum them each year to form an index that goes from 2010 to 2018. Figure 1, below, summarizes the Index of Innovation and Creativity and its constituent parts.
| Figure 1. Index of Innovation and Creativity, 2010-2018 | |||||||||
| Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | |
| Description | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
| I feel encouraged to come up with new and better ways of doing things | 47.90% | 46.20% | 43.20% | 41.46% | 40.28% | 39.43% | 42.85% | 47.16% | 47.90% |
| I am constantly looking for ways to do my job better | 89.40% | 89.80% | 88.40% | 87.26% | 86.13% | 84.91% | 86.07% | 87.49% | 87.40% |
| Creativity and innovation are rewarded | 33.90% | 32.30% | 28.30% | 26.03% | 24.44% | 23.80% | 27.06% | 31.92% | 33.00% |
| Index of Innovation and Creativity | 171.20% | 168.30% | 159.90% | 154.75% | 150.85% | 148.14% | 155.98% | 166.57% | 168.30% |
Figure 2, below, shows the percentage of people who responded positively to the survey question about job satisfaction. The correlation between the Index of Innovation and Creativity and job satisfaction is 0.94.
| Figure 2. Job Satisfaction, 2010-2018 | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive |
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | |
| How satisfied are you with your job? | 66.70% | 65.10% | 60.50% | 55.89% | 53.10% | 52.10% | 54.69% | 60.67% | 60.40% |
Figure 3, below, shows the percentage of people who responded positively to the survey question about pay satisfaction. The correlation between job satisfaction and pay satisfaction is 0.97.
| Figure 3. Pay Satisfaction, 2010-2018 | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive |
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | |
| How satisfied are you with your pay? | 63.50% | 61.60% | 56.80% | 50.63% | 51.10% | 49.59% | 51.39% | 54.87% | 55.30% |
The Index of Collaboration is also made up of three survey items. The items are: 1) The people I work with cooperate to get the job done; 2) Employees in my work unit share job knowledge with each other; 3) Managers support collaboration across work units to accomplish work objectives. I take the percentage of people who responded positively to each item and sum the three figures each year to form an Index of Collaboration. Figure 4, below, shows the Index and its constituent parts between 2010 and 2018. The correlation coefficient between the Index of Collaboration and job satisfaction is 0.86.
| Figure 4. Index of Collaboration, 2010-2018 | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive | Percent Positive |
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | |
| The people I work with cooperate to get the job done | 71.20% | 70.30% | 66.80% | 67.04% | 66.33% | 65.74% | 68.52% | 71.09% | 70.80% |
| Employees in my work unit share job knowledge with each other | 69.60% | 70.20% | 68.90% | 68.31% | 68.90% | 67.75% | 70.47% | 72.44% | 73.30% |
| Managers support collaboration across work units to accomplish work objectives | 49.70% | 48.70% | 46.10% | 44.10% | 40.49% | 39.05% | 41.93% | 47.45% | 48.00% |
| Index of Collaboration | 190.50% | 189.20% | 181.80% | 179.45% | 175.72% | 172.54% | 180.92% | 190.98% | 192.10% |
This analysis sheds light on how important culture is for job satisfaction. In fact, the correlation between a culture of innovation and creativity and job satisfaction is nearly perfect and nearly as high as the correlation between pay and job satisfaction. A culture of collaboration also produces a high correlation coefficient with job satisfaction–not as high as innovation and creativity, but still noteworthy.
Source: https://www.dhs.gov/publication/annual-employee-survey