The present study was conducted on 210 managers from different private sector organizations to examine the role of stress (role stress) and locus of control on job satisfaction. In this study, stress and locus of control were treated as predictor variables, whereas satisfaction was used as a criterion variable. For measurement of role stress, Occupational Stress Index (OSI) (Srivastava and Singh, 1981) was used; for measurement of locus of control, Social Reaction Inventory (Rotter, 1966) was used; and for measurement of job satisfaction, S-D Employees' Inventory (Pestonjee, 1979) was used. The results of correlation indicated that role overload was significantly negatively correlated to satisfaction with management and total satisfaction; role ambiguity was significantly negatively correlated to satisfaction with management; and role conflict was significantly negatively correlated to satisfaction with management and total satisfaction. Overall stress was significantly negatively correlated to satisfaction with management and total satisfaction. Locus of control was significantly negatively correlated to satisfaction with management and total satisfaction. The results of step-wise multiple regression analysis showed that total stress contributed 7.4% variance in explaining satisfaction with management, and role conflict contributed 7.1% variance in explaining total satisfaction.

It is but human to strive for satisfaction in every aspect of life, and in the organizational context, this may be related to striving towards securing a good job, with a good pay and high job satisfaction. Satisfaction with job has always been an area of concern for both practicing managers and academicians, primarily because of the reason that job satisfaction significantly affects major organizational outcomes, such as individual performance, organizational productivity, employee absenteeism and employee turnover. Job satisfaction is generally defined as one's feelings and attitude towards one's job, and all aspects of a particular job, whether good or bad, tend to contribute towards the development of feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Thiery and Koopman-Iwema (1984) defined job satisfaction as the degree of wellbeing experienced in the work or work situation. According to Locke (1969), job satisfaction is the function of the perceived relationship between what one wants from one's job and what he/she gets therefrom.

There are several variables which may affect the feeling of satisfaction at workplace, such as work-family conflict, injustice perception, social support, immediate changes in personal or vocational life, work culture, stress and locus of control. Among these variables, stress and locus of control are more frequent and important predictors of job satisfaction.

In today's competitive and changing organizations, stress becomes an important and influential factor. It is a strong predictor of various personal and work-related outcomes. It can be defined as a physiological and psychological reaction to relatively excessive demands made on a person. Stress can be classified into two categories, namely, (1) Personal stress and (2) Occupational stress. Kahn et al. (1964) were the first to describe organizational stress in general and role stress in particular. Katz and Kahn (1966) continued this research and suggested that an organization can be defined as a system of roles, and they used three categories to define role stress: (1) Role ambiguity, (2) Role conflict and (3) Role overload. Role ambiguity refers to the situations where the role and responsibility deputed to the person has not been clearly defined (Knotts, 1996). Role ambiguity occurs when the individual has insufficient information to carry out his or her job adequately (Keenan and McBain, 1979). Role conflict refers to a situation in which a person is expected to play two incompatible roles at a time. Role conflict exists when an individual in a particular work role is torn by conflicting job demands or doing things he/she does not want to do or does not think as part of the job specification (Cooper and Marshall, 1976). Role overload occurs when an individual has too many role demands given the time available to satisfy them (Covermen, 1989).

Organizational Behavior Journal, Job Satisfaction, Private Sector Organizations, Occupational Stress Index, Social Reaction Inventory, Multiple Regression Analysis, Job Dissatisfaction, Public Sector Organizations, Middle Level Male Managers, Cognitive Deficits, Step-wise Regression Analysis.