A metaBUS-enabled meta-analysis of career satisfaction

In this study, the authors revisit the meta-analytic correlates of career satisfaction and demonstrate the use of metaBUS – a database repository of meta-analytic effect sizes and related information from the field of applied psychology. The purpose of this paper is to extend prior meta-analytic research on the topic of career satisfaction and compare the results from the metaBUS-enabled meta-analysis, with the results from meta-analyses that do not build on the repository.

A multilevel meta-analysis was conducted on all correlates available in the metaBUS database and the approach was described in a step-by-step fashion.

The demonstration reiterated some of the findings of prior meta-analyses, but also revealed considerable incongruity between the sample taken from the metaBUS database and the meta-analytic sample from studies that relied on non-metaBUS-based literature searches. Nevertheless, the results are similar in terms of the directions of the effects and the relative sizes of the effects.

The paper demonstrates the use of the metaBUS database. In addition, results suggest that meta-analyses on career satisfaction might have suffered from sample selection issues, but further research is required in order to establish the source of the sample selection incongruence.

This is the first step-by-step demonstration of the use of metaBUS specifically for meta-analyses.