a quantitative approach by for example using validated instruments such as the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire. There are also studies that have utilized a qualitative methodology such as by means of individual interviews. Job characteristics model Hackman & Oldham proposed the job characteristics model, which is widely used as a framework to study how particular job characteristics impact job outcomes, including job satisfaction. The five core job characteristics can be combined to form a motivating potential score (MPS) for a job, which can be used as an index of how likely a job is to affect an employee's attitudes and behaviors. Not everyone is equally affected by the MPS of a job. People who are high in growth need strength (the desire for autonomy, challenge and development of new skills on the job) are particularly affected by job characteristics. A meta-analysis of studies that assess the framework of the model provides some support for the validity of the JCM. Influencing factors Environmental factors Communication overload and underload One of the most important aspects of an individual's work in a modern organization concerns the management of communication demands that they encounter on the job. Demands can be characterized as a communication load, which refers to "the rate and complexity of communication inputs an individual must process in a particular time frame." Individuals in an organization can experience communication over-load and communication under- load which can affect their level of job satisfaction. Communication overload can occur when "an individual receives too many messages in a short period of time which can result in unprocessed information or when an individual faces more complex messages that are more difficult to process." Due to this process, "given an individual's style of work and motivation to complete a task, when more inputs exist than outputs, the individual perceives a condition of overload which can be positively or negatively related to job satisfaction. In comparison, communication under load can occur when messages or inputs are sent below the individual's ability to process them." According to the ideas of communication over-load and under-load, if an individual does not receive enough input on the job or is unsuccessful in processing these inputs, the individual is more likely to become dissatisfied, aggravated, and unhappy with their work which leads to a low level of job satisfaction. Superior-subordinate communication Superior-subordinate communication is an important influence on job satisfaction in the workplace. The