Bowling ignores the fact that environmental components can affect one’s personality (i.e., way of behavior). Obviously, people don’t come into the world completely preprogrammed with a personality immutable to environmental influences. Common sense suggests that the work environment and job satisfaction do indeed affect human behavior (e.g., job performance).

The article suggests that high self-esteem is the cause of high job satisfaction. But an ambitious individual with high self-esteem would not be highly satisfied with a job that does not offer rewards and challenges commensurate with his or her contributions and capabilities. Any data suggesting otherwise should be reexamined.