1. Introduction

Psychology is relevant to everyone and is present in all walks of life, which has become one of the world's most prevalent issues in recent years. A focus on psychology, both from an individual and a social perspective, can improve quality, efficiency, and success. In particular, the number of individuals with mental disorders worldwide has climbed after the Covid-19 pandemic swept the world. Several studies have stated that Covid-19 affects not only the physical health of individuals but also the brain, which is noted to cause mental disorders and neurological symptoms [1]. It is widely recognized that psychology will be a powerful sword for dealing with the complex issues individuals are facing and will face in all aspects, including how to support employees struggling with an exhausting work-life balance. Psychology studies individuals, who in turn are held hostage by the surrounding environment. Nevertheless, unbalance in one's socialization process is a trigger for mental disorders. Thus, the physical distance caused by individuals or even widespread isolation hinders progress in all areas nowadays. It is worth noting that the high incidence of neurological disorders caused by rampant disease affects the health of each individual and the level of job satisfaction to a certain extent, thus shaking the stability of society.

Job satisfaction, as the name implies, is an indicator used to evaluate whether an individual is satisfied or fulfilled with his or her job. And it is an affective attitude that explains whether an individual enjoys his or her job. Higher job satisfaction leads to higher work performance, and higher work performance across industries leads to socioeconomic development. At the same time, emotion regulation is also strongly associated with work satisfaction. In general, regulating emotional expressions by organizational members in the workplace is usually beneficial for administrative supervision and development.

Emotion regulation strategies have been shown to be related to various aspects, including the relationship with job satisfaction which has received much attention because job satisfaction is relevant to both individuals and corporate, social, and even national development [2]. There are few academic discussions about job satisfaction and emotion regulation strategies. Different research perspectives have led to different emphases in defining emotion regulation, which may be one of the factors why emotion regulation's meaning has not been fully unified. Depending on the objective, the sorts of emotion control methods have been categorized in a variety of ways. For example, emotion regulation is divided into internal and external regulation from the standpoint of the emotion control process origins [3]. Furthermore, antecedent-focused and response-focused emotion regulation [4]. Positive emotion regulation strategies contribute to job satisfaction, thus improving company performance, and enhancing socioeconomic level. Therefore, managing one's feelings and being happy at work is an issue that has become a concern for individuals, companies, society, and even the whole world.

However, reviewing the previous literature, there is a lack of research in job satisfaction studies on people with mental illness who already have problems with emotion regulation. Reviewing the previous literature on the connection of emotion regulation and job satisfaction, the majority of the research tends to confirm the applicability of the causal and effect model across a diverse group of people (verifying influences such as age, gender, and geographic and cultural differences). Other studies have focused on the model's applicability to a specific occupation (e.g., nurses, teachers). However, the academic field lacks a focus on individuals with common mental disorders that lead to dysregulation of emotion regulation, especially those with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) who are 'forced' to be in a work social circle. Various scientific questionnaires testing job satisfaction invariably include questions related to getting along with colleagues and leaders, and people with SAD generally cannot socialize due to their mental illness. So, how does job satisfaction improve in SAD patients, and is the interaction between emotion regulation in SAD patients and that of the broader group on job satisfaction inconsistent? Or, is job satisfaction also an influential factor in SAD?

Emotion regulation as a strategy to improve job satisfaction has been proven and widely used in company management. Through reviewing the previous literature, this paper aims to sort out the widely applicable models of emotion regulation and job satisfaction and present the differences in consideration of the perspectives of SAD patients. Attempting to examining the association connecting emotion regulation and job satisfaction as it pertains to persons with SAD and laying the framework for future study on how to maintain or increase job satisfaction in a distinct but not rare group.

2. Job Satisfaction

Although 'job' is a high-frequency term, its definition is ambiguous. Likewise, there is little unanimity on what constitutes job satisfaction. In fact, job happiness has been characterized by a diversity of approaches and perspectives by various scholars. Job satisfaction is first proposed to be the employee's fulfillment that is influenced by any psychological, physical, and environmental situation at work. It is an intra-individual feeling. Subsequently, the academic community emphasized the employee's role in the job and argued that job satisfaction is one’s emotional attachment to the employment position he or she now occupies [5]. The definition which has gained one of the most mainstream acceptances is the degree to which an individual appreciates his or her employment. Still, there are arguments that job satisfaction indicates the degree to which a person's wants and goals are met by real experiences and rewards at work. The definition of job satisfaction has been studied and explored more as time passes [5]. Later most views support that job satisfaction is an emotion or feeling resulting from numerous factors, including recognition, income, promotion, or other goal attainments, resulting in an attitude or feeling at work. High job satisfaction means that individuals feel a sense of accomplishment, belief, enthusiasm, or happiness at work. Therefore, the level of job satisfaction, in a sense, positively correlates with the level of employees' job satisfaction, which is considered to be significantly associated with the efficiency and effectiveness of business organizations.

2.1. implications

Individuals with greater job satisfaction are more likely to hold favorable opinions regarding their jobs. Employees with the same personal abilities and essential qualities are more likely to bring maximum motivation to work when they bring positive feelings about the organization with a positive attitude. In this case, a high level of job satisfaction may indicate the individual's emotional and mental state. On the contrary, individuals with low job satisfaction may have negative attitudes toward work because the work does not satisfy their material and mental desires, and lack a sense of achievement and enjoyment, which can escalate to several undesirable consequences such as low productivity, low morale, lack of loyalty, increased error and accidents rate [6]. Employees' actions and reactions are influenced by their degree of job satisfaction, which in turn impacts the company's functions. Moreover, job satisfaction is not only limited to the workplace but also extends beyond the workplace and is closely related to personal well-being [7]. When employees are happy with their jobs, this state can also improve their lives outside work. Conversely, employees who are dissatisfied with their jobs report that this negative attitude is carried outside of work, leading to a greater risk of common mental disorders, and suicide. In addition, job satisfaction has been shown to affect physical health. There is a link between being satisfied at work and being healthier and living longer [5]. In contrast, individuals who are unhappy in their professions are more likely to see a shift in their physical health, which lead to diseases including headaches and cardiovascular diseases, due to psychological stress and fatigue. In summary, the importance of job satisfaction is crucial both for individuals and business organizations. Therefore, how to assess and improve job satisfaction becomes the next thorny issue.

2.2. Measurement

Typically, job satisfaction is measured through questionnaire surveys. Depending on the different perspectives of the academic definition of job satisfaction and the influencing factors, there are various methods of measuring job satisfaction. There are measurements based on a well-structured dimension [6]. Opposing views that job satisfaction should be a multidimensional and complex concept and should not be measured assuming job satisfaction is a unidimensional term are the questionable theoretical basis for such measures. There is extensive theoretical and empirical evidence that the measuring of total job satisfaction comprises the evaluation of a variety of crucial aspects that comprise job satisfaction, for example, pay, management level, working conditions, opportunities for advancement, collegiality, and job nature [7]. For example, the Job Satisfaction Survey and the Need satisfaction Questionnaire have been used to measure job satisfaction. The measures that are still widely used today include the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), and the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) [6]. The MSQ is more detailed, containing 120 questions, and it has the capability of accurately measuring both overall job satisfaction and its component parts. Of course, in the age of information technology, many online job satisfaction tests have emerged for the convenience of company management, such as Conducting employee satisfaction surveys from Google Forms, and there is also specialized software such as Office Vibe, TINY pulse, 15Five, and Culture Ampz for testing and research in this area.

2.3. Review of previous studies

According to Google Scholar search results, most previous research on job satisfaction has been more research and studies on a specific job type or a specific job position group. The most frequent keyword research topics related to job satisfaction in all types of jobs were teachers, nurses, and leaders. For example, teachers were the least satisfied with working conditions and compensation in each dimension of the job satisfaction level test. Job satisfaction among teachers varies by gender, length of teaching experience, and professional status [8]. Lu & Louise found that job satisfaction among nurses, compared to other professions, is generally low, contributing to the current shortage and high turnover of nurses in many countries [9]. Collaboration between individual nurses, their managers, and others is critical to improving nurses' satisfaction with their jobs [9]. Also, previous related studies have empirically explored the positive and negative effects of factors, for example, different generations, genders, and occupations on the level of job satisfaction. There was no noticeable difference in job satisfaction across generation groups of public employees, while an inverse relationship was detected in a subset of private sector workers. There is also evidence to suggest that men and women in the same situation and environment have different levels of expectation and actual compliance with pay or job status [10].

3. Emotion Regulation

Emotion regulation has always been a rather vague concept. According to Eisenberg et al. [11], emotion regulation is the process through which individuals change their emotional states or activities linked with those moods, or sustain emotional arousal, sensations, cognitions, and behaviours. In comparison, Gross et al. characterize emotion regulation as the process whereby someone consciously or unconsciously determines and when and how they'll feel certain emotions, and how they'll convey those feelings. There are various test models regarding the level of job satisfaction, but its essence is the overall evaluation of employees' subjective feelings and emotions related to their jobs within a specific spatial time limit [4]. Emerged in the mid-1990 as an independent field and boosted in the latest decade, which is also considered an influential role in job satisfaction. By definition, emotion regulation is the process through which people attempt to exert control over their emotions [12], in order to create suitable reactions to perceived environmental demands and possibilities or achieve a specific goal no matter emotional or behavioural. Emotional regulation can be conscious or unconscious. Importantly, from a theoretical perspective, Emotional control is not a monolithic concept, but rather a word that encompasses a complicated, sequential process that includes emotion identification, selection, and implementation [13]. Discord between intended and real feelings is the starting point of the emotion regulation cycle, after which a regulation strategy is chosen and put into practice by concrete actions. Additionally, the entire cycle is tracked to ensure a fruitful goal-directed reaction [14]. And with the development, the connotations of emotion regulation entail more comprehensive meanings including both increasing and decreasing levels of pleasant and negative emotions to achieve desired levels of control.

The importance of emotion regulation cannot be overemphasized, as it permeates our daily lives no matter whether the process is under deliberate control or operates implicitly [15], and the relevant strategies are very diverse and inexhaustible. Affected by both contextual and personal factors, different individuals depend on differentiated habitual emotion regulation strategies, which may contribute to distinct consequences [14]. For the individual, successful emotion regulation helps people to reach a high-level goal and has a beneficial effect on one's sense of well-being [4], while maladaptive strategies, like rumination, suppression, and avoidance, have been found to be a vital predictor of some psychopathology symptoms [16].

3.1. Emotion Regulation in Job Satisfaction

Employee behavior in managing their emotional state is involved in job satisfaction. Among others, improved emotion regulation increases the likelihood of making favorable judgments about the job and the organization and increases job satisfaction [5]. Meanwhile, deterioration in emotion regulation, as a more complex relationship exists, is negatively associated with job satisfaction by reducing positive emotions. A taxonomy of emotion systems connected with pleasantness and the other with unpleasantness is supported by several studies. In response, previous studies have demonstrated that suppressing negative emotions reduces job satisfaction, whereas enhancing positive emotions promotes job satisfaction [17]. Most research evaluates positive and negative connections in general groups or specific environments and job types in a theoretical analysis or experimental validation. For example, a study examined the impact of office type on employee job satisfaction. It was found that employees who work in the cell offices, flex offices and shared room offices had the greatest job satisfaction. The employees using combi offices were not satisfied as the previous types. In addition, regarding job-specific studies, nurse job satisfaction is not only influenced by all factors, but patient attitude, nurse-to-patient ratio, and quality of working meals also have a significant impact on it [17]. There are also studies showing that teachers were more satisfied with their job as aged.

3.2. Mechanisms

There is no doubt that emotion regulation, as a core variable of job satisfaction, impacts desired job effectiveness. Through the emotional experience at work as a mediator, employees' behavior in managing their emotional state is involved in the level of job satisfaction [18]. Emotional experiences are strongly associated with individuals changing their perceptions of things, thinking patterns, memory storage, information processing, and behavioral responses. In real life, people often use various strategies to regulate their emotions without paying attention to the stages of emotion generation. According to the process model [12], emotion regulation becomes engaged when an individual's desired emotional state at a point in time does not match the actual felt emotional state. At this point, the individual focuses on a situation, evaluates it, and chooses a regulation, implementing the strategy through specific actions to achieve the desired emotional state. The most discussed are cognitive reappraisal and expressive repression. Therefore, at the level of the individual itself, once a positive or negative emotional experience occurs during the work process that does not correspond to the individual's expected emotion, the individual tends to amplify the emotion or suppress it. Positive emotional feelings are the tendency of individuals to extract the good side about the people, things, and objects they face.

On the contrary, negative emotions tend to choose to focus on negative energy. At the same time, employees' emotional experiences at work improve or suppress regulatory behaviors mapped to feelings about work, which affects job satisfaction. As a result, employees more likely to use positive emotion regulation strategies are more focused on the sunny side of work and exhibit higher job satisfaction. They are more friendly towards through, more committed to their work, and more likely to choose to make decisions that benefit the organization. However, negative emotion regulation strategies prevent individuals from achieving the desired emotional state, focusing more on the negative side of work. Generally speaking, in this negative cyclical state, employees feel more dissatisfaction and are more likely to ignore the benefits of the work environment. The results of an experiment by Madrid, Barros & Vasquez verified that mood-improving emotion regulation strategies increased job satisfaction [18]. However, surprisingly, negative emotion regulation, although it reduced positive emotions, was negatively associated with job satisfaction. In other words, although emotion deterioration regulation increased negative emotions in the face of work, it did not directly affect job satisfaction.

4. Emotion Regulation and Job Satisfaction of Individuals with SAD

4.1. Social anxiety disorder (SAD)

SAD has gone from a relatively rare mental disorder to one of the most prevalent anxiety disorders worldwide recently. An epidemiological study in 2019 indicated that 5% to 10% of the global population suffers from SAD, with lifetime prevalence reaching up to 15% [19]. The concept of SAD emerged relatively late, with psychologists using the term "social neurosis" more than 90 years ago to describe people who are extremely shy in social situations. In the 1960s, psychiatrist Isaac Marks suggested that SAD should be separated from other phobias as an independent concept. It was in 1985 that this mental disorder received the attention it deserved and was named "Social Anxiety Disorder" by the DSM-IV. SAD (also known as social phobia) is a common anxiety disorder based on interpersonal interactions.

According to self-presentation theory, at the time someone wants to make a certain but at the same time does not believe they can achieve their desired or expected aims [20]. Therefore, especially when exposed to the public and in situations that are feared or associated with the fears (e.g., when dealing with strangers, making eye contact, or giving a speech or presentation), individuals experience nervousness, anxiety, blushing, palpitations, sweating, trembling, and catastrophic thinking.

4.2. Speciality of Emotion Regulation and Job Satisfaction of Individuals with SAD

Given the high prevalence of SAD and the disorder's symptoms, individuals with SAD deserve to be classified as a particular concern group to be explored in studies on job satisfaction. Individuals with SAD engage in daily social encounters and interactions that cause irrational tension, anxiety, fear, and embarrassment, creating considerable emotional distress. They develop an uncontrollable fear of negative comments from others. In addition, negative beliefs fill the mind of those with SAD, so they tend to choose behaviors that would escape. Often individuals with SAD are aware that their reactions are exaggerated, but they are still unable to avoid the symptoms. Those with SAD often make unrealistic predictions about possible negative situations before social problems arise and consider how to respond to all concerns. This state of false negative prophecy may even continue for all time except for social interaction [21]. These facts limit their access to the chain of normal social relationships, which includes the working relationship.

Most formal jobs require a specific environment. Individuals with SAD have to be surrounded by a social environment because of their work, facing and dealing with relationships with colleagues, clients and leaders, which undoubtedly puts them in a situation where their disease symptoms are often worsened. In addition, among the individuals tested, the group of individuals with SAD showed noticeably lower results than the comparison group in the emotion regulation strategy of cognitive reappraisal [13]. Meanwhile, the SAD group showed higher results in another emotion regulation strategy, expression inhibition. It is easy to see that those with SAD are more likely to rely on negative coping mechanisms. Due to disease distress, individuals with SAD are less likely than individuals without SAD to adopt emotion regulation that is beneficial to the current situation. The environment predisposes SAD symptoms, and the dysregulation of emotions associated with the disease's proprieties theoretically traps individuals with SAD in a vicious cycle of negative emotions, worsening illness, and inappropriate emotion regulation. However, previous studies have confirmed that mood deterioration is not directly associated with job satisfaction for a broad population (without differentiating between those with and without SAD).

5. Limitations And Future Direction

The field of research on job satisfaction, then, lacks a robust causal model that combines emotion regulation and job satisfaction in people with SAD and undermines the development of interventions to improve job satisfaction in people with SAD. The MSQ measures departmental and colleague teamwork, employee relationship management, and communication. Two of the five components of JDI' satisfaction measure are socially relevant, i.e., supervisors and coworkers. In addition, the conduct of employee satisfaction surveys also addresses the issue of work-team connectedness. It is easy to see that interpersonal relationships with colleagues, supervisors, or customers at work are among the most critical factors affecting job satisfaction. However, normal social relationships and even simple day-to-day communication can be a significant burden for individuals with SAD. Furthermore, Michal et al. demonstrated by using medical testing signals signal that individuals with SAD have cognitive reappraisal dysfunctions compared to normal developing individuals, resulting in a dysfunctional mood. Experimental demonstrated that adolescents with SAD use significantly fewer adaptive and significantly more maladaptive emotion regulation strategies [22]. Therefore, there are differences in emotion regulation between SAD patients and individuals without SAD.

In summary, there is no shortage of research related to emotion regulation in the field of research on improving job satisfaction, both from an academic perspective and from a company management perspective. However, there is still a lack of discussion and validation for the SAD population that originally had emotion regulation dysregulation problems. Emerging is the topic of whether the universally applicable association between emotion management and work satisfaction also applies to the unique example of SAD sufferers. Given the increasing prevalence of SAD, there is an inevitable possibility that companies and organizations will recruit individuals with SAD as employees. Is it feasible to adopt the same emotion regulation strategies as regular employees to increase job satisfaction and thus improve management and performance? Does job satisfaction have a reverse effect on emotion regulation for individuals with SAD? Thus, emotion regulation mediates or exacerbates SAD levels. Previous research has no explicit verification of emotion regulation and job satisfaction in individuals with SAD (or in groups with other mental disorders that result in a lack of emotion regulation), leaving open questions about the generality of emotion regulation strategies in job satisfaction of individuals with SAD.

6. Conclusions

Concerning SAD, a mental disorder that has emerged frequently in recent years, this paper reviews the past literature and research to explore a missing topic that has not received the attention it deserves: Whether the effect of emotion regulation on the job satisfaction of patients with SAD, who originally had a disorder of emotional regulation, fits into a general theory of a wide range of populations. Positive emotion regulation strategies for the general population can help improve employees' positive perceptions about their jobs and increase job satisfaction. What's more, few studies have explored this complex association and identified the chain of relationships. The prevalence of SAD is increasing every year, and researchers and business managers have to sort out the linkages. The missing part of the domain theory is presented, and its importance is emphasized in trying to draw attention to it. From the perspective of SAD patients, the research of the causality model may help individuals with SAD understand the interactions between job satisfaction and emotion regulation and their disease. More deeply, patients may be able to use a clear causal model to reduce the risk of disease progression and improve the cure rates. They may also be able to improve their job satisfaction and achieve the expected salary, position, and recognition at work. Thus, this may result in a positive circulation of disease mitigation, positive emotional strategies, and satisfying work. From the perspective of companies and organizations, studying explicit relational models can lead companies and organizations to adopt methods and strategies to improve or avoid reducing employees' job satisfaction with specific mental illnesses like SAD. At the same time, the study not only contributes to retaining employees, and reducing turnover rate but also improving employee productivity, increasing their performance, and improving synergy among employees. Additionally, the causality model assists managers in planning and evaluating organizational circumstances and improving communication inside the business. This promotes the enhancement of human resource development and management from multiple perspectives, which ultimately results in the creation of organizational culture and an increase in corporate competitiveness. Collectively, A powerful model of the interaction of particular emotion regulation and job satisfaction for individuals with SAD remains to be explored in future studies to refine research in this academic field.