The purpose of this work was to explore the satisfaction-and-engagement conundrum by testing competing structural models. The specific development and function of interventions that influence both job satisfaction and employee engagement are deeply rooted in uncovering evidence that give insight into which is primary and secondary. A survey battery of job attitudes was deployed within a large, multifaceted conglomerate located in the Midwestern United States (N = 994). Results demonstrated that job satisfaction was an antecedent of employee engagement. Results provided theoretical and practical evidence for the usability of social exchange theory and extend the applicability of the job demands-resources model to the domains of employee engagement and satisfaction. The originality of this contribution is the finding that job satisfaction was an antecedent of employee engagement; employee engagement was not an antecedent of job satisfaction. More, we provide evidence for the usability of social exchange theory within an employee engagement setting, in contradiction to current, mainstream employee engagement research in the human resource field.