Numerous studies have reported racial differences in intelligence, abilities, motivation, job satisfaction, and so forth. Relatively few of these studies, however, limited their comparisons to blacks and whites experiencing similar work conditions. The present effort compared black (n= 166) and white (n= 1,451) sailors assigned to the same shipboard divisions in order to investigate possible differences in perceived work conditions, satisfaction, need strength, and relationships among these variables. Also explored were two hypothesized sources of race‐related satisfaction differences–differences in perceived work conditions and differences in need strength. The results tended to support the need strength hypothesis although satisfaction differences were fewer than expec