Factors Explaining Job Satisfaction Among Faculty

-
Castillo and Cano (2004) had conducted a study explaining the influence of Herzberg et al (1959) Motivator-Hygiene theory on job satisfaction among the faculty in College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Science at Ohio State University. Their research was mooted by Bowen’s (1980) report that the said theory was not applicable for teacher educators in agriculture. Moreover, the motivator-hygiene theory had been popularly used in testing the level of job satisfaction. In addition to that, it was to the researchers’ intention to determine which measures constituted a valid assessment of job satisfaction. Also, the researchers wanted to validate the one-item measure of overall job satisfaction.

There were 172 faculty members involved in the study. Hundred and forty eight respondents returned the questionnaires which represented 86% of the response rate. The questionnaires contained three parts. Part I consisted of 18 items from Job Satisfaction Index questionnaire. Each item was to be answered using the 5-Likert scale ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. In Part II, the Faculty Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction Scales by Wood (1973) was used. This part consisted of 79 items of six-point Likert type scale with responses varying from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 6 (very satisfied). A one-item measurement on overall job satisfaction was also applied in this part. The last part, Part III, was on the demographic questionnaire.

Five determinants representing each motivator and hygiene acted as independent variables. The five factors for motivator were achievement, advancement, recognition, responsibility, and work itself. Meanwhile, the five factors that representing hygiene were relationship, policy and administration, salary, supervision, and working condition. The result derived from the multiple regression analysis shown that only three factors could explain the variability among overall job satisfaction. They were recognition which accounted for 43% of the variance, supervision which accounted for 52% of the variance, and interpersonal relationship which accounted for 58% of the variance.

From their study, the researchers asserted the important of the three areas that the college administrator needed to improve on. In term of recognition, the college must ensure that the reward system was compatible and competitive. Enough funds for faculty members’ supervision should also be made available. Efforts should be made to generate active socialization among inter and intra departmental. Finally the researchers also learned that the single-item measure was still valid to be used along with multi-item measure (Job Satisfaction Index).

For my critical evaluation, I found that the result would not be so convincing. This is due to the fact that only 17 respondents were female faculty (there were 122 male respondents). Thus, the concluding result that only recognition, supervision and interpersonal relationship were significant might be changed. This was what the researchers meant by the remark that the faculty were most satisfied with the content of their job and least satisfied with the context in which their job was performed.

(Any comment is highly appreciated. I give my credit to Jaime X. Castillo and Associate Professor Jamie Cano for their published article which will be cited in my thesis for PhD as above)

cited by,
Jakaria Dasan
PhD Candidature, USM
for thesis entitled "Developing Sense of Belonging among Malaysian Academicians: Promotion, QWL and Stress"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SEJARAH KEMERDEKAAN SABAH

-
Sabah yang dahulunya pernah dikenali sebagai North Borneo telah mencapai kemerdekaan daripada British melalui penubuhan persekutuan Malaysia pada 16 September 1963 yang diilhamkan oleh Yang Teramat Mulia Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj selaku Perdana Menteri Tanah Melayu. Berdasarkan kepada sumber-sumber sejarah menunjukkan bahawa Sabah pada asalnya merupakan jajahan Kesultanan Brunei. Walau bagaimanapun, pada tahun 1704, sebahagian besar wilayahnya di pantai timur dan utara telah dihadiahkan kepada Kesultanan Sulu sebagai balasan kerana membantu sultan Brunei menewaskan seterunya di Pulau Cermin. Sistem kerajaan berkonsepkan kesultanan di Sabah mula terpadam dalam lipatan sejarah apabila wilayah-wilayah di Sabah diserahkan oleh Kesultanan Sulu dan Kesultanan Brunei kepada British North Borneo Chartered Company (BNBCC) pada abad ke-19. Pada tahun 1881, Sabah secara rasminya telah ditadbir oleh BNBCC dan dijadikan negeri naungan kerajaan British pada tahun 1888. Dalam erti kata lain,...
Read more

KRONOLOGI MASYARAKAT PERIBUMI SABAH SEDASAWARSA SEBELUM MERDEKA

-
New Sabah Times, ms. , 9 November 2009 JAKARIA DASAN, jakaria@ums.edu.my Penghasilan buku-buku yang lengkap dan menyeluruh mencakupi pelbagai aspek sosio, ekonomi, politik dan pendidikan mengenai masyarakat peribumi negeri Sabah tidak begitu banyak terdapat di pasaran. Justeru itu, Universiti Malaysia Sabah dengan komitmen para pensyarahnya telah berusaha mempertingkatkan koleksi buku-buku ilmiah sedemikian. Salah satu daripada buku berkaitan adalah buku hasil tulisan Siti Aidah Hj Lokin yang bertajuk “Perubahan Sosioekonomi dan Pentadbiran – Masyarakat Peribumi Sabah (1881-1963).” Penulis adalah merupakan pensyarah bidang Sejarah Malaysia dan mengajar kursus Hubungan Etnik di Pusat Penataraan Ilmu dan Bahasa (PPIB), Universiti Malaysia Sabah. Menerusi kajian mendalam beliau melalui literatur, artikel, tesis, surat khabar, karya perkamusan dan temu ramah dengan beberapa tokoh masyarakat peribumi Sabah itu sendiri, beliau berjaya menghasilkan sebuah buku terbitan Penerbit UMS yang mempe...
Read more

THE ESSENCE OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

-
Can you imagine how life is going to be, if there is no standard and accepted forms of communication? The immediate situation that I can visualize is the chaotic event of ordinary life. People will eventually see what others are doing are for their mutual benefit. Everything seems to be for individual interest only. Most of the time people engage in surface acting behavior and there is a tendency of social loafing in group activities. In short, people actually don’t care on good interpersonal communication. In addition to that, there is an absence of the quality of work life found in any organization. Off course, nobody wants this scenario to happen in his or her life. In order to improve the quality of work life, we need to understand and establish proper communication process. The communication process involves steps between a source and a receiver that result in the transference and understanding of meaning. The sender initiates message by encoding it through the right channel. Th...
Read more