Factors Contributing to Job Satisfaction in Higher Education

Abstract

Introduction The extensive research that has been done on levels of job satisfaction may have distinctive applications to academic faculty. This is especially true when the separation between satisfaction and dissatisfaction is viewed in relation to the intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics of academic employment. In his well known motivational model, Herzberg (1987) makes some basic distinctions between intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The differentiations are founded on needs related to prime human characteristics, the ability to achieve and through that achievement to experience psychological growth. The dual factors arise from alternate needs that spring from basic animal nature, a drive to avoid pain from the environment and all the learned drives that are built on those basic needs. For example, an extrinsic factor, the drive to earn a good salary, is built upon the basic need of hunger. However, intrinsic factors such as responsibility and the satisfaction with work itself arise from the human ability to personally advance and grow. In the educational setting, intrinsic factors involve a direct link between faculty and their day to day routine, the actual performance of the job itself. Intrinsic to the job are: the work itself, responsibility, and growth or achievement (Herzberg, 1987). Herzberg's extrinsic or dissatisfaction-avoidance factors include organizational policy, status, pay, benefits, and overall work conditions. These factors comprise the background of one's work, the environment setting. Extrinsic factors less immediately affect the day to day job but are always in the background. As discovered by Rosenfeld and Zdep (1971), not all aspects of a job environment can be classified exclusively as intrinsic or extrinsic. They asked six industrial psychology professors to classify criterion items as being clearly intrinsic or extrinsic. Although there was agreement by all psychologist, on several items as being clearly intrinsic or extrinsic, many items were also classified as neutral. Reflecting this finding, a new category of variables called neutral variables may be defined which reflect both the content and context of the job. In the setting of higher education, an example of a neutral variable would be the ability to influence institutional policy, since such influence would relate not only to intrinsic job aspects such as the type of student admitted to the institution, but also to extrinsic job aspects such as the number of classes taught by each instructor. Traditionally, a single scale has been used to measure both job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction. Usually, the high end of the scale measures complete satisfaction while the low end assesses complete dissatisfaction. A value in between suggests a level of less than complete satisfaction or dissatisfaction. This type of measure is a reflection of the prevailing view that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are determined by the same group of factors. There is a vast literature in identifying these underlying factors. Some suggest that intrinsic rewards such as professional interest, job responsibility, psychological recognition, career advancement, skill utilization and development, enjoyment of work, and autonomy in decisionmaking are important determinants of both job satisfaction and dissatisfaction (Hanson, Martin, and Tuch, 1987; Kalleberg, 1977; Mortimer, 1979; Seybolt, 1976). Other researchers suggest that extrinsic rewards and factors such as monetary income, fringe benefits, job security, administrative policy, company reputation, job supervision, working conditions, and relationships with peers and management play a critical role in determining job satisfaction (Gruenburg, 1980; Seybolt, 1976). There is also evidence that both intrinsic and extrinsic factors are heavily influenced by the socio-demographic background of the worker (Glenn and Weaver, 1982; Gruenberg, 1980; Kalleberg, 1977; Kalleberg and Loscocco, 1983; Martin and Hanson, 1985; Martin and Shehan, 1989). …