The Effect of Age and Marital Status on Job Satisfaction Essay Example

education, which ultimately contribute towards the economic growth of the country. The present study is based on the data collected from the university teachers of the twin cities. The total welfare of the society is associated with the satisfaction of the academic staff of the university, as they inculcate the precious wealth of knowledge among the youth.

Job satisfaction is the area which has been discovered by many people.

Locke (1976) estimated that, as of 1976, about 3,350 articles or dissertations had been written on the topic. In 1992, Cranny et al. suggested that more than 5,000 studies of job satisfaction have been published. In a more recent estimate, Oshagbemi (1996) suggested that if a count of relevant articles and dissertations was made, Locke’s estimate, made only 20 years earlier, would probably be doubled. Typically, job satisfaction is conceptualized a general attitude towards an object, the job.

The definitions of Job satisfaction given by Locke (1976, p.

1300) “a pleasurable or positive emotional estate, resulting from the appraisal of one’s job experiences” In general therefore, job satisfaction refers to an individual’s positive emotional reaction to a job that results from the person’s comparison of actual outcomes with those that are desired, anticipated or deserved. The topic of job satisfaction is an important one because of its relevance to the physical and mental well being of employees, specially, University teachers with respect to this study.

It is clear that the majority of the dominant theoretical and empirical work in this field has been done in the West such as North America and Western Europe (e. g. Hagedorn, 1994; 1996; Johnsrud and Heck, 1998; Kanji and Tambi,

1999.

). Seldom has any research been done in other parts of the world that is in the developing and underdeveloped countries on this subject. Therefore, more research is needed to understand the satisfaction of the university teaching staff in the developing country like Pakistan. The results of this study will give a new perspective to the findings of the previous studies, (e.

g.

Wieslaw Wisniewski; 1990, Melane E. Ward, Peter J. Sloane: 1999, John O. Okpara, Michael Squillace, Emmanuel A.

Erondu; 2004, Keith A. Bender and John S. Heywood: 2006) on the issue of University teaching staff satisfaction in a developing country in a somewhat different culture. Purpose of the Study Although many researchers have tried their best to explore the matter of job satisfaction, but the segment of university teachers, which is the important, of any country, was ignored and no or very few researches have been conducted to see the job satisfaction level of the university teachers specially in the developing country like Pakistan.

Thus, this study explores the degree to which, the different variables like age and marital status of the teachers affect the job satisfaction level of the university teachers. Literature review One common explanation for the different level of work satisfaction sometimes reported for men and women is that women have different expectations with regard to work (Campbell et al, 1976) it was concluded that the careers were of more importance to men rather than women (Kuhlen, 1963).

Employee satisfaction reflects the degree to which the individual’s needs and desires are met and the extent to which this is perceived by the other employees, it is generally perceived as:

“. . . .

. the scope of work and all the positive attitudes regarding the work environment (Stapples and Higgins, 1998). Job satisfaction is an attitude that people have about their jobs and the organizations in which they perform these jobs. Methodologically, we can define job satisfaction as an employee’s affective reaction to a job, based on a comparison between actual outcomes and desired outcomes (Mosadeghrad, 2003).

Manger and Eikeland (1990) examine factors that influence academics’ intention to leave the university, and found out that although salary and economic resources did not appear to influence intentions to stay or go, general employee satisfaction and relations with colleagues were the strong predictors of an intention to leave.

Hagedorn (1994) examined the satisfaction of academic staff as a result of a number of variables including salary, perceived support of colleagues, satisfaction with the administration, enjoyment of student interaction, and perceived level of stress.

The results indicated that satisfaction with the salary, total number working hours, and the perceived support of colleagues directly influenced the level of stress, which in turn, directly affected satisfaction. Several researchers have examined the relationship between job satisfaction and gender (e-g Mottaz, 1986; Mason 1995). However, the results of the many studies concerning the relationship between job satisfaction and the sex of the employees have been contradictory. While some studies found woman to be more satisfied than men. (Bartol and Wortman, 1975; Murray and Arkinson, 1981; Clark, 1996; Ward and Sloane, 1998.

Few studies have found men to be more satisfied than women (Shapro and stern, 1975; Forgionne and peters, 1982). Methodology Sample consisted of 110 university teachers from different universities in

Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The questionnaire was distributed among the private and public sector university teachers, on the basis of convenience sampling. A sample of 200 university teacher was considered and 107 respondents responded to the questionnaires, by producing 53. 5% response rate.

Among which 69. 2% were male respondents and 30. 8% were female respondents.

Cronbach’s Alpha was calculated to confirm its reliability, which resulted into a score of 0. 835.

Different dimensions of the satisfaction of teachers were taken into consideration to get the maximum output regarding job satisfaction. Among which age and marital status were considered on the demographic side. The questionnaire was adopted from the study “Job satisfaction within the Scottish Academic Profession” (Melanie Ward, Peter Sloane, 1999). Each of the scales employed in the questionnaire was measured from a range representing (1) extremely dissatisfied to (7) extremely satisfied. Thus (4) on the scale represented indifference, i.

. neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. The demographic questions in the questionnaire included age and marital status of teachers. Other questions sought to know satisfaction with their primary task of teaching, working environment, promotion opportunities, job security, hours of work, distribution of organizational rewards, pecuniary benefits, etc.

To study how satisfied are teachers within the universities, with their job, the relationship of age and marital status, was checked by using descriptive statistics. The analysis enabled us to examine the impact of the independent variables on the level of satisfaction.

In addition, histogram showing the nature of the relationship between age and marital status was used to predict the relationships graphically. Findings and Discussions There were definite effects of age and the marital status on the level

of job satisfaction, as many researches have earlier shown the results somewhat similar to this study.

In the study of age, rank and gender to see the level of job satisfaction, Oshagbemi Titus (2000), show that the people having age 45years and above are more satisfied rather than people having age under 45 years as the mean of overall satisfaction was 4. 0 and above. Table – 1 [pic] In our study we see that the mean satisfaction level of the respondents increases with the increase in the age. People having age 45 years and above are more satisfied that is the mean is 5. 0 and above, as compared to the people having age 45 years and below.

In another study it has been found that the faculty having age 60 years or older are tend to be more satisfied, Leafy Tu, Michel Plaisent, Prosper Bernard, Lassana Maguiraga, (2005) which is again in accordance to our study. So we can say that the older the faculty member be, the more atisfied he will be. The reason for more satisfaction may be the pecuniary and non – pecuniary rewards attached to the job and the position held by the faculty member. Experience is another factor that may count towards the job satisfaction of the faculty members of universities. If we look into the marital status aspect of the satisfaction of the teachers we can see that, unmarried are more intended towards the satisfaction side.

As we can see in table 2, the mean of unmarried university faculty is higher than the married faculty. Table - 2 [pic]

On the other hand the married respondents who

comprised the 57. 9 percent of the total data are less satisfied as compared to the unmarried segment of university teachers, as the mean satisfaction level shown by unmarried university teachers was 4. 91 which is greater than the mean 4. 77, shown by the married teachers. Although no or very few researches have been conducted, taking marital status into consideration.

Conclusions This study really contributes towards the base of knowledge and especially with respect to twin cities of a developing country, Pakistan.

In this study we have investigated the job satisfaction level of the university teachers with respect to Age and marital status of the faculty members of the university. The finding of the study clearly show, that as age increases the satisfaction level of the employees also increases and vice versa. And the unmarried faculty members are more satisfied than the married faculty members. No statistical tests are used and only descriptive statistics have been used to see the relationship of age and marital status on the level of job satisfaction.

Further Researches