Perceived Organizational and Personal Factors Related to Job Satisfaction in Public School Teachers

Abstract

Teaching has always been a demanding occupation; and yet, in the last few years, there has been increasing evidence that teachers are expressing greater feelings of anxiety, frustration and dissatisfaction with their jobs. While there appears much popular interest in the area of teacher stress and job dissatisfaction, generally there has been little research attention. More specifically, there has been little empirical assessment using a multivariate model which examines the interaction of organizational and personal variables related to job satisfaction in a teacher population. It is the purpose of this study to examine both perceived organizational factors and personal factors and to determine how variation in these factors leads to variation in job satisfaction in teachers. Based on a multivariate model, the following two questions were addressed:

Does participation in decision-making, teaching anxiety, social support in schools {perceived organizational factors) as well as job involvement, years of teaching experience, age and sex (personal factors) affect job satisfaction in public school teachers? Are perceived organizational or personal factors more influential in affecting job satisfaction in teachers? The study sample consisted of two hundred public school teachers with 69% of them being classroom teachers who responded to a questionnaire. Results were analyzed using simultaneous multiple regression for question one and a hierarchical multiple regression analysis for question two. Findings showed that 35% of the variance of job satisfaction could be explained by these seven variables. The four variables of emotional support, participation in decision-making, teaching anxiety, and age, yielded significant contributions to job satisfaction. Using a hierarchical method to determine the unique contribution of organization versus personal factors to job satisfaction, results indicated that organizational factors account for 33% of the variance in job satisfaction while personal variables accounted for 2% of the variation. In general, these findings suggested that perceived organizational factors were much more important to the public school teachers' feelings of satisfaction with their jobs than personal factors were. These findings were discussed in terms of implications related to helping school administrators focus on mental health issues of teachers as well as the importance of organizational environment to job satisfaction.