Job Satisfaction and Motivation among Physicians in Academic Medical Centers: Insights from a Cross-National Study Katharina Janus

Abstract Our study assesses how work-related monetary and nonmonetary fac-tors affect physicians ’ job satisfaction at three academic medical centers in Germany and the United States, two countries whose differing health care systems experience similar problems in maintaining their physician workforce. We used descriptive sta-tistics and factor and correlation analyses to evaluate physicians ’ responses to a self-administered questionnaire. Our study revealed that German physician respondents were less satisfied overall than their U.S. counterparts. In both countries, participation in decision making that may affect physicians ’ work was an important correlate of satisfaction. In Germany other important factors were opportunities for continuing education, job security, extent of administrative work, collegial relationships, and access to specialized technology. In the U.S. sample, job security, financial incen-tives, interaction with colleagues, and cooperative working relationships with col-leagues and management were important predictors of overall job satisfaction. The implications of these findings for the development of policies and management tactics to increase physician job satisfaction in German and U.S. academic medical centers are discussed