PhD

dissertationJob satisfaction is a concept frequently used in studies of workers in many occupations, including nurses, yet there had been considerable disagreement as to the actual meaning of the term. Studies of job satisfaction are marked by a general lack of attention in the exact nature of the concept, per se. The purposes of this study were (1) to identify the underlying structure of the concept , job satisfaction, among Nursing; service personnel, to aid in an improved definition of the concept; and (2) to seek relationships between (a) levels of satisfaction with various aspect of the job, and (b) their relative importance as ranked by the subjects, with several demographic variables, and with absenteeism and turnover of Nursing; personnel in hospitals. To arrive at an improved definition, several job satisfaction measures were reviewed. The measure devised by William E. Sedlacek (1966) was chosen for this study because if best represented integration of theoretical formulations and past empirical research. Twenty-five items relating to aspects of the job of the nurse were constructed to add to the forty-five items selected from the Sedlacek Attitude Questionnaire. For each satisfaction item in the measure, there was a corresponding item concerning the relative importance of that job aspect. For the seventy satisfaction items, the subject indicated her agreement or disagreement with the item content, on a five point scale ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree.’ For the importance items, the subject ranked the item content on a five point scale ranging from ‘slightly,’ to ‘very’ important. The 140 item survey was administered to 760 Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses employed in four general hospitals. The sample was representative of hospital nurses across the United States. The data were analyzed in three major ways. Fist, both satisfaction and importance items were factor analyzed separately, for the Total unities, and rotated by the normalized varimax method. Secondly, scores were computer with demographic variables, including absenteeism and turnover. Third, levels of satisfaction with major job aspects were assessed. The major conclusion of the study were: it is possible to account for most of the common variance in all the factor analyses of Satisfaction items with four stable factors: Intrinsic, those aspects related to the actual work itself; Financial Advancement, or opportunities for financial gain over time; Supervisor, including perceptions of her technical competence and her interpersonal relationships; and Work Load-Work Stress, which includes the physical and psychological stresses of the daily work assignment. In terms of the Importance items, the stable factors were: Intrinsic, with an emphasis on Social Service aspects of the work itself; Financial Advancement; Authority, including an independence component; and Work Stress-Work Load. The implications of these findings were discussed, along with the differences between RNs and LPNs for both sets of items. No meaningful relationships were found between scores on Satisfaction or Importance measures and selected demographic variables. Levels of satisfaction with major job dimensions were mixed and inconsistent within the factors, suggesting that nurses tend to dichotomize certain aspects of their jobs, and develop different attitudes toward the parts. There were consistent positive or negative attitudes toward the parts however. These conclusion suggest that job satisfaction among Nursing; service personnel is a more complex set of attitudes than has been previously recognized