Factors influencing job satisfaction and performance among teachers in Kuching and Samarahan divisions

The main purpose of this study is to examine various factors that influence job satisfaction and job performance among teachers in the public secondary schools in Kuching and Samarahan divisions. To find out the extent to which various factors affect their job satisfaction. The instrument used to obtain the primary data for this study was five likert questionnaires. Six public secondary schools in Kuching and Samarahan divisions of Sarawak. The fieldwork was carried out between February and June, 2012. This study distributed 350 questionnaires to Public Secondary Schools Teachers in the urban and rural public secondary schools in Kuching and Samarahan district in the state Sarawak. However, 270 questionnaires were returned and useable which represent 77% of the total respondents. Descriptive statistics, correlation coefficients, and Independent T-Test were used to answer the research questions. Based on the objectives, several factors have been identified in influencing the job satisfaction of the teachers involved. The most prominent factors identified by teachers were skills and abilities, work relationship, job happiness, supervision, pay and salary, and promotion have stronger positive relationship with job satisfaction and job performance, compared to workload and work commitment, which depicts low positive relationship with job satisfaction and job performance. The findings also revealed that there is a significant difference between the level of job satisfaction of teachers in the rural and urban areas. This is probably because those in the rural areas receive more benefits compared to their counterparts in the urban areas