A follow-up study of industrial education doctoral graduates of the period of 1972 through 1982 to investigate the degree of job satisfaction

The purpose of this study was to investigate, compare, and analyze the employment status of doctoral degree graduates of industrial education in relation to their professional training, experience and their perceived degree of job satisfaction. Differences in their perceptions of overall job satisfaction and specific job facets/activities are examined with respect to certain demographic variables;A mail survey questionnaire was developed by the researcher and sent to 639 doctoral recipients of industrial education and industrial-vocational technical education who received their degrees during the ten-year period of 1972-1982. The six part questionnaire was structured to collect demographic information and to assess attitudes toward the job dimensions of professional and civic activities, work conditions, departmental supervision, relationship with colleagues, and overall job satisfaction;A Likert-type summed item rating scale for each job activity or facet was designed to assess the perceived job satisfaction or dissatisfaction toward these variables. Statistical analyses of the data were achieved by using the SPSS - Statistical Package of the Social Sciences;Five major hypotheses were tested using chi-square, multiple regression analysis, Pearson product moment correlation coefficient, and item mean ratings. Conclusions were drawn as follows: (1) The variables of age and income are significantly related to job satisfaction; (2) Despite the obvious attractiveness of high salaries in industry, 63% of the participants were employed in educational institutions; (3) The field of industrial education has historically been, and still is, dominated by educators who are of the white ethnicity and the male gender; (4) Income was rated highly important by 54% of the respondents, however, only 36% were satisfied with their income; (5) The downward trend in the economy of the United States was found to be related to job satisfaction (based on the perceptions of the respondents) and attributed to the effects of the economic conditions upon salaries, fringe benefits and the degree of satisfaction ratings by respondents; (6) A satisfied overall job satisfaction attitude was reported by 50.3% of the sample