Factors Affecting Job Satisfaction of Supervisors

Abstract

Job satisfaction questionnaires are frequently used to establish prevailing levels of job satisfaction with respect to selected job aspects, normally with the intention of increasing satisfaction by attending to the areas of dissatisfaction revealed through the administration of the questionnaire. In the present study of job satisfaction among supervisors an analysis of the survey data showed that the job satisfaction scores on different job aspects were interrelated, so that some supervisors tended to have favourable attitudes towards most of the job aspects while others had generally negative attitudes towards the same job aspects. This consistency in attitude could not be explained by differences in the job aspects themselves, but was related both to certain cross-sectional problems affecting the sections to which the supervisors belonged, as well as to the cost performance of these sections. These latter findings suggested that job satisfaction was a product of both job design and organizational factors, and both would need altering if satisfaction were to be effectively increased.