Date of Award

1-1-2009

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

Morgridge College of Education

First Advisor

Elinor Katz, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

George Straface

Third Advisor

Nancy Sampson

Fourth Advisor

Duan Zhang

Keywords

Educational administration, Educational leadership, Job satisfaction, Motivation, Productivity, Satisfaction determinants

Abstract

Job satisfaction is closely related to motivation theory. Many factors influence human motivation. For example, employee performance is greatly influenced by the expectancy of what the job will provide, the employees attitude toward personal achievement and advancement, and their wish for harmony in the workplace (Bittel, 1990). The amount of opportunity people see in their jobs also has a direct relationship to their job performance (Hill, 1979). Motivation can be provided by allowing employees to participate in the goal-setting activities (Catt, 1989). Motivators, such as sick leave, medical/ dental plans, and holiday pay are best enjoyed by the employees when they are away from their job (McCoy, 1992). The delegation, job enrichment and good listening skills by managers are positive motivational techniques (Frunzi, 1997).

The purpose of this study was to identify the current level of employee job satisfaction in the XYZ School District. The term employee refers to certificated staff (i.e., general education teachers, principals, special education teachers, counselors, resource teachers, coaches). There were approximately 130 certificated employees in the XYZ School District. The research questions asked about level of job satisfaction as related to different demographic data. For this project, a survey was used to investigate teacher's level of job satisfaction overall and in three sub-category areas. The object of the survey was not to predict job satisfaction influences, but rather to identify the current state of job satisfaction at one moment in time. The survey addressed any attitudinal differences among teachers that may have related to such demographic data as ethnicity, gender, and length of career. The researcher utilized a survey developed by a task force working for the Governor of North Carolina on his Teacher Working Conditions Initiative. The response rate for the survey was 70%.

In this study, employees see leadership as an important predictor of environment, learning, and satisfaction. Thus, hinting that strong levels of job satisfaction as related to the leader (principal) can relate to increase student achievement. For the XYZ school district, satisfaction as related to leadership is low. At the same time, student achievement is poor. Non-classroom certificated staff had a lower level of overall job satisfaction.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Grant Edward Schmidt

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

165 p.

Discipline

Educational administration, Education

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