Job satisfaction in College teachers: measurement and study of influential variables

Abstract

Teachers are the main strategic asset in Universities. Their knowledge and expertise constitute the core competence of this type of organization. Precisely, through the performance of academic activities (i.e. researching, lecturing, providing services to the local community) they make a substantial contribution to the effectiveness in the functioning of Universities, as well as to their visibility, reputation and prestige in the academic market. Due to the influence of job satisfaction on occupational health and other performance-related variables, systematical measurements of this phenomenon are essential in Universities. In this article, job satisfaction (global and by facets) is measured and low score job attributes are identified in a sample of teachers of an Argentinian Public University. By using statistical techniques (e.g. factor analysis, multiple regression analysis), the influence of socio-demographical and employment condition variables is studied. In this research, authors find that ‘mechanisms by which teachers get access to positions’, ‘perception of justice’ and ‘expectation of promotions’ register the lowest scores. The main variables that seem to significantly explain teacher’s job satisfaction are age and actual position in the hierarchy.

Keywords

• satisfacción laboral
• modelo
• universidad
• docentes