Job Satisfaction in Higher Education

This book describes research studies in job satisfaction in higher education, an interesting subject to which many people have contributed articles. The aim of the book is to provide a greater understanding of the overall, as well as some of the more important, determinants of job satisfaction. The book explores the implications of the research findings towards understanding and explaining the level of satisfaction of workers, the implications of these findings towards the effective management of organisations, and speculation on employees’ overall productivity. Although data were collected from the United Kingdom for the research described in this book, references were made throughout to the situation in other parts of the world. Containing eleven chapters, the book explains the concept of job satisfaction and its determinants. Its importance is also discussed as well as various models of the construct which are used worldwide, one of which we employed in the investigation of the many aspects of the topic. Four chapters review previous studies on age, rank, length of service, gender and their relationships with job satisfaction. The last chapter reviews related studies on job satisfaction with respect to line managers’ supervision, co-workers’ behaviour, pay satisfaction, satisfaction with promotions and satisfaction with primary tasks. Before the final summary and conclusions the chapter asks whether the time spent on a task is related to the enjoyment of it, looking at research evidence for the answer.