A DISCRIMINATORY STUDY OF JOB CHARACTERISTICS IN RELATION TO ENGINEERS' JOB SATISFACTION

YUAN-HUEI DEBBY TSENG, Purdue University

Abstract

Engineers who worked in business and industry were investigated to determine the relationship between job characteristics and job satisfaction. A national sample of 1934 engineers was used for the study. The results showed that engineers' technical-administrative functions were not related to their levels of job satisfaction; neither was the desire for further education in management an influential factor. However, individuals in different work functions did appear to hold different values for many of the job characteristics surveyed. Moderate correlation was found between overall job satisfaction and the perceived presence of positive job characteristics (r = .55). When only the items considered by the engineers as very important were used for the correlational analysis, the correlation was strengthened. This demonstrated the importance of considering individual differences in values when measuring job satisfaction. Discriminant analysis results indicated that demographic variables were not good predictors of job satisfaction as compared to certain job characteristics. The best discriminant equation found, with 83.42 per cent accuracy, consisted of the following variables: opportunity to innovate and propose new ideas, supervisors willing to delegate responsibility, company well managed and progressive, opportunity to use skills and abilities in challenging work and relevance of educational background to the job. The findings implied that satisfied and dissatisfied employees can be discriminated by the use of a discriminant function, and that the function is superior in diagnosing job satisfaction than many other previously used methods.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Academic guidance counseling

COinS