Faculty Satisfaction at an Urban Health Science Community College

Abstract

Background: Community colleges play a vital part in our educational landscape, with predictions that 60% of the labor force will need to have some form of post-secondary education by 2025. Because of the rapid growth in healthcare, recruiting and retaining qualified faculty to teach in community college health science programs becomes a significant consideration for administration. Therefore, job satisfaction for faculty is especially important, and it is essential for community colleges to hire and retain qualified and satisfied faculty. Frederick Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory provides the framework to explore the influencers that affect job satisfaction among faculty at an urban health science community college. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the current level of satisfaction among health science faculty and examine the experiences and factors that determine job satisfaction at an urban community college. This study answered the following research questions: “What is the overall job satisfaction level for faculty?” and “What are the experiences and factors that determine faculty job satisfaction at an urban health science community college?” This exploration into job satisfaction of health science faculty attempts to provide a deeper understanding of job characteristics or perceptions that influence faculty satisfaction. Methods: The descriptive study that used an electronic survey instrument to collect data. The population included seventy-eight full-time faculty members who teach in 20 different areas of study in a large urban health science community college. The first section of the survey consisted of the 36-question Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) which used a nine-facet scale to measure attitudes and characteristics of the job. The next section of the survey asked participants to describe their experiences as it pertained to job satisfaction and then categorize those experiences into the nine facets of the JSS: pay, promotion, supervision, fringe benefits, contingent rewards, operating conditions, coworkers, nature of work, and communication. Results: The JSS facets with the highest rating were Nature of Work (M = 20.98) and Supervision (M = 20.02). The JSS facets with the lowest rating were Promotion (M = 13.16) and Operating Conditions (M = 12.57). The overall summed scores for the 36 items on the JSS had a mean of 150.65 which fell within the range for satisfaction. This score was compared to the normative sample of 137.20, and the difference was significant (p=.002). The highest number of respondents indicated that Nature of Work (n=36, 73.5%) and Coworkers (n=35, 71.4%) were factors that contributed to their job satisfaction. The highest number of respondents indicated that Communication (n=29, 59.2%) and Operating Conditions (n= 25, 51.0%) were factors that contributed to their job dissatisfaction. Years of service had a significant positive correlation with pay at the p<.05 level (rs = .315, p = .028). Conclusion: Overall, the faculty at this urban health science community college were satisfied with their jobs. The nature of their work was the factor that most lead to their satisfaction. On the other hand, communication was the factor that most lead to their job dissatisfaction.