Job satisfaction among academic staff at colleges of education in the Free State

English: Since its democratisation in 1994, South Africa continues to transform to address its historic inequalities and meet national and global opportunities and challenges. The transformation process includes the education system. Educator job satisfaction and student training are legitimate school goals. Educator job satisfaction is based on the need fulfilment and professional and personal growth of the academic staff. Student training, on the other hand, is based on providing for students' needs, growth and development. These goals require particular attention of the educational leaders in order to motivate both educators and students to achieve high performance levels. However, the motivation of educators requires their satisfaction with the job. This study focuses on the level of job satisfaction of the academic staff at the colleges of education in the Free State. The concept of job satisfaction involves both the people doing the job and the job itself. Generally job satisfaction is associated with personal feelings about job aspects and the affective response to facets of the work situation. These are likely to result from motivation which is in turn determined by a perceived difference between what is expected as a fair and reasonable return, and what is experienced in relation to alternatives in a given situation. Job satisfaction and motivation are interrelated concepts. Behavioural scientists approach job satisfaction through motivation theories. These theories focus on human needs and how they can be satisfied at the workplace. Working then brings about satisfaction if it helps fulfil these needs. The discrepancy, equity and expectancy approaches have been considered. The discrepancy theories identify workers' needs that are likely to influence their satisfaction with the job. Workers are then motivated to work depending on the extent to which the job allows the fulfilment of the individual worker's needs. Equity theories focus on how satisfaction is determined by one's perception about the relation between work input and output. The expectancy theories focus on job outcomes, taking into account individual differences to accommodate individual preferences. All these theories agree that a job aspect can be either a satisfier or a dissatisfier, depending on how it is perceived by the individual worker. For this study the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire was used as an instrument for gathering information. Synthesising motivational theories and job satisfaction indicates that factors of these theories correlate with the indicators of job satisfaction of this questionnaire. Therefore, the questionnaire can be used to predict satisfaction or dissatisfaction in the workplace such as the colleges of education. The implications of the motivational theories require the attention of the educational leaders. Human needs have to be identified in each work situation, as well as how they can best be satisfied. Other factors that influence job satisfaction include locus of control, role tensions and leadership style. An understanding of these factors is necessary to reduce conflicts, understand attitudes of workers towards work and provide favourable working conditions. Certain indicators of job satisfaction in the teaching profession have to be considered to address the current situation at the colleges of education. Chapter 3 deals with the consequences of job satisfaction and determines the impact of each on the level of job satisfaction. Although some direct relationships are still not very clear, research done provides evidence of some kind of relation. It is therefore necessary to bring these work variables as a means of addressing satisfaction of workers to the attention of educational leaders. In chapter 4 the results of the empirical research regarding the overall level of job satisfaction in the target population, per college and per biographic group, are reported. The satisfaction indicators were ranked according to their contribution towards the overall levels. The levels and ranking of the indicators vary but there was agreement to some extent on the most and least satisfying aspects of the job. Recommendations for improving the least satisfying job aspects among the academic staff at the colleges of education in the Free State are provided.