Factors Influencing Job Satisfaction of Park Rangers in the National Parks

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the degree of job satisfaction of park rangers working in mountainous National Parks of Korea, as well as the factors influencing the job satisfaction. A total of 135 park rangers in mountain region were surveyed by mail questionnaire. When analyzing global job satisfaction, the Cronbach’s alpha of reliability for internal consistency turned out to be 0.91 with the overall mean 10.62. It was concluded that the respondents were moderately satisfied with their job. Individually, 81.2% of rangers indicated that they were satisfied with their job. The global job satisfaction was not statistically significantly related to any of the demographic factors except age. Age had a positive relationship with global job satisfaction. The rangers were mostly satisfied with teamwork, participation, and recognition. On the other hand, they were dissatisfied with training, promotion, and salary. The intrinsic factors in job satisfaction, i.e. participation, promotion, and recognition, were significantly correlated with each other. However, only promotion was not significantly correlated with global job satisfaction. Extrinsic factors in job satisfaction, i.e. teamwork, training, and salary, were partially uncorrelated with each other. In conclusion, global job satisfaction showed a positive linear relationship with intrinsic satisfaction rather than with extrinsic satisfaction in spite of both low extrinsic satisfaction and intrinsic satisfaction.