Inclinations of Members of the Teaching Staff Towards Factors Leading to Job Satisfaction—A Comparative Study between Public and Private Universities

Abstract

The study aimed at identifying job satisfaction and inclinations towards factors, such as salary, feeling of job security, extent of empowerment, nature of work relations among different parties and social status the instructor feels, all of which lead to job satisfaction among members of teaching staff in both public and private universities in Lebanon. Furthermore, the study aimed at prioritizing these factors as related to instructors at the Lebanese University and those at private universities. The study also tried to find whether instructors preferred teaching at public or private universities as related to the country from which they obtained their Ph. D’s. To achieve this goal, a five-point Likert-style questionnaire was constructed and distributed to 100 instructors in the public university (Lebanese University) and to another 100 instructors in various private universities. Thus, the society of the study comprises instructors in both public and private universities. Of these questionnaires, the researchers retrieved 184 which were valid for analysis. The study yielded some important findings, mainly that there is a significant difference between instructors in public and private universities regarding some factors leading to job satisfaction (salary, feeling of job security, work relations among colleagues and students, and social status that the instructor feels) in Lebanon. The study also showed a difference in prioritizing factors which lead to job satisfaction relative to workplace (public or private university) in Lebanon. Moreover, the study concluded that instructors at universities have different preferences to work at the Lebanese University (public) relative to the country from which they obtained their Ph. D’s.