Influence of job characteristics and organizational commitment on job satisfaction of hospital foodservice employees

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships among job characteristics, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and demographic variables for hospital foodservice employees. Questionnaires including 30 items on job characteristics, 15 items on organizational commitment, 6 items related to job satisfaction, and 7 demographic items were administered to 45 supervisory and 172 nonsupervisory employees of 11 randomly selected hospitals. The reliability for the total instruments, using Cronbach's alpha, was 0.87 and 0.89, respectively, for the supervisory and nonsupervisory employee questionnaires. Organizational commitment and job satisfaction were related positively, with an r2 of 0.38. For supervisors, job characteristics related positively (p = .019) to organizational commitment, with variety being the only significant individual characteristic. For nonsupervisory employees, the model was also significant (p = .0001), with variety and feedback being the only significant individual characteristics. For all employees, there was a positive relationship between job characteristics and job satisfaction, with variety and feedback being the significant individual characteristics. Age was the only demographic variable related to organizational commitment; older employees had higher commitment scores. Demographic variables were not related to job satisfaction. Supervisors had higher perceived variety, autonomy, feedback, dealing with others, and friendship opportunities scores and higher commitment and satisfaction scores than did nonsupervisory employees. The findings indicate that dietitians and foodservice managers may increase organizational commitment and job satisfaction by increasing the variety and feedback in employees' jobs.