Abstract
BackgroundOrganizational features can affect how staff view their quality of work life. Determining staff perceptions about quality of work life is an important consideration for employers interested in improving employee job satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to identify organization specific predictors of job satisfaction within a health care system that consisted of six independent health care organizations.Methods5,486 full, part and causal time (non-physician) staff on active payroll within six organizations (2 community hospitals, 1 community hospital/long-term care facility, 1 long-term care facility, 1 tertiary care/community health centre, and 1 visiting nursing agency) located in five communities in Central West Ontario, Canada were asked to complete a 65-item quality of work life survey. The self-administered questionnaires collected staff perceptions of: co-worker and supervisor support; teamwork and communication; job demands and decision authority; organization characteristics; patient/resident care; compensation and benefits; staff training and development; and impressions of the organization. Socio-demographic data were also collected.ResultsDepending on the organization, between 15 and 30 (of the 40 potential predictor) variables were found to be statistically associated with job satisfaction (univariate analyses). Logistic regression analyses identified the best predictors of job satisfaction and these are presented for each of the six organizations and for all organizations combined.ConclusionsThe findings indicate that job satisfaction is a multidimensional construct and although there appear to be some commonalities across organizations, some predictors of job satisfaction appear to be organization and context specific.
Highlights
Introduction to Survey SamplingNewbury Park: SAGE, 1983, 14-16Pre-publication history The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/2/6/prepub
BMC Health Services Research 2002, 2 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/2/6 zation are viewed as part of the behaviour and reward system of the staff working in that setting. Organizational features such as policies and procedures, leadership style, operations, and general contextual factors of the setting, all have a profound effect on how staff view the quality of their work life
Because the perceptions held by employees play an important role in their decisions to enter, stay with or leave an organization, it is important that staff perceptions be included when assessing quality of work life (QWL)
Summary
Introduction to Survey SamplingNewbury Park: SAGE, 1983, 14-16Pre-publication history The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/2/6/prepub. Organizational features can affect how staff view their quality of work life. Determining staff perceptions about quality of work life is an important consideration for employers interested in improving employee job satisfaction. BMC Health Services Research 2002, 2 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/2/6 zation are viewed as part of the behaviour and reward system of the staff working in that setting. Organizational features such as policies and procedures, leadership style, operations, and general contextual factors of the setting, all have a profound effect on how staff view the quality of their work life. Because the perceptions held by employees play an important role in their decisions to enter, stay with or leave an organization, it is important that staff perceptions be included when assessing QWL. Job satisfaction is not QWL, perception of QWL is often assessed using job satisfaction surveys
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