Understanding Job Satisfaction and Its Relationship to Student Academic Performance

Abstract

In this era of high accountability, schools have engaged in various programs and practices to improve student academic performance and to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals. Educator job satisfaction has impact on student achievement (Brookover & Lezotte, 1979; Latham, 1998; Mertler, 2002; Rutter, 1981; Wynne, 1980), but according to some researchers, the relationship of satisfaction to productivity is not as straightforward as often assumed (Bowling, 2007). In the study of organizational behavior, job satisfaction is the most frequently investigated variable (Spector, 1997). It is studied so frequently because attitudes and feelings affect the behavior of employees and, thus, potentially contribute to the organization's successes or failures. Understanding and measuring the job satisfaction of teachers in schools is particularly important, as it is known that teachers who experience prolonged job stress (i.e., lack of job satisfaction) tend to have weaker relationships with the students, leading to increase in classroom management problems (Burke, Greenglass, & Schwarzer, 1996).In the late 20th century, debate surfaced among scholars studying the definition of job satisfaction. Researchers found differences among definitional constructs related to the evaluation of jobs, beliefs about jobs, and affective experiences (Weiss, 2002). Cranny, Smith, and Stone (1992) studied the differing ways job satisfaction was defined and, as a result of their analysis, defined job satisfaction as an affective (that is, emotional) reaction to one's job, resulting from the incumbent's comparison of actual outcomes with those that are desired (expected, deserved, and so on) (p. 1). More simply, job satisfaction is generally defined as the feelings people have about their jobs.Why is job satisfaction in the field of education so important? A study of Los Angeles teachers found that teachers scored twice as high on a depression scale than people in various other careers (Beer & Beer, 1992). The teachers reported dissatisfaction with their jobs as a primary contributor toward their negative feelings. Increasing teacher job satisfaction can improve teacher retention and encourage the best prospects to enter the field. Teachers with high job satisfaction are more likely to want to improve their teaching efforts and to engage in continuing education. In short, teacher job satisfaction is a controllable factor that school and district administrators need to measure and understand to sustain a productive and satisfied faculty (Latham, 1998; Mertler, 2002).Teacher retention is correlated with job satisfaction (Houchins, Shippen, & Cattret, 2004), and attrition rates are a serious concern for public education. The cumulative attrition rate is approximately 46% by the end of five years of teaching-meaning that nearly half of teachers leave the profession after only five years on the job (Colgan, 2004). It is no secret that when principals struggle with recruiting, hiring, and retaining good teachers, both time and money are lost (Stockard & Lehman, 2004).Instruments that measure job satisfaction and the factors they measureQuestions on a variety of job satisfaction surveys relate to pay, work responsibilities, task variety, opportunities for promotion, the work itself, and coworkers. Other key factors include general well-being, stress at work, control at work, the home-work interface, and working conditions. Some researchers divide the variables into environmental and individual factors. Environmental factors include such things as communication overload or underload and superior-subordinate communication, while individual factors include a worker's emotions, genetics, and personality.There are numerous instruments for measuring job satisfaction. One that has been widely used is the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) (Smith, Kendall, & Hulin, 1969), which measures satisfaction as it relates to pay, promotion, coworkers, supervision, and the work itself. …