Wood’s Job Satisfaction Survey 50 Years Later: A Principal Components Analysis of Community College Faculty Job Satisfaction

Abstract

ABSTRACT The community college plays a vital role in educating college students, enrolling nearly half of all undergraduates in the United States. Those who interact with these students, faculty, play a pivotal role in both persistence and retention, with high faculty job satisfaction linked to better student outcomes. However, the number of qualified instructors who work at these institutions may be at risk due to the very same reasons there is a K-12 teacher shortage: relatively lower pay, increasing cost of living, and job dissatisfaction. It is therefore paramount that institutions measure their present dimensions of job satisfaction to keep their best faculty and attract new instructors. In this study, an instrument constructed by Woods (1973, 1976) was used to measure full-time community college faculty job satisfaction in a sample of two-year colleges in Alabama. The main goal of this research was to assess whether an instrument that is now fifty years old continues to adequately capture the myriad dimensions of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The results of a principal components analysis substantiate the continued utility of nine of the 10 constructs originally espoused by Woods (1973, 1976), satisfaction with achievement, growth, interpersonal relations, policy/administration, recognition, responsibility, salary, supervision, and the work itself. Results suggest that the tenth construct, working conditions, actually represents two distinct components rather than the previously unidimensional latent construct.