| The study of different aspects of job satisfaction and their impact upon retention for hourly workers has been limited to general populations or specific industry populations which are not related to full-time, hourly production workers in rural markets. While the existing body of literature is useful in achieving a basic understanding of the impacts of the aspects of pay, treatment by management, coworker relationships, work schedules, and commute upon job satisfaction and retention, the uniqueness of the rural market for these workers has not been explored. This mixed methods study employed a survey using scale, open-ended, and demographic questions to collect data from 284 full-time hourly production workers in five different plants in rural Iowa markets. The importance of, and current level of satisfaction with, these five aspects of employment was determined and followed by analyses of the relationships between these aspects of employment and satisfaction with current employment, and subsequently relationships with the workers' intention to remain with their current employer. In addition, the relationships between the moderating demographic variables of gender, age, tenure, plant location and the availability of alternate employment and the workers' intention to remain with their current employer were examined. Pay, treatment by management, coworker relationships, and work schedules demonstrated significant relationships with satisfaction with current employment and retention, while the moderating demographic variables demonstrated no significant relationship with retention. It was determined that pay was the primary driver of why these workers would leave, and why they would apply elsewhere, with the other aspects considered as part of their value assessment. This information is useful to managers who are seeking to site or expand a production facility in a small rural Iowa market, or considering automation in an effort to lower labor costs or abate difficulties in staffing their facilities due to low population. |
