A Study Of Job Characteristics And Job Satisfaction Among Nurses In Sichuan Province

BackgroundJob satisfaction is directly related to job performance, turnover and nursing effectiveness. A growing turnover and low job satisfaction among nurses have made the retention and motivation of qualified nursing staff a priority for health care organizations. Most studies concerned with different job satisfaction concluded that job characteristics are the important aspects of job satisfaction, and research findings indicated that objective job characteristics contribute to nurses' recognition, following job performance and job satisfaction. Job characteristics have been a major topic in the field of human resources management and organization behavior over the past 30 years. Although job characteristics are well understood in western countries, yet little is known about their effect on job satisfaction among Chinese nurses. It is essential that identify the correlation of job frames to job satisfaction, and provide information for job design from the insight of job characteristics. ObjectiveThe purpose of this paper was to investigate job satisfaction and job characteristics of nurses in Sichuan province and to explore the correlation between them. Factors which affect job satisfaction were discussed and a research model was presented based on regression analysis. Results havedirect implications for motivating nurses. ParticipantsRegistered professional nurses drawn from 7 3-A-Class general hospitals in Sichuan province were selected on voluntary basis as subjects for the experimental research. Instrumentation and data collectionA sample of 430 registered professional nurses responded to the cross-sectional survey from Nov, 2004 to Dec, 2004. The short-form Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) developed by Hackman & Oldham was used to measure job characteristics, and job satisfaction data collected using short-form Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) developed by Weiss et al. Statistical MethodsData were calculated using SPSS 13.0 for windows statistical package. Hypotheses were tested with t-test, multivariate analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, and step wise regression analysis. Results1. The score of task significance is 4.21±0.54,dealing with others is 4.14 ±0.65, feedback from job itself is 3.93±0.55,skill variety is 3.76±0.68,task identity is 3.67±0.63,feedback from others is 3.62±0.59, autonomy is 3.55±0.71o2. The score of intrinsic satisfaction is 3.80±0.42, general satisfaction is 3.64±0.43, and extrinsic satisfaction is 3.5O±0.57.3. A statistically significant positive relationship was identified for the variable of job characteristics in relation to job satisfaction.4. An analysis of MANOVA conducted on the demographic items revealed that position and education were the two variables that explained the variance in job characteristics, and statistically significant differences were observed between different age, position, shift work, job category groupson job satisfaction. 5. An analysis of stepwise regression analysis applied to determine factorsaffecting job satisfaction indicated that task significance, age, feedbackfrom others, autonomy, shift work, job category and position hadstatistically significant impact on job satisfaction. Conclusion1. Nurses are dissatisfied with many aspects of their job. Currently salary and workload are the two important facets for improving job satisfaction.2. Job characteristics have positive effect on job satisfaction. Rational job design will help to upgrade job satisfaction.3. The demographic characteristics of position, shift work, job category, age, and the job characteristics of autonomy, task significance, and feedback from others are considered as dominant job satisfaction factors.Study Limitations1. Larger population should be chosen for further study.2. Further study should be done to identify the difference between different gender, professional title, work unit, marital status and salary groups.